Walking Spirit

This has been a very busy week! It began Monday when I spoke to Renee's Physical Therapy students at University of Indianapolis. I spoke about the accident and the experiences I've had from waking in the hospital till now. This coming Monday I'll be working with them again in a lab situation so they'll have the chance to work with me a little bit. The students asked a few questions but we didn't really have a lot of time. Some did stay after to walk with me in the hallways. I'm looking forward to working with them more.

On Tuesday I had to be at Wishard at 5:45am for a cat scan. Another attempt to find out why I can't fully extend my left hip. At 8:40 I had an appointment with Dr. Mullis, the new Orthopedic Surgeon who is involved with my case. The cat scan showed that there is extra bone that has grown in a muscle in my hip. This bone is blocking my extension. He can operate and it would give me the ability to regain most of my extension to be able to stand up straight and hopefully balance without holding on to so mething. Unfortunately over 80% of the muscle would have to be removed. This would make it more difficult for me to walk.

We then waited until about 1:00pm for Dr. Carbone so that we could speak with her, Dr. Mullis, Renee, and the Prosthetist all at once. Mike, the Prosthetist, pointed out that the prostheses are meant to help me walk. Sure, standing is a part of that, but walking is the most important.

The final decision was that we would see where I am in three to six months. There's alot more that Renee and Mike can do. As Mom points out, I really haven't been working with the prostheses consistently for very long. Right now I feel that in three to six months time I will hopefully be able to work around the issue with the hip extension and find my own way to stand without the surgery.

On Wednesday I returned to Wishard for a follow up visit with Dr. Sood in the burn clinic. The burn clinic is outside the main burn unit, so I rarely see the nurses and therapisits who watched over me when I was an inpatient. Every time we go to the burn clinic I think about going in to visit them but I said a long time ago that I wouldn't go in there again until I could walk in. Now, I've been there as an inpatient a couple of times since the accident but that was while I was recovering from surgeries. Yesterday I walked in for the first time.

It definitely caused a reaction. I saw a couple of the nurses on my way in and several of the therapists came to see me while I was waiting for Dr. Sood. After I spoke with him I stood up and walked over to the main unit. Dr. Sood told one of his nurses to take pictures and at one point suggested that he take video! Once in the unit I several of the nurses and staff came out of rooms and offices to see me. It was very rewarding to see the smiles on their faces. I visited with them for a while and then walked back out to the elevator.

Renee is continuing to work with me on walking in pulic places. This past Sunday I wore the legs to my Grandpa's apartment so that he could see me walk again. He's only seen this once and that was in the early days when one of the knee's still locked. It seemed to lift his spirits, although he was quick to offer me his chair! One of the residents in his assisted living community even commented that it looked like I was doing better with my legs than he (the resident) was. I'd wager he'd still when in a race. Maybe I'll go back and try to take him in a couple of months!