Skiing was a success again! I'm really starting to get the hang of how to turn...I didn't realize how far I have to lean and really reach the out rigors (the hand held blades attached to each arm). Now, the stopping is a different story! I'm good at reacting when the guy behind me yells "left" or "right," but when he yells "stop," I go straight to the side of the hill (instead of gaining momentum by continuing down the hill) and try to make the blades of the rigors go up so I can stick them into the snow and stabilize myself...but it's way harder than it sounds or looks! I think my reaction time is just too slow or something, haha. And one time, I started to come to a stop, but took too long to get the rigors into the ground and just fell sideways. Surprisingly, I've only fallen over once each time I've done it and I guess that's impressive because the instructors were happy with my performance. Since I'm in the bi-ski, it's a little more bulky and I have to be dependent on the instructors to load me onto the ski lift. It's spring loaded so the seat lifts up and the ski lift bench slides under me, letting me stay in the ski as we ride up the slopes. You have to learn how to get yourself onto the lift when in a mono-ski and you also have to know how to stop...they think I might be able to progress to this, but I'm not so confident that it's going to happen anytime soon. I think the next step will be to lessen the amount I'm tethered to the person behind me. Right now, they ride behind with two straps attached, one in each hand, allowing them as much control as the may need based on if I'm helping with the turns, etc. We talked about trying to go down to just one strap, requiring me to do a lot more work, so we'll see if I'm able to get to that point in the upcoming weeks.
The PT part of the "PT and ski" also went well. I brought my walker and showed the girls how my therapists help me stand with it. Dennis usually sits in a chair in front of me, with a pillow between our knees and a strap around my waist to help me get up. Once I'm up, I pretty much do all the work. The therapist is able to let off both my hips and my knees, but it's really hard! It takes a lot of core strength to keep my butt tucked and my knees like to give out, so I'm constantly trying to squeeze my thighs and keep those legs straight so I can stand tall. I think this is just going to be something that gets better with time...I'm only going to get stronger and my body will hopefully start remembering what it's supposed to do.
I didn't mention it last week, but I finally took my DMV knowledge exam! It was really hard to find a whole day to devote to spending it at the DMV, so it took me awhile to get it done. Like I said, it's the same exam you take when you're 15 in the state of Virginia and I'm still confused as to why I had to redo it before starting my driving courses, but I'm glad it's over. The next step is to schedule my driving courses so I can learn how to use the hand controls. There are two problems with this though...the first is that I'm not sure when I'm going to find time to drive to northern Virginia for the courses while I'm in therapy in Baltimore two days a week (or what availability the driving school has) and secondly, in the state of Virginia, you have to show the instructor that you can disassemble your chair and load it in the car (and unload it) on your own. I'm hoping it's nice enough this weekend to start practicing that...the chair is just so bulky that it's awkward to drag across my body to put it in the car myself, but I'm hopeful that it will just take some problem solving and practice.
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