May 2 and 3

I can't believe it's already May...time is flying by (yet each individual day seems to drag). My concept of time has gone completely out the window. There are so many times that I go to recall an event or something that happened like it was just the other day and then realize that it was almost a year ago. I guess when you stop to think about it, I've come a long way in these last eight months, regardless of how slow I think things are progressing. I'm glad the worst of it all is behind me and don't mind that those bad times went by fast, but I wish these days would go by faster as in getting back to my normal routine. Having therapy be my full time job gets old some days, but I think I'd be even more sick of it if I weren't constantly improving- little by little. So I guess I just need to be thankful. 

Things have been going pretty good so far this week. In the pool, Jen said she wasn't having to grab my right leg to bring it forward, I was doing it on my own. I only work with her once a week, so it's nice to get her feedback on how things change from week to week. She was so excited when I told her that I can now wiggle my toes. She said "that's so great!!  Do you know what that means?! You gave connections all the way to the toes!!"

I've said it before, but my original injury level was probably brainstem...like C1 (cervical). When I started at KKI, Dr. Recio thought it had improved to T5 (thoracic), meaning everything above that level was normal. I still had a partially paralyzed diaphragm and no real control over my abdominal muscles. When I would do sit-ups, the back rest could only be a few inches away or I couldn't sit back up. Dennis has really been working on my core strength and it has already improved so much- even since last week! Yesterday, he set up the back rest like usual for my sit-ups and it was so easy that he has to increase how far away it was...twice! It was too easy to begin with, so he moved it further away and it still wasn't challenging enough so he had to do it again. I did some reaching drills after and those improved since last week as well. All the therapists have been talking about how my injury level has to have changed...I can now wiggle those toes and have obvious abdominal muscle control in order to do those sit-ups. I have a reassessment on Tuesday to see what kind of movement has changed and my injury level will hopefully be reassessed when I see Dr. Recio on May 26. 

I'm still waiting on the referral to see a neurologist at Hopkins and a nutritionist should be calling me this week. Dr. Recio is working on a letter to send my school saying I'm cleared to return...my school said I needed physician approval  stating I was capable of coming off medical leave and then they'll help figure out the next steps in re-engaging in my studies. It'll be tricky since I'll still have therapy four times a week in Baltimore, but hopefully we can work something out online. So....lots of changes should be coming soon!