24 August 2008

dash dash

Watakushi no tomodachitachi wa, konbanwa! The past week or two have been pretty heavy on the suck; let's dig for some optimism. Prepare for a short list.

--Manual chair propulsion practice has been rockalicious since I started using a peg-rimmed chair (that perhaps I will post a picture of eventually). We've been timing laps around the track; 5min/lap is pretty common now, with a record of 4:30 or so. But:

(1 lap/4.5min) * (100m/1 lap) * (1 mi/1620m) * (60min/1h) = (6000/4.5*1620) = 0.823 mph

= turtlerrific. For comparison, consider that walking speed is somewhere around 3mph, and people can maintain 12ish mph for an entire marathon.

Anywho, with some negotiation muscle, I'll soon be trying different projection-enhanced rims that are closer to the style I've been hoping for, and perhaps even power-assist wheels as well. We'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll graduate from turtle to millipede speed.

--Also on the manual chair front, I might get to steal one to take home for a day or two. Then I can check out tolerance during long-distance travel, bed<-->chair transfers, and typical daily whatnot (ADL!) to make sure I can handle it before I actually try to take the complete manuchair plunge. It may be ridiculously difficult, but my power chair days are numbered. If not ridiculous, would it still be me?

--John vs. Wall: jlink wins!

--OT has been mostly the typical pick up/move/stack stuff, along with the classic find-marbles-in-bucket-of-rice. One day I was threading blocks with holes in them onto a shoestring, à la kindergarten macaroni necklaces. My therapist told me I was "pretty good"... You know, like a toddler. Weee.

--I can has Sennheisers?

--Buckethead is going to be in town in about a month. Soon after that, it's Ben Folds. Yesss.

Okay, everything else I have to say is even more whiny and negative than the above, so game over. Thanks for dropping by! Secrets are waiting to be revealed. Word yourself out.

15 August 2008

yarr!

*exclamation point noise*

Wednesday PT = finally wheeling around in a manual chair with projection-enhanced rims (pirate ship helm style, of course). Not precisely the peg type I've been dreaming of, but pegs nonetheless. Five laps around the track (500m) in the time necessary to do only one or two in the other chairs, even with surgery the day before? Ding ding, we have a winner.

(mostly)

10 August 2008

time and time and time and time again

In honor of the late superpower and pioneer of funk and soul, I must respectfully say...

Hello there, children!

Courtesy of my perfectionism, I've let news pile up without telling you. Let's get started.

Kicking things off, as of this past week I have been upgraded to four PT sessions each week! Now I'm on a Mon/Tues/Wed/Fri schedule, and it's awesome. Okay, maybe by the end of Wednesday's round I was completely shot. Okay, maybe before Wednesday even started. Oh well. I heart. This means that, combining official session time (4d*3h) and unofficial lunch hour e-stim biking (3d*1h), I'm up to 15h/week for just PT. Throwing in my time downstairs at OT, it's nearing 20h... Doesn't that qualify me for medical/dental coverage or something? ;-)

So what happens with the extra time in the new schedule? Well, MWF sessions are still the newly standard Giger --> (weights, sitting balance, manual chair propulsion, etc.) --> upper extremity e-stim bike. Then Tuesday, with a different therapist club from the other days (which is strange and kind of bittersweet, since my k/a MWF trainer is still there, but with a different patient), we plan to wing it a bit more. This past Tuesday, for example, we still started with the Giger for warm-up/cardio, but then we did a few new tricks on sitting balance, followed by a fairly long bout of manual chair cruising. In fact, since we spent more time in the silla (thanks ali-so!), I managed to wheel three laps around the track - that's around 300 meters, and one more lap than my previous best - with each lap loaded with rest breaks, of course, yet faster than the preceding. Grrr, muscles! Since I'm a lefty, though, and have subsequently built up more overall strength on that side, I really like to turn right.

Otherwise in PT, I'm working quite a bit on the uppers e-stim bike. It tears my traps up sumpin' fierce, but I guess that means it's working... Then with sitting balance, I can sort of nearly barely almost keep myself up with decent posture on my own for a split second? I have little trouble keeping my head up for most of the time (which also tortures the traps); comparing all of this to when I started rehab, umm, you'd notice. Finally, on Friday we did some prone (face-down) work. Equals not comfy plus still improving anyway.

On the occupational therapy front, it's been more picking up and twisting and stacking. One day I sorted a deck of cards. I don't think I'll be playing again anytime soon. We did another mini-eval, too - since I started a bit more than a month ago, I can move my right shoulder/arm about 10 degrees higher, when both in front and to the side. Rock. Still digging for fingers >;-}

Eh, we're done. The Olympics are calling... Oyasuminasai!

06 August 2008

Video: Giger



There it is; questions/comments? Rock out.