Not My Body

This is the rough part... where you realize you cannot move the way you are accustomed to moving! Ugh, my entire body is like one big muscle ache. Walking around that first day feels good, because things are no longer difficult to reach, you can shower standing up, etc. Even if you get tired every now and then, the freedom to be up and around feels great!

After a couple days of moving around slowly, however, actual pain sets in. All the muscles you didn't use for those days come alive and start singing!

Brent, the exercise physiologist (also featured on some of our rehab photographs from last year) took me for some "laps" around the facility; we walked through some tunnels to the ER, where I could look out the windows at the water. We also went to one of the glass walkways which crosses over the street. Normally it leads through wide doors into the Shriner's Burn Hospital, but that has sadly not re-opened since Hurricane Ike.

We then went into the weights room, where I did some pull-ups, push-ups and specific stretches for the muscles around the spine and shoulders. Otherwise those tend to "hunch up." Of course, the next day all it accomplishes is making your arms hurt as much as your legs, LOL! But after the "influenza" feeling in the muscles fades, you can start to rebuild them.

Morning time is the hardest. Everything stiffens up overnight... but stretching still stings, and even a hot shower does only so much. Toward the middle of the day, I feel better and more alert -- but then when it gets late, walking becomes a slower affair once again. My feet start feeling sore. Again, still nothing compared to last time, and entirely bearable. It's just hard to "take things slow" when I want to break into a run!

Major upside? Daily massages :)