Month: July 2015

I was a little bit early to Barwis yesterday.  My Mom helped me out of my car just as Nick came out to meet us.  When he got to my car he started yelling that he hoped I was feeling good.  I returned the yelling with equal exuberance.  He pushed me inside and to the blue table.  As he grabbed my right leg, it was apparent that I WASN’T feeling good.  My legs were super tight.  Heather came over and asked if I knew what we were doing today.  Nick just answered her that it was a surprise.  I told them that I like surprises especially a “Barwis Surprise”!  Nick helped me onto the table and they stretched my legs out a bit.  As Heather was stretching my leg, Nick left (I didn’t see where he went) but he came back with a harness.  WHAT?!  WE’RE STANDING TODAY?!  It has been SO long since I have stood that I didn’t even care that I was going to be harnessed.

Heather and Nick put the harness on me as I sat on the blue table.  It’s a different harness than I have worn before.  Instead of putting it on like a pair of pants, they fitted it on me like a vest but then attached straps onto  my legs.  Heather and Nick asked how I felt and I told them like an astronaut getting ready for take-off because I was so excited!!!  Heather pulled me over to the Keiser machine and he set my feet and Heather attached me to the air machine.  Nick had said that we were going to just try standing and if we could get 1 squat off that that would be a good thing.

I stood easily.  I didn’t know how much air they gave me to assist me to stand but I didn’t care!  It just felt so good to stand!!!  Nick guided my knees (it was easier to keep them apart with the air) and he said that we were going to try a squat slowly.  I squatted and he said to try to stand.  I guess all of the PNF stretching has helped because I shot right up to Nick’s surprise.  He told me that we were going to keep it going.  Heather stood behind me and gave that little boost I needed to try to stand up fully.  I completed 2 sets of 15 resting in between them before I started feeling tired.  Nick could see it on my face and said that we would try just a set of 10.  I did it!!!  I was EXHAUSTED!!!  Nick and I pounded it out as Heather unhooked me.  She dragged me back over to the blue table and I laid on my stomach and did some hamstring PNF’s.  I pushed myself BEYOND where I thought my body could go!!!  Heather put me back in my chair and Nick Lucius was working on the white table and he saw the exhaustion in my face and asked if they (Heather and Nick), “kicked my a**.”  I responded with an exhausted, ‘Yeah.” And he smiled and said, “Good.”  I smiled too.  It was good.

Heather helped me into my car where I told my Mom what I did.  My butt was on FIRE!!!  I texted Jesse, Phil, and Mike Barwis that I did 40 squats.  Jesse texted back that that was amazing and Mike said it was awesome.  Then I DMed Brock.  He told me that was huge and asked how I felt. I told him that I’m tired and that my butt was on fire!  He told me that it might be hard to sleep.  I told him that I was so exhausted that I didn’t think it would be.   He told me to sleep on my stomach.  I ended up sleeping on my side and my butt and hamstrings continued to hurt today.  They still hurt as I write this.  But I’ve known that it’s got to hurt if it’s to heal and I don’t mind at all.  I’m TRULY EXCITED for tomorrow!!

Friday, Nick wasn’t going to be at Barwis so I worked with Mike Morfitt.  I had seen him at Barwis working with Alex and I remember him laughing at my, “Ta-Da!”s with Mike Rhoades.  Meeting with him on Friday worked out for me and he came over and told me I was with him, I smiled and called him, “Lucky!”  He told me that first he needed to wash his hands and that he would be right back.  We went to by the blue table and he sat on a stool across from my chair.  He grabbed my right foot and was surprised at how tight my leg was.  He got off the stool and sat on the floor.  My legs slowly began loosening up.

We had easy mutual conversation.  He helped me on to the blue table and we did a different form of PNF’s as I laid on my back.  He told me where to push from (my butt and hamstring) and I pushed my leg all the way downward from pretty far up as he held my leg.  He told me to feel the burn and to keep pushing.  I grunted all the way through and he told me that his arm would hurt the next day just like my butt and hamstrings would.  I told him that somehow, I figured that I would be more sore than he would.  I don’t know how sore he was over the weekend, but I was PRETTY sore.

