Monday was the first time I was at Barwis with Nick Montoni not there; he’s back at school. I told him that when he’s gone, I won’t have to wear my “Chips” shirt anymore. We laughed and I told him that I’ll wear it again when he’s back – as a graduate and that I’ll be walking. I will work primarily with Mike Morfitt now. I’ve worked with him before and am comfortable. He’s joked with me before, teasing me when I see him when I go to ATI. I have to wear shorts at physical therapy so they can put the patches for the stim on my hamstring. I haven’t worn shorts since high school! He tells me that my legs are pretty white (they haven’t seen the sun for 15 years!). No wonder! I told him that I wear sweats to Barwis and shorts to ATI. It’s kind of silly to make that distinction because they are basically in the same place but it makes sense to me. Sweats = Barwis and shorts = ATI. Except for Monday.
I had to wear shorts to Barwis because I got something on my pants at work and needed to change them before I went to Barwis. My dryer is broken right now so I dry my clothes at my Mom’s. I didn’t have any sweats at my house so I had to wear shorts. I told Mike Morfitt that he had to stretch me on my chair because I did NOT want to lay on the table in shorts. He laughed but agreed to do so. We did PNFs and he had me push my leg down from the spot where he held it in the air and a few times, I could push but then it would feel like my leg was “lost in space” and I could neither push nor pull. I asked him about it and he told me to slow my movements down and would press where I would need to fire from. I closed my eyes and would think about firing from the spot he pressed. It was like my muscles were turned back on and I could push again. My eyes flew open an I exclaimed, “I re-found it!” with a smile. Mike laughed and we repeated the process a few times on each leg.
He held my right ankle and had me push my toes down. He was surprised at how much I could push! (I was too!) It seemed like such a LONG time since I had worked SO hard at Barwis. It felt REALLY GOOD!!! He told me to keep pushing and I told him that I was speeding now (the motion replicated pushing the pedal down even though I do not drive with my feet any longer). My Mom wheeled me out to the car and transferred me in. I felt good on the way home and my hamstring didn’t even ache! Mike and I laughed and I showed him pictures I sent to Jesse and Adam and told him why and I dug that!:
i sent these to Jesse as proof that I used to have ankles (in high school!):
And this picture to show that my legs look like mannequin legs now that I wear compression socks ALL THE TIME!:
I sent this picture to Phil because he used to call my long nails, “claw nails.” Michael used to make fun of them too. I attribute them to all of the vitamins I take. I just let them grow. When one breaks, I cut them all. My middle finger nail broke so they are short now:
