June 13

I'm It was a beautiful and relaxing weekend- besides not seeing Dusty. Funny story though...he's been talking about wanting to white water raft since we started dating over three years ago. Him and a bunch of friends had gone and had so much fun before that it's all he's wanted to do- organize another trip like that. He finally got some people to agree to going and they booked the trip (in the middle of nowhere West Virginia). It was hot and sunny and although Dusty listened to me and put some sunblock on, he forgot to bring it with him to reapply once on the water. He ended up falling out of the raft and busting his knee on a rock. The employees told him he probably needed stitches, but he was convinced they only said that so they wouldn't be held responsible. In true Dusty fashion, he claimed it would be fine because there was no way he was driving hours away to seek medical help. One of the friends with him was a firefighter, so of course they thought they had the situation under control. They decided to pour vodka on the gash, put butterfly bandages over it, then wrap duct tape around his leg. Trust me, this was actually a better plan than the other option- to burn the skin shut and cauterize it. (Thankfully I talked them out of that!) 

My uncle was visiting from Australia and I hadn't seen him since he visited me at Magee...before Thanksgiving! He was visiting the states on business and was in town for a week and I remember that I couldn't even talk the first time he visited and by the second time, I had finally found my voice...but this is nothing compared to the changes I'm sure he saw during this visit. 

I had the pool at 8:30 Monday morning, so we headed to Baltimore late Sunday evening. The pool session went really well. I was with Beth, who I've never worked with before. We did a lot of walking with her at my knees and Eric at my hips. She kept asking him how much work he was doing, thinking he was doing more than just helping keep me steady at my hips, but that's really all he was doing, so she was pretty impressed. 

For PT, I did some over ground walking with me in the harness, someone at my hips, Dennis at my legs and me holding a walker...it's quite a process, haha. But Dennis said it was the most quad activation I've ever had. I was even able to keep my left leg straight all on my own. We then tried the same thing but loosened the harness, so it was like walking without body weight support. We did it for a few steps and Dennis was happy, but it was SO hard. I was a little upset about it later just because I know how hard it's going to be to get back to walking...I need so much more strength and I know it's going to take a long time. But Dusty gave me a pep talk and I've already overcome so much...everything I've done was difficult the first time and like I used to remind myself at Magee- the first time you do something is always the hardest...it only gets easier.