I saw Parker before I headed over to Barwis (it’s like a mile away). It was SO great to see Parker. It has been a year since I last got stretched by him. He fixed up my hands nicely! After he worked on my hands, he asked me how my vision was. The winter before last was when my speech was slurred for about a week and my vision began looking to me as if my eyes were crossed even though they weren’t. My eyes haven’t been doing that THANKFULLY! Parker told me about the optic nerve and the effects it has on muscles properly firing.
Things started making sense to me. I thought about it. Having MS, my central nervous system (CNS) is effected. The CNS is made of the brain and spinal cord. The optic nerve is at the base of your brain like where the spinal cord starts. OF COURSE mine is all wonky; I have MS. We talked further about this and I was completely fascinated. He had me roll my eyes in a circle from right to left. Yeah. I couldn’t do it. Go figure, right?! He told me that is easier to get my muscles to fire properly with my eyes wide open. He would have me focus my eyes at a point and then tell me to move my legs. It WAS a whole LOT easier! He didn’t want to do a whole lot more work because he didn’t want me to be too tired before I got to Barwis. I asked Parker if he could see any progress and he said that he could. I was at least getting some muscle firing every time he told me to move my legs. A year ago, he said I was still in the “is it moving?” My brain hadn’t connected thinking about moving a muscle and actually getting them to move. It was really nice to hear that I am making progress. He told me that it is a long road and I told him that it’s hard and he agreed. But, I’m progressing!
At Barwis, Phil stretched me out at the Keiser machine. He told me to stand. Now, first is always the worst but in this heat, second wasn’t all that good either. But 3 WAS the charm and I made sure my eyes were WIDE open. I was up with Phil’s help and encouragement to, “push.” Overall, I stood 3 times and completed 4 squats. Then Phil said it was time to walk.
Backey helped us. My first down, I was up… and got nothing. My second down, I was up… and got nothing. Phil told me to head over to the table. I told him that, “hope always says one more try.” (I read that on Twitter) Phil smiled and gave me one more down. My third down, I was up… and I got nothing. We went back to the table and Phil stretched me until my time was over. Backey helped me into my car.
I REALLY thought I would have had a better showing; I even kept my eyes WIDE OPEN! But, my desire and hard work are nothing compared to heat. This heat has proved to be too much for me. It REALLY stinks going from the harsh winter to this sweltering heat. As I drove home, I was not going to allow myself to feel defeated. I can’t do anything about how my body reacts to the heat; but I could FEEL my quads firing at the bar. This is an EXTREMELY long and hard road; but I am progressing. Remember, “Little by little…”