Week 2 in rehab went well, although, it was a little chaotic. I had IVIG all week and an MRI on Monday. I have now had more ambulance rides than anyone should ever have. This is what they use to transport patients to other hospitals - our tax dollars at work:)
The IVIG treatments went well. I had no headaches or flu-like symptoms at all. I was pretty wiped out by the end of the week, but that's normal. The tough part was getting up between 5:40 and 6 every day (I'm out of practice for that) and missing morning therapy.
I did manage to get an hour of OT and an hour of PT each day in the afternoon though and really worked hard to make up for the lost mornings. I continue to get stronger each day, which is great.
The main goal in physio this week was to get me into a pair of shoes. They need me in shoes before we can work on standing. This may sound simple enough, but, alas, it is not. My feet are not currently cooperative with footwear. My toes fold under whenever I try to put on shoes and it hurts. A lot. My AFOs (ankle foot orthothosis) do not cover my full foot, so are no help. I met with the pedorthist on Monday with my AFOs and old running shoes to see what could be done. She determined that I need a combination of full-foot AFOs and a deeper and larger shoe. When I arrived on Friday I found both of these waiting for me. The shoe is not the most stylish piece of footwear available, but also isn't too bad. It is a white sneaker with velccro - I felt a little like I was a kid again. Anyway, it worked! The shoes fit nicely without damaging my toes. Next up - standing!
I was a little nervous about standing as it had been a few weeks. But I'm not going to let nerves stop me. I lined myself up with the parallel bars and 3 spotters and up I went. It was good. On the second stand my physio asked if I could move my foot at all. I lifted (maybe more shifted) each foot a little bit then sat down again. On the third stand I managed to take a few 'steps'. While standing I picked up a foot, moved it forward a few inches, put it down, then picked it up and moved it back again. I did this 3 times with each foot then sat down giddy and exhausted. This is the closest I've been to walking since October! The focus of my physio is now to work on steps and stamina while standing. It will still be a long road but I'm really happy about my progress so far.
Just think of what I can accomplish next week with 3 hours of therapy each day....
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