November 13

Friday the 13th was anything but unlucky for me!  You may not remember how the stim bike works, so I'll try to explain it the best I can again. I pull up to the machine in my chair and my feet go into the pedals. Electrodes are placed on the front and back of my thighs and on my glutes (the muscles used to pedal a bike). The machine turns on and does a two minute warm up by running on a motor. After the warm up, the stim starts to turn on. The stim is as strong as it needs to be in order to match the set speed of the machine (this can be anywhere from 0% to 100% stim). If the electrodes can produce a great enough contraction of the muscles to run the bike, then the motor turns off (that's what you want). It also tells you the power, which I don't really understand, but I took it to mean how much power your muscles are conducting and the higher the number, the better.

Well, today was the best I've done on the stim bike. I went 21 minutes off the motor (which was pretty much the whole time I was on the bike)!! I wasn't even at 100% stim the whole time, either. It's even better if you can get off the motor and not have to use 100% stim. The power the first time I did the bike was 0.2, 0.4 the second time, then 0.9 last week. Today it was 1.7! All I really know is that that number has really increased and this must be good! Steph was so happy about how all it was going that instead of ending our session, she got a few people together to get me to stand because she "wanted to see what was going on with those legs." Instead of needing four people to stand me, it only took 3. One person was on each leg and one person in front. The guy in front said he didn't really even do anything except to help me stand up. Once up, my balance was much better and my posture was amazingly better! The transfer onto the mat before standing was one of my best transfers and Steph said it was also my best stand!

Natalie had to teach and wasn't able to be there, so I had a different therapist named Terry. She had me go from short sitting off the edge of the mat to long sit with my legs in front of me. I then had to lay down (which was easier than before) and she asked me to try to get onto my stomach. I hadn't tried to roll all the way onto my stomach before, but I did it! Once on my stomach, laying like that was more comfortable. It's funny how miserable things are the first time or how hard they are, making me dread ever doing them again. But as soon as I do them the second and third time, I'm already impressed with how much easier everything is.

Friday was made even better by having sushi and a good time with my roommates. I was pretty hard on myself this week and today showed me that things are definitely improving, I'm getting so much stronger, and I have the best people on my side through all this.


"I am Christ in you, the hope of Glory. The One who walks beside you, holding you by your hand, is the same One who lives within you."