5-20-2015 Glorious Outdoors

This is really  more of a mini-update than anything else. But I wanted to share my exciting new journey in exercising today as well as the first pictures of me on the blog. I was sort of nervous about sharing these. I have some serious body issues. However, I thought it was such a great achievement, that I had to share.

Today, for the second time in the last week, I went out walking outside. Overall, the length of my walk wasn't any further than what I usually do, in fact it was less than I usually do, but I did some walking over uneven terrain and walked further without my wheelchair than normal. My wheelchair is standing by and I sat down on it fairly often to rest before I kept walking, but it just felt great to get outside.

I spend 95% of my time cloistered in my house, and 85% of that time in my room. I get out for appointments only really and getting out there and breathing the fresh air was just something amazing to me. I never noticed how thick the air is inside and just how different it is until I went outside and came back in. I am anxiously awaiting the chance to go back outside and walk some more.

We are taking things slowly, however. Safety is the byword that my physical therapist is having us live by, and with good reason. If I push too hard and fall, we can set back all of the good work we have done.  As it stands, we've made amazing strides. I've got these pictures from late March even and the changes are quite something. Albeit, some of it is distorted by my sitting, but never the less you can still see some real changed there.

We worked really hard and tried out different things to deal with that lymph edema on my ride side. The lobe is still there, but it is massively deflated right now and that is making my whole exercise and walking routine that much easier because it isn't throwing off my balance as much. This means I can walk more safely and now that it is a lot smaller, I can fit my clothing better as well.

It's hard to believe that the two pictures represent just a little under two months and about 50 pounds of difference. It could be the angle of the shot with me sitting down, but I just seem a lot bigger in that. Maybe I am putting on muscle under there, which is why it isn't a more drastic weight loss. I've been rapidly increasing my weight and reps with exercises. Averaging one more rep on each one a day.

Today we just overhauled a lot of my physical therapy, stream lined it so that some of the beginning exercises just to help me get initial movement are now being replaced by exercises that require a bit more effort. My physical therapist is really happy with the progress. She said I made some of the exercises just look easy. My routine should now be a bit leaner, meaner and really help build the strength I need to keep exercising more.

I have my appointment for my pre-surgical class scheduled for the 18th of June and I'm really looking forward to that. Hopefully they see the work I've done and we will be on track for the surgery sometime in july/august.