June 7

I love Tuesday afternoons because for a brief 15-20 minutes before therapy, I get to talk to some of the other patients before our 2:00 sessions start. We aren't all there on the same days or at the same times during the week except for Tuesday's. It's me, Howard and Steve...Sam used to be part of this group, but she's taking a break from therapy for the first time in a year and for the first time since she had the spinal tumor removed. Steve is an older man...maybe in his 60s...with a high cervical injury from falling down his basement steps. He's a lawyer and a pretty well known man in Annapolis (he's actually the patient that threw that huge fundraiser for the Esko skeleton last month). He went to Magee after his injury, so we had a lot to talk about when we first met. Howard is also probably in his 60s and I love conversations with him because he used to be a lobbyist for the AOA (American Optometric Association). Steve always has different friends or family members bring him, but Howard is always there with his husband, Patrick. They've been together for 37 years! It's crazy to listen to some of these stories...we're all so different, yet have so much to talk about with so many similar experiences. 

Today, the conversation steered towards therapy and what we've all been doing. This was actually a little unusual because we usually just talk away about life and almost forget we're all there because of some kind of spinal cord injury. (Howard had back surgery and ended up septic with an infection in his blood, which paralyzed him). Both men use the Edko skeleton and are able to walk a little bit (men are lucky not to have wide hips, which is the reason I haven't used that equipment yet! Im only half an inch away!) but Steve doesn't have much arm or hand control and Howard said he's been struggling with the walking because his core isn't very strong. We joked that if we could just combine all our strengths, we'd be all set! I told Dennis about that conversation and he said he'd been working on my core on purpose- you need that strength first and he's been doing things right...I'm doing it in the right order (although frustrating). He even said he'd talked to Howard's therapist who said his legs started coming back so fast that they didn't spend much time on his core and she regretted it because now he's struggling a little. Dennis said he's doing things correctly with me and it made me feel a little better. It's so frustrating because all I want to do is focus on my legs and getting back to walking, but it makes sense that you have to do things in the right order. Babies don't just start walking, they sit up, then crawl, then stand, etc. It's all important. That conversation made me feel a little better and just reminded me how important patience is.