Real 1st Steps

Oh my goodness. Huge day! It pays to get an extra day of physio in on the weekend.

I've been practicing with one crutch every day at physio for quite some time now but this was the first ever go at it without anything. No crutches. No cane. No nothing. I took four steps today without my crutches! There was a little hop to the step as I transferred my weight to move my left foot ahead but I did move a short, very short, distance forward. They were like toddler sized steps. My physio was so close to me the whole time. We were both so excited but nervous for me to try it without my crutches. She not only wanted to be extra close in case I had to grab onto her for support but I needed her that close to give me the confidence and assurance to try taking those couple steps.

Oh by the way, it's April 1st if you didn't know. So happy April Fools. In all honesty, I am making a lot of progress but it will still be awhile before I try any steps without at least one of my crutches. It is true that nearly every day I practice walking with just one forearm crutch, with my modified shoes on. I'm able to move a lot faster and with much more confidence now. This past week we took a couple new videos at physio. One showing me walking sideways & backwards. The other is of me speed walking. There is obvious improvement over videos shot even a month ago.

It's interesting and fun for me to compare similar videos, doing the same activity, from over the past 5-6 months. Every video depicts me performing the particular activity to the best of my ability, up to that date. There are many videos we've shot that I remember us being so excited about. It was either the first time I successfully did something or it's just a big improvement from the last time I performed it. Then a couple weeks/month later we take another video knowing I've improved but not seeing just how much I've improved until we compare the videos. Then the original video we were so excited about to start with becomes more of the "before" video for the new progress. This was the primary reason for documenting stuff at physio. It's hard to really see how much progress is being made when it's gradual over every single day. Comparing videos from throughout reminds us and shows just how drastic the improvement has been.