Mike interned at Barwis when Adam worked there and worked there when I worked with Mike  Rhoades and somehow the familiarity was comforting just like it is with Nick.  I told Mike about my initial progress with Jesse and Phil and how I have hit the “Pause” button as of late and he liked how that sounded and that made me feel that I will eventually get back there.  My left shoe had come off as I was getting stretched and my time was up and I was still laying on the table.  Mike told me that he was going to put my shoe back on and I agreed and then he said, “But first, I have to look at the size.”  That made me laugh!  He, Nick, and I have talked about how small my feet are before.  I told my Mom what he said as we drove to my house and I’ve laughed about that ALL weekend!

i was pretty stressed out having to do with the punctuality of arriving to my appointment… Or lack there of.  I was late and I was stressed out!  Nick worked on my calves as I sat in my chair  as is our routine.  He helped me on to the table and Heather helped pull me all the way onto the table.  She came around beside my left leg and I told her that she chose wrongly again.  She told me that Nick didn’t give her a choice this time.  Nick began working on my right leg and it gradually began to loosen up.

All of the stretches that everyone does on me are extremely familiar to me.  They ALL (Jesse, Phil, Mike, and Nick) stretch me similarly.  A new way that Nick stretches me (maybe it seems vaguely familiar) is that he straightens my leg and then stretches it as cross my body.  I feel it on the outside of my quads and it feels really good!  I am grateful that Nick (and Heather) and I have fallen in to a familiar routine that benefits me.  My body feels SO relaxed whenever I leave Barwis.

Nick was finished with my right leg and laid it down flat on the table. Then it was Heather’s turn.  She adeptly completes all of the stretches that Nick does.  Heather has told me that she hasn’t worked on anyone else with MS.  I like that I can play a role in Heather putting her learning into action.  She applies all of her exercise science jumbo-jumbo on me… Even though she’s a Chip! 😉  I flipped over and we did some PNF stretches.  When my time was finished Nick pulled me to the end of the table and helped me back into my chair.  He pushed me out to my car and just before he put me in, I noticed that Nick was wearing gray/black/white camo socks. I got excited and he told me that it was “Wacky Sock Wednesday.”  I laughed because it was “Wacky Sock Wednesday” #21 and I told him of “Camo Wednesday” that was in place at Barwis before “Wavky Sock Wednesday” during my “Jeese Days.”    I snapped a pic of my socks when Heather was stretching my left leg.

On Monday, I called Barwis on my way there to tell Elle that I was going to be late to my 5:00 time slot but she was able to move me to 6:00. So. Instead I was super early for my 6:00 instead of kind of late for my 5:00.  Nick took me at like 5:30.  He started kneading my calves as I sat in my chair.  It was here that it became apparent that my cankles were on their way out (but not completely) and my left leg was tighter than my right leg when historically it has been my right leg that is my “poop leg” but not today.  Nick worked my legs as Nick, Hether, and Mike Morphitt talked about student living at Central.  Apparently, Mike was a “Chip” also. Nick put me on the blue table and Heather grabbed my arms as Nick pushed my legs toward the middle of the table.

Nick gave Heather the choice of right or left leg.  She was already on my left side so she chose my left leg.  As soon as she put her hand on my knee, she could feel how tight my leg was and I looked at her apologetically and told her that she has “chosen wrong” kind of dramatically and I thought of that one Indiana Jones movie.  Nick started stretching my right leg over his shoulder.  I was used to this stretch because Jesse, Adam, and Mike all have stretched me like this.  As Nick was doing this, my hip popped and Nick looked at me alarmed but I smiled and told him that it felt good.  My leg felt loose as he finished and Heather began working on my right leg.  As she was doing this, my knee popped which startled her but it also felt good.

Nick had me roll onto my stomach and I did some PNF stretching.  It was so tiring!  My time was up so I rolled over on to my back.  Nick asked me how I felt and I said.  “Loose.  Loosely-Goosey!” He laughed and put me back in my chair.  He pushed me out to my car where my Mom was and we both said that I was, “Loosey-Goosey” when she asked me how I felt.  My Mom helped me into my car.  I was tired but felt good.  I read a tweet yesterday that said:

This tweet helped me put my current progress in my journey to walking into proper perspective.  It’s frustrating how long this is all taking but Phil told me SO long ago that ANY day I come to Barwis is progress.  I felt SO good Monday evening so it was easier to understand. I favorited and retweeted it.