Therapy

I have turned over a new leaf. For the last 5 months, I have been going to physical therapy, to try to become more comfortable on my walker and crutches.

When I first met my therapist, she asked me how I was getting around my house. I told her that I crawled through the house, since it was a lot faster and more convenient, since I am afraid of falling.

After hearing my answer, she told me that I needed to start walking around the house, otherwise, what we would be doing in therapy wouldn't do me any good. I told her that I had no problem with using the walker in the house, and that day I started to walk around the house, with minimal crawling.

During my early therapy sessions, we started with me laying on the mat doing several leg exercises. Then, we worked on the parallel bars. My therapist had me walk frontwards, backwards, and sideways. She also had me step on a wooden board, this exercise was done in case I ever had to walk up and down steps. The sessions ended with us walking down the hall to the lobby.

As time went on, the exercises were only done at home, and our work on the parallel bars ended. Walking around the hall, and sometimes outside became the main focus of therapy.

When I began to feel more comfortable on my walker, I began to think of working on becoming more comfortable on my crutches, which I hadn't used in a very long time. I mentioned this to my therapist, and she told me to bring the crutches to my next session.

We started slow with the crutches, at first my therapist just had me stand on them to see how they felt, then we walked a short stretch of the hall.

As we were walking down the hall one day, my therapist let go of the gait belt and I walked on the crutches without any support. It was an incredible feeling.

This month was my last month of therapy. The last couple weeks, my therapist had me walk the halls twice without holding the belt, to make sure I was comfortable enough to do it at home.


I have done so well with therapy, it's been amazing. I loved hearing other therapists tell me how much better my walking was now than when I first started. It's amazing what happens when you go from doing nothing, to doing something.


This past Friday was my last therapy session, and I ended it on a very good note, by walking around the hall 2 times.

I am so thankful to have gone through this experience. To know that I can be comfortable while walking is an amazing feeling..