Stairway to Heaven

Or at least to the second floor. My physical therapist, today and Tuesday, had me climbing up and down a flight of stairs. I held the railing with my left hand and used a cane in my right to go up and down. It was wonderful. At the Hopkins downtown PT they have a small set of stairs to practice on, but at Greenspring my PT took me down the hall and I went up and down the REAL set of stairs.

On Tuesday, on the way down, I had a fear of my prosthetic knee buckling, but Megan stood in front of me with her hand hovering in front of the knee, just in case. Today I had a eureka moment and with the knee's app on my phone, I put it in lock mode so it couldn't bend. I felt so much more secure. And smart.

The other thing I did today was walk with a cane. When Megan asked me how I felt wbout trying to walk with a cane, I said,"scared." But I did it. She put a gait belt on me-- basically something she could hold onto in case I started to fall, and that did make me feel more secure. But in reality I kept my balance and made a couple laps around the physical therapy room. She did tell me, "Don't try this at home, not even with Jerry," and I promised her I wouldn't, but I will work on walking with just my left hand holding the walker, with the right just resting on it.

Despite being without the prosthesis for close to a month, I feel like I am making great progress. After PT today I felt absolutely high.

That wonderful feeling continued at BARCS, where I socialized a lot of wonderful cats. The shelter has an amazing group of cats right now. Many are owner surrenders, so their social skills are pretty good, but even the strays are affectionate and delightful.

I had been trying to figure out why shelters all over the country are beyond capacity, and it's not because people are tired of the pets they got during Covid. I think it's because people got subsidies during Covid, and so many people are not making enough to make ends meet. Barcs does everything it can to keep pets with families. A group of us are even helping out a family living in a tent in Wyman Park with their cat, and another family living in a car with their dog. It's heartbreaking.

But on a cheerier note, Jerry was supposed to go out of town tomorrow, but his trip was cancelled, and another trip he was supposed to take the day after he got back has been postponed. I know from his stay in the hospital I can take care of myself, but I just like to have him here. So Yay.

We will both be home tomorrow so my plan is for us to bake some cookies, something I really cannot do on my own.

The skin graft around my aperture has now totally healed and it really appears to be a great solution for keeping granulation from coming back, and at least for now I have no drainage and I am optimistic it could stay that way.

This week was a reminder that while life might not always be easy, it is, for the most part, pretty good.

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