On being a step closer to home

Yesterday’s physio session got a bit preempted by poor planning. Consequently, “all” I did was a lot of exercise rather than what had been forecast, namely more practice at stair climbing. I had even prepared for the event by getting a Google street view shot of my front staircase on my iPad to show the Physio.

Earlier, I had finally managed to do something that I had wished to do for some time, namely a Lindsay 500 with the walker. One circuit of the gym is 50 meters, so 10 circuits is 500 meters, hence the name. It was demanding, but I did it.

The morning had other benefits as I flagged down the wheelchair maintenance person to tell him I thought my tire needed pumping up. While I was using the Nu Step machine, he took my wheelchair down to his lair and to my later surprise, replaced the wire spoke wheels with fangled plastic spoke wheels. He also said a lot of the parts were a bit loose. Not all that surprising after 3 months of use.

This morning, I did a few laps of the gym with the walker. I then did a full regimen of exercises with the Hoist weight machine. In the afternoon, the Physio guided me through some standing exercises, then asked me to try climbing a flight of stairs in the stairwell which were closer in width to my outside staircase. I put my weight mostly on my right arm staying close to that side. With some effort, I went up a full flight of stairs! I was practically crying for joy! I came down with much greater ease. I thanked the Physio saying that I felt that I was a step closer to home.

Of course, I wouldn’t want to do it without someone to “catch” me.