February 23rd

(sorry for the delay-my poster has been preoccupied)

I just returned from my first trip to the therapist at OHSU. I am having a very difficult time walking correctly and keeping my balance. My walking problem is coming from the fact that my right calf muscle is very weak, so I am using my heels to push off with as opposed to my toes. The toes are curling and I need to learn to relax them. Several of the exercises are designed to help me in this area. I am also to begin a series of exercises to strengthen my calf muscle. The doctors also told me that my 45 minutes on the stairmaster and eliptical are too long. So I will now do 15 minutes on the stairmaster, 15 minutes on the eliptical, and 15 minutes on the stationary bike (yuck!). They also said I could swim and Kath, Tory, and I both just laughed! I swim like a rock, so that will not be happening. As for my pain, I am able to do my supervision work during the day and run errands with Kath and only feel a bit of pain on a 1 to 2 level (10 point scale). The evenings when I relax is the bigger issue. I've had to resort to taking a pain med around 11pm or after. This is when I have experienced pain at levels 5 - 8. Being someone that has never used medicine, this has been a hard pill to swallow (a little play on words!). Mentally I am doing fine. I have such a fantastic wife, family, and friends that give me constant support. As I have said before, this is a war and all of these obstacles are the battles and I plan to fight each one. I will continue to keep you updated and I really do appreciate all that read this and give me your thoughts!