My knee popped out last night as I was getting ready for bed. It was a stunning realization to recognize that the pain of my injury still lingers, very close to two years later! It was a huge bummer for me because it came just after a bunch of my friends and former colleagues came over to see me and to hang out. I had such a great night to end with my Mon (who came by just after they left and to help me get into bed) having to manipulate my ankle until my knee popped back into place. It hurts so badly!
Once I was in bed, I laid on my back as my left knee throbbed . I wondered how I was going to get to sleep. I rolled over to my left so that I was on my stomach as my knee still throbbed. As much as I miss Barwis so much that it hurts and I feel that many of my physical gains that I got there are leaving me, as I laid there on my stomach, I realized that I still had this thing! Michael used to challenge me to lay on my stomach for 10 minutes before I fell asleep.
I used to be a stomach sleeper before I got pregnant. Being pregnant, you can’t sleep on your stomach so I became a back sleeper. As Sean got older, I still slept on my back because I was losing control over the muscles in my body so I laid flat on my back and would not move throughout the night, if my arms were crossed over my chest, I would have been a vampire!
With all the stretching that Jesse, Adam, Nick, Mike, and Michael did, my muscles were loosening up and all the strengthening they helped me with, I was able to control my muscles a little bit more. Because I sit in a chair all day, Michael would tell me to stretch out my adductors (or was it aBductors?) Adam used to tell me the difference all the time but I can’t quite remember it now.
But being seated in wheelchair these muscles are constricted because I’m sitting so laying on my stomach would stretch them out. It was really painful at first and took a lot of time to build up to me being comfortable laying on my stomach again. Well, I still am in a chair all day but I can lay on my stomach throughout the night. In fact, now, I sleep on my stomach for most, if not all, of the night.
As I was trying to drift off to sleep with my eyes closed and my knee still throbbing, I thought about all my trainers at Barwis and Michael challenging me to lay on my stomach and how long it took for me to get comfortable to sleep on my stomach for the whole night again. I was a bit sad knowing that a lot of it is lost but not all of it. I really can’t wait to get back to Barwis but I also can’t imagine my knee NOT hurting; so until then, I will have the fondest memories of working with all of my trainers at Barwis!