April 4

We headed back to Baltimore this morning in time to get on the stim bike before lunch. I had been excited that the stim no longer shot straight up to 100% like it used to...it was only taking about 80% stim to get to the target speed. This morning, it only took 10% stim to get to the target speed! Then, as my muscles got more tired, it slowly took more stim. We want to maximize the amount of stim used, just because we can, so Dennis has to adjust the settings. It's good that I wasn't requiring as much help from the stim, but adjusting the settings will make sure I'm using all the stim I can, which helps build up muscle from forced contractions. 

Dennis signed me up for the GEO multiple times a week- usually at least once without stim and once with. Today, I did it without. We used the spinal cord stim for some standing afterwards and my legs were jumping like crazy! I had movement in my quads, glutes, and ankles. I tried squeezing my quads and straightening my legs then bending and you could actually see my quads tighten and kneecaps move up and down as I tried to do each movement. The first time I had the spinal stim on, we were excited about slight movement in my big toe and now we got this! So things are definitely improving. I also told Dennis that I've noticed more tone recently and I've been able to initiate spasms...like sometimes I can try wiggling my ankles and it'll cause them to jump and spasm. He said that's a good sign and it's usually the next step before voluntary motion...it means the signal is getting there, it's just a little confused. Dennis said "this might be an exciting week" after our session today and I hope he's right!