On crutches

I woke this morning feeling rather low for various reasons. I cried over my oatmeal at breakfast. Things just felt wrong.

After a full set of upper body exercises on the Hoist machine, I went to my physio session. I expressed my low state of mind to my Physio. I also showed her the Mole’s pictures of the Condo. This may have triggered something as after doing some exercises on a bed with a large ball, she had me try to climb the test staircase using a crutch under one arm as if I were going up my inside staircase with only one handrail. This went quite well. So well in fact, that she then got a second crutch and asked me to try walking with them. That went very well. Admittedly, while I was using them, she asked me: “Are you afraid? Or are you sure?”

“Somewhere in-between.” Was my answer. However, I felt better for using them.

Addendum:

I went down to the gym after lunch to do some laps with the walker. After two laps, the Physio asked me if I wanted to do my laps using crutches. I did two more with her in close company, then another with her in more distant company, before doing another entirely on my own. I started another lap but quickly realized that I was sufficiently tired that I couldn’t use the crutches reliably. It was too hard to remember which step came first. I went back to wheelchair and switched back to the walker. I did another five laps making for a total of eleven, four with crutches and seven with the walker. That is a record number of gym laps for yours truly.