Wednesday, October 21, 2009

October 21st

Hello Everyone! Had another great day yesterday and today. Yesterday one of my biggest accomplishments was pushing the overall distance, without a break, of 70 feet, fifteen feet further than my past record of 55. My Tuesday schedule was packed full of walking, which was really great and the whole reason why I stayed. Kalli and I ended it by going out to eat together at a neat little sit down place, right next to the John Hancock building.

Today started out right away at 9 with the lokomat. It was finally fixed! It took them a couple days but they did it, not only did they work the bugs out of it, they actually gave it a whole new updated version of its software. It seemed to work quite well. I had a great walk on it for about an hour. After, I headed back downstairs for I had another session right away at ten working with Emily and Adrian on the mats doing both exercises with and without the slings strengthening my legs. Every exercise we did pushed me right to the end of my muscle strength, basically to the point where the leg just stopped moving and needed full assistance to carry out the action in each specific area.

Right after working with Adrian, who is the therapist assistant who helps everyone out in the whole gym, constantly coordinating exercises and handing out and cleaning up equipment, I had a session with Piper and her student therapist Tina. Tina ran to get my other leg brace, for she wanted to practice doing some walking and standing in the parallel bars. While I was standing basically until I couldn't and using the full length of the parallel bars to walk forwards and backwards, Kalli was gathering all of my things up from my room on 6 and bringing them upstairs to move in to a room on 7. We had just gotten the good news that after two weeks, they got things figured out and moved me to the right floor. Now, it seems ridiculous that it took them that long, but the reason why is because right now there are so many people on this floor that have such a high bacteria count that they label them DRO (Drug Resistant Organism) that they require them to be in their own room or paired up with someone that has the same thing going on. So, this makes it very difficult for admitting to juggle the patients. So, now my good buddy Connor and I are roommates.

After lunch, we had an appointment with Denise, from National Seating and Mobility, to re order a new wheel chair. After lots of research, demoing of other chairs, and knowing more so what we want, Kalli and I had put together a very specific set of guidelines for ordering the new chair, which made our meeting go very smoothly. We basically sat with Denise and went item by item over the order form to get it right.

After the chair was all said and done, we quickly scooted to the twelfth floor thinking we would just watch Connor swim for I was already halfway into the half hour that was scheduled due to my wheelchair ordering. The therapists felt confident enough in my swimming abilities that they had no problem with me running around doing my own thing while they worked with Connor. It was really cool because it wasn't even my fault that I was late for Denise pushed back our appointment because she was running late. So I swam around, working on many different new exercises and workout routines that I had learned from Sara the week before. An hour later, Kate, the therapist had me jump out of the pool, right before Connor so that the chair lift would be ready for when he got out.

Right after swimming we all got changed, ready to go, for we wanted to go visit Maurice, at Northwestern Hospital where he had been admitted the night before. Maurice was my roommate when I was here at RIC the first time and had an unfortunate accident during his wheelchair basketball practice the night before. His foot got banged up pretty good during a drill at practice which was enough to send him back in the hospital. Due to the nature of our injuries, any kind of wound to the lower half of our body truly needs to be properly taken care of immediately or it can result in deathly infection or God knows what because our circulation is so weak due to the limited movement that is going on in the lower limbs which makes it very difficult to heal. Our visit with Reece was really fun and it was good to catch up with him again. It was also very beneficial for Connor to meet Reece for the pure fact that the guy can bench 315 pounds in a wheelchair is unbelievable. He is a very athletic and active guy which shows you that even living in a wheelchair can be fun and exciting.

After our visit with Reece, Connor, his mom, Kalli and I headed to a nice Thai restaurant nearby and had a delicious authentic meal that sent us all home a bit more full than any of us wanted to be. We all headed back to the RIC to take care of our nightly routines and get some sleep. It was a full, long day but it was really nice to get my wheelchair ordered and take a dip in the pool. Till next time, peace out!

13 comments:

  1. Hey Andrew- Good to hear you are doing so well. Looking forward to seeing at Mark's again. Keep up the good work!

    Jenny Laird

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  2. Andrew, I'm so excited for you. It really seems like you're making significant progress down there. You'll have to show off all your new skills when you get home. Take care! Amanda Lauer

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  3. We in the prayer group think of you often
    and talk about you often. I have started
    sharing your blog with them and we all agreed
    you are an amazing attitude friend to have!
    Keep up the work! Yes! It will get results.
    With God all things are possible. All things.

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  4. Hey Hip,
    Always good to read about your daily adventures and exhausting rehab regimen. Am amazed how you continue to give 150%.(hope you don't think my percentage was selling you short) I will say some prayers that the "wheelchair of your dreams" actually is just that, when you take it for your first test drive...
    You keep digging down deep...and I'll keep bragging about your progress, your attitude and that devoted girlfriend of yours, to everyone who asks how you're doing....and there are MANY who ask...
    Sad to say but Endow doesn't even qualify as competition these days....I own him....Sorry Endow... :-)
    Lots of love and heaps of prayers...
    Tari

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  5. Hey Hip,
    Saw Ashley and Anthony at the Packer/Viking game today (that game was painful) anyway...Ash told me that you were (are?) sick. I'm sorry to hear that. Hope the flu bug, or whatever you had, is behind you. "You can't keep a good man down" which you are obviously living proof of, so hopefully your being sick is yesterday's news. I will say some prayers just in case you are still fighting that dirty bugger...
    Am anxious to hear how your last days at the RIC went. No pressure. :-) Just wanted you to know that just cuz I wasn't annoying you with daily posts on this blog, doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking about you and praying for you. Assume that's a given.
    Update us when you are up to it, and when the dust settles after your return to Appleton. In the meantime I will envision great accomplishments from you....
    As always love, and now, get well prayers, to go with all my other well wishes for you.
    Tari

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  6. Yo Hip,

    just checkin in to see how much ass you've kicked in the last week or so. i'm sure you're improving daily, it's almost impossible not to with the effort you've tackled this challenge with. i'm getting excited to come home and check everything out first hand.

    i really wish you would've been out here last week to help with the wisconsite group therapy session that was the packer/viking game. as a true packer fan my heart literally hurt after that game. i'm still tryin to score some tix to the pack/seahawks game on 12/27 but one way or another i'm going and think it would be a good idea if you and kalli went as well :-)

    speaking of which, HI KALLI!!! it's been awhile since we've last talked and i wanted to say hey and see how you are doin. i hope you're still keeping hippert's smart ass in check :-) tell your folks hey and i'll be somewhere in wisconsin dec 19 - 28, maybe we can grab dinner and/or a drink somewhere?

    well that's all for now, see you guys soon and hip just want to let you know you're my hero :-) later bud,

    ENDOW

    PS it's been in the 80s here the last few weeks, come back soon :-)

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  7. Anybody home at this blog???
    Still praying...
    Love ya Hip.
    ♥Tari

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  8. Andrew and Kalli,
    I finally made it to the blog!!!! I think I just spent 45 minutes reading the last like four months of my life at work!!It was great to hear from the other perspective. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful job, especially when I get to work with such fun people as you and Kalli, and meet your great friends, I'm talking to you roomate! I cannot tell the two of you how much fun I had, so much so I do not even think I should have been paid for the hours we spent together. I laughed so hard! You both are such wonderful people and I am truly happy that you found one another. There is no better match! Now that you are not an inpatient, or coming back as an inpatient :), we can hang out!!! So next time you are in town we need to get together. Kalli, thanks for the kind package I will rock them with pride and tell everyone, "I'm trying to be as cute as Kalli". Andrew, tell your mom hi, love her. Miss you guys, Connor is doing great, but i'm sure you are talking to him! Hopefully see you guys soon!

    Carey PT :)

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  9. Andrew,
    I haven't blogged at all, but it doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about you or praying for you. It sounds like things are going well. I'm still living the plastic dream. Not much has changed here. Hit me up with an email sometime tabrownfield@gmail.com
    ,Todd (IP Sacramento)

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  10. hey andrew

    please write another post. I'm sure we all would like to hear more about your progress.

    thanks,

    Mark Sier

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  11. "We're waiting! What the heck is up????"

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  12. hey andrew!!
    hope all is going well with you. we are anxiously awaiting another post... :)

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  13. sup hip,

    just checkin in for a post. your group of blog followers and i are growing impatient. hope all is going well and the coming winter isn't depressing you too much after spending one out here. can't wait for that packer game in december, hopefully it'll be for a shot in the playoffs but i'm not holding my breath for that.

    what i am holding my breath for is another rehab update so please......hurry.....my face is turning blue........need an update quick...... :-)

    ENDOW

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