Daily Physio

From the time I went to the ward to more or less the day of discharge I had physio Monday - Friