The Mind/Leg Connection

Last evening I went to Walking School. University Of Maryland Rehab holds this several times a year, open to all amputees. The first time I went I was still using a wheelchair and did not have a prosthesis. Last night, I was probably the most advanced walker there, but I had some questions and wanted to up my skills. I'm so glad I went.

It has become obvious to me of late that I depend far too much on my "good" leg. When I get up or sit down it bears all my weight. When I'm standing still my weight is not evenly distributed. I knew I had to learn to trust my prosthesis more than I do, and I figured the folks at Walking School could point me in the right direction.

The physical therapists and the man who runs the sessions, who is himself, an amputee, ran me through a whole series of exercises. Squatting, lunging, walking with resistance bands around my prosthetic leg. My leg did things I really did't know it could do. While I was there, I also worked on stairs, which I have been avoiding.

They did a really good job of giving me the mechanics of what I need to do. Jerry was with me, and he took notes so we could continue the work at home.

While repetition will no doubt help, the most important body part I need to train is my brain. When people with two legs walk, once they are past toddlerhood, they most likely don't have to think about puttimg one foot in front of the other. Right now, for me to walk properly, I have to think about it. My hope is, my brain will learn this new pattern of walking, and it will become second nature.

I guess I'm fortunate that I have not been an amputee that long, so my bad habits are not engrained. I don't have a whole lot to unlearn.

Skill and trust are the two biggest things I need to work on. Of course, I'd love to get up tomorrow and automatically start using everything I learned without having to think about it. That's not in the realm of possibility, but my hope is, by working on it every day, it will happen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The (maybe not so) Long Goodbye

I found Sophie 11 or 12 years ago when she was part of a community cat colony near my old condo in Baltimore. We were still living in California. Long story short, she was definitely not feral and likely had not been outside long. My friend Bart took her. A couple of years after we moved to Baltimore Bart's circumstances changed and Sophie came to live with us. Despite being well into her teens, up until a couple days ago Sophie romped like a cat less than half her age. It really hit home yesterday. As she lay next to me I could see her breathing was shallow and she was sleeping even more than usual. I called my vet this morning and they got her in. They took x-rays and one of her lungs is pretty much collapsed. It could be a tumor, but we are opting not to do anything invasive; she wouldn't survive it. We had a discussion with the vet. She is still eating and enjoying life, so we are going to take it day to day. It was important to me to get her in today, because tomorrow ...
Read more

Trauma

Maybe it is because I spent years working in hospitals, when I hear the word trauma, I think of severely injured patients-- broken bones, brain bleeds, mangled limbs. You know, kind of like me. But when I went on the hunt to find books to help me understand and work through my trauma, everything I found was related to emotional trauma-- psychological abuse, childhood abandonment. So I decided it was time to find a therapist to help me deal with the physical trauma I had experienced and continued to plague me-- reliving a moment that I wasn't sure how I could recover from, at least not on my own. I have had several therapy sessions, and the interesting thing I have discovered is how those two types of trauma, at least for me, are really the same. As I relive that "accident," I am left with guilt, depression, sadness over a life I once knew, that I feel has been lost. And isn't that, for the most part, what emotional trauma is? I think so. While I don't have a...
Read more

Trauma Revisited

A friend told me about a series on Netflix about the four specialized Trauma Units in London, one of which is at King's College Hospital, where I was treated. She wasn't sure if I should watch it, so of course, I did. As I watched there was a little bit of triggering, a tad of envy, and a lot of understanding. The surgeons at these centers are nothing short of amazing. And just like my experience, they all introduced themselves to their patients using their first names. Talk about de-deification! One human,speaking to another, assuring them that they would do everything they could to help that person return to as close to a normal life as possible. Just like me, many of the patients in the series had brain injuries. For me, those patients produced the most PTSD in me. It is hard for me not to wonder what kind of longterm effect my brain bleeds had. My memory is not what it used to be, and at times I struggle to come up with a word. But I'm old, have had more anesthesia ...
Read more