Swimming with the fishes

In the past few days, I've been able to do some things I wasn't sure I could do. I went to the zoo. In Rotterdam. By train and by bus. So, I know now that I can ride a bus, walk up the stairs to the platform to catch a train and spend a day out looking at strange animals (not unlike most days).

It showed me that, with bus map and cash in hand, I can still get anywhere in Eindhoven on my own. And I can get on a train and ride to any city in Netherlands - or Europe, for that matter.

The only challenge, of course, is that once I get to my destination, I can only walk for so long until I need to rest. The nice thing about going to the zoo is that they had wheelchairs to borrow. Nonetheless, it did make me feel as though the world is still accessible to me.

Pictures from the zoo





And then...
I rode a tricycle today! Really rode it. I didn't even use a foot strap to keep my foot on the pedal. I've been trying for months now to ride a bike again. Always, I had neither the strength nor the coordination to make the wheels go round and round. Plus, I kept having this knocking behind my knee over and over, making the cycling movement uncomfortable after a while.

I rode all around the clinic ringing the bell and shouting, "Woohoo, I can do it!" I kept looking down with disbelief at my foot as it continued to stay on the pedal without slipping off as it had done so many times before. "Wow, it's staying on." I couldn't believe it. My therapist was as delighted as I was. She's looking forward to taking me and the tricycle outside next week to see if I can repeat the performance on a more difficult surface. Fingers crossed!

Beyond those amazing feats
I'm walking stairs in fysio with great results. Standing up straight and taking one foot per stair versus two while going down. I also got good practice walking stairs while at the train station. Great to practice on but the railing was freezing cold!

I have also been able to increase weight training for my arms and torso from conditioning to strengthening. But since my leg is recovering more slowly, we're focusing still on keeping the form correct while conditioning.

Time to rest now. Enjoy the photos and see some of you very soon. Night night.