Walking

I've got to tell you,learning to walk again has not been as instinctual as it was the first time (at age? 12 months?)At the age of 56 for adults without brain injury,it's second nature, right? Not something that you think about, you just do it. Not the case when your muscles have gone to sleep, though, which is what it's been like for me. Limp muscles do not hold up the rest of the body! Physical Therapy (PT) not only helped to get my muscles working again, it also helped with my brain's need to form new pathways to properly move those muscles enabling me to walk. One therapist told me that walking is actually a continued act of stopping ourselves from falling. If you look at a child learning to walk, not only does he fall a lot in the process, he uses his arms (holding them out or up and constantly moving) to balance. So considering that I essentially have no arms to help me to balance(my right and unaffected arm is busy using my quad cane to support me and my left, affected arm I keep in a sling against my body while standing or walking so it doesn't just dangle) and stop myself from falling, I'd say that I'm doing really well at learning to walk for the second time in my life! For the past 4 days, I've had pain in my left, affected foot so I had it checked out by a physician last night, since I had to go out anyway for lab work. Nothing wrong with the bones so I'm using moist heat to see if that will alleviate the pain. Not so convenient when one can't walk (to the bathroom or anywhere) without orthotic equipment and that equipment must be removed to apply heat.

Short post today, just to get something written but I'm hoping to get future posts about Bathrooms,Clothing, Wheelchairs and Feeling Vulnerable.