So beside all the medicine, doctor visits, therapist and finger pricks, there are two other things I must do every day on my road to recovery - workout with exercises from my physical therapists and gain weight. I know this sound totally opposite, but there is a method to the madness.
My physical therapists is a good friend of my sister-in-law, Jessica, who actually specializes in stroke victims. She came over to my house almost a week ago and did a lot of tests to see how I was recovering. She gave me a plan for each day so that I can get back to normal, and she also tested all of my muscle. Most of my muscles were good except my legs (my quads especially) because I was in a hospital bed for almost 4 weeks. After her assessment, she gave Jessica 7 different exercises that I should do every day to get my strength back. I should also go on lots of walks and only hold onto someone to help me walk if I really need it.
So the exercises I have to do each day don't seem to bad - they are different types of leg raises, kicks, pushing up on toes and squats. But they kick my butt. And to make the workouts more intense, my sister-in-law monitors them. Jessica is a personal trainer, very into working out including crossfit. I don't skip doing my exercises cause then I'll get in trouble with Jessica. Right now I have to do ever exercise 2 sets on each leg once a day. Starting soon Jessica is going to increase that to twice a day. I'm glad that I have Jessica kind of "training" me because I want to get back to normal soon and it's encouraging to have her push me so that I don't slack.
Until I have my skull put back in my head, my doctors don't want me doing any major exercises (like crossfit, lifting weights or getting on a treadmill), but I can go on walks. I live next door to a park so it's fun to go walking there (I went walking there yesterday with Elise). And once I get my puppy Isabelle back I talk her on walks there.
Ok so that's all about the workout stuff I'm doing. The other thing my doctors want me to do is gain more weight. When I left the hospital, I weighed 118 pounds. That was 2 pounds lighter than what my drivers license says (I never changed my drivers license from when I got it at 16). I got on the scale at my doctors visit on Monday and I now weigh 130, so I've gained 12 pounds, but the doctors would still like me to add a little more weight.
Luckily I have something helping me out. To help with my Crohns, I'm taking steriods right now. So I am hungry all the time and I can eat like a teenage boy. I'm craving hamburgers and fast food. I'm normally a pretty heathy eater, but the steriods have temporarily changed that. Plus I also have a major sweet tooth right now. Tons of people who have brought us dinner have also brought us desserts (we have cakes, cookies, cupcakes, candy). After I finish all my of exercises, I always reward myself with a dessert :) And to add to all the sweets, my great aunt is making me my own red velvet cake that she'll give me at our family reunion in November. It's my favorite cake ever, so she's making me one as a get well present.
The workouts and the weight gain are an interesting piece of my road to recovery, but they're worth it.
Just a random note to add to this blog: Thank you Jessica, Ruth Allen and Lauren for taking me to dinner last night. It was great to get out of the house and talk with you guys for a couple of hours. I felt like I could be honest with all of you and you guys provided a lot of encouragement! It's great that we're all supportive of each other!
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