Starting some movement…

The arms are now free from bondage! yeah! My wrists have totally healed and I am now onto physical therapy for help with range of motion. As is normal when casts/braces come off from broken bones, my wrists sure are stiff! I’m working each day on bending my hands forward, backwards, and to the side. They barely move but that will change quickly. I love having something to work towards, finally, instead of just having to WAIT.

Saturday morning was a local 5k race to benefit ALS. My good friend, Dana, just lost her friend and neighbor, the youthful 45-year old Jim Hogue, to ALS last week after his 4-year battle with the disease. So much of the local community showed up in memory of Jim and to help support this needed cause. What a tribute to this lovely man whose family much be grieving so much. I knew I couldn’t do a 5k but wanted to support. I was able to walk almost 1 mile, albeit slowly – I felt so triumphant! I hobbled in the back of the pack and struck up a conversation with a wonderful younger man named Greg who was doing the race in his wheelchair. Greg went on to tell me that he had been in a skydiving accident 5-years ago and had landed on his head. Ugggg… My heart sank. He had just started wheelchair athletic events and I couldn’t have praised him more. Of course I told him he needed to start doing Ironman! The poor guy looked at me as though it sounded so overwhelming, so I tried to be sure he felt encouraged with his current amazing effort and said, “Let you start with one thing at a time, huh?” He laughed. I turned back a few minutes later to finish my own amazing effort for the day, and wished him luck.

As I walked back I thought of the spirit of this brave man using his arms to propel him forward, and thought of the courageous Jim Hogue, and smiled. The spirit of those two men was more impressive than I could ever hope to be and they encouraged me to want to be as tough as they were called to be.

So bring on the PT. Coming back, rebounding, actively working towards a goal – this I am good at.

I’m awaiting some news on some other tests. Once I know something conclusive I will fill everyone in.

Thanks for reading my journal.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 5:04 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.