Therapists

Well today was the first day back to therapy after my favorite physical therapist left the VA. She was my main PT from the very beginning. I owe her so much.
She always told me that it was all me doing the work, that might be true bust she helped me more than she will ever know. I might have done the work but her ideas and motivation were what helped me complete the tasks. She went on maturity leave after I transitioned to outpatient. When she came back we picked up right where we left off. Her helping me with new workouts and motivation. She left the VA so that she can take care of her son more. I am so glad that she has the opportunity to do that but with that the VA would have been able to accommodate her so that she could still be my main therapist.
Dont get me wrong, I love every therapist at the VA. They all have done so much for me, but she was my original and that is why she is my favorite. Im going to miss her but we are friends on Facebook and i will be keeping tabs on her haha!
Now its time for me to impress the other therapists and get read to welcome someone new. Just wish she didn't have to leave!!


It WILL hurt. It WILL take time. It WILL require dedication and sacrifice. But it WILL be worth it.

Wearing a brace

For the last few days I have been wearing a brace on my left leg called an AFO, or Ankle Foot Orthosis. It is supposed to help with my plantar faciitis. So far it seems to be helping with my walking gate. I tried to "run" with it on and it just made me bounce too much. It does help my walking though.
The only thing that I don't like about it is it makes me feel silly when I am wearing shorts. Again, just like everything else, I know it is something silly to be worried about. But to me I don't like the fact that I am TEMPORARILY handicapped. It is taking forever for me to recover to where I want to be. I don't know if I will ever actually be to where I want. Oh well, just the fact that I can move around and walk is what I am happy about.

Failure defeats losers but INSPIRES winners.

"Running"

Well yesterday was my cardio day so I did the elliptical. It's sort of like running. I jumped on and put the stride length all the way and and the resistance on 6. I did the elliptical for about 20-25 minutes. My legs got very tired and started to spasm so that was my sign that it was time to get off the machine. 

After, I layed down on the excersizes mats and worked with the student PT to try to work my shoulder out. The muscles in my left shoulder are much weaker than they should be. The biggest thing I need to work on is my infra spinatous. It seems to be lacking the most. I believe the excersizes was called PRF. I might be wrong though. They definitely worked though. 

After the mat work I did some "running". I always use quotations because I don't think what I do is actually running but it's as close as I can get right now. I did a few laps in the parallel bars then tried a few times to run outside of the parallel bars but that didn't feel too safe. At least not when my legs were all ready really tired. Next time I will try that first. Try to do a few laps around the PT gym. I'll let you know how that goes.

After that, I went over to a friends house to play some video games. The only problem, the games she wanted to play were on the playstation 3 using the wands. That made me move around a lot even though I was already tired. I do blame her for that but it's okay, still had a lot of fun. I'm going to have to rest up and beat her next time we play that game, if she isn't too scared. 

Cowards never start, the weak never finish, and winners NEVER quit!!!

Good day

Today was a good day at therapy. Only did some occupational therapy but it was good. Went and hung out at the beach with a friend after instead of just sitting around on my ass playing video games. It was a much better choice than doing nothing. It was also a fun time to sit a chat is the beautiful San Diego weather. Gotta love this place!!

Much needed rest

Today became a rest day for me. It wasn't supposed to be but I had a bad time sleeping last night. I went to bed at about midnight after I got home from watching a hockey game. For some reason I woke up at about 3:30 am and just laid there in bed. Didn't fall back asleep until around 6:15 am. Slept again until about ten o'clock. 

I was going to hit the gym later on in the day but when I woke up my body was quite sore. That is pretty normal for me and usually I can work through it but today was just one of those days. Instead I want to the store and came back home and fell asleep. That just means this weekend will be a workout day instead of a rest day. Could be good still. 

Life is about kicking ass, not kissing it. 

Night out

Well I went to watch the UK Wisconsin bball game tonight at a bar. Game ended and I stayed after the game to hang out. Only had two drinks over the course of 5 hours because I was the driver. But it was actually a great night. 

I was even able to do my version of dancing. I say my version because first, I'm not a good dancer, and second, with my injuries it makes it hard to movie in a more fluid motion. I was surprised at what I was able to do though. It was a great time and was very happy that I pushed myself to actually get out of the house. 

The only thing I had a problem with was towards the end of the night, the pain started to return. Maybe because I hadn't work that hard in a few days but still, totally worth it. Will start doing more things like that. Turning only Sundays into rest days instead of the whole weekend. 

Dreams today, accomplishments tomorrow. 

Party time!

Well I am forcing myself to get out of the house today. Going to watch a college basketball game with a friend down in Pacific Beach. Should be fun! I don't really care toouch about college basketball so I'm just rooting for my friends team! Going to bring some pain meds though, just in case. 

I push myself so hard during the week that usually all I do is lay around in the weekends. Not this Saturday at least. I'll save that for tomorrow. Make sure I get good rest before my week starts again. Wish me luck!

Don't look for motivation, become the motivation for others. 

Set a goal

I don't thinkin ever told anyone but my New Years resolution was to be running again. Well, today I made it one step closer. 

People were telling me that I was running today, I don't think that's true. I would call it more a brisk walk than a run. But it's just one step closer to reaching my goal.

I tried to use a treadmill at first but now, it just doesn't work. I'm not sure what the reason because before my injury I could run on a treadmill the same as I would run on the road. Now, being off the treadmill was a lot easier for me to get closer to running than it was on it. I have no idea why that is but that's okay. Closer and closer each day. 

Strength is what makes things possible, not easy. 

Good hurt

After a very hard day yesterday I am very sore today.
First I went to therapy and worked out my legs. Did some very hard workouts. My legs are getting stronger very slowly but they are still getting stronger. After that I went to the gym and did a back and biceps workout as well. For the first time since my accident I was able to to back extensions. Four sets of 25 reps.
After the incredible hard workout yesterday I woke up this morning hurting pretty bad. I was hurting in a good way though. I can tell the difference between a painful hurt and sore hurt. The are hurt is the good hurt. Just need to keep going with that. The good pain means that my muscles are growing.

Winners achieve goals.
Losers make excuses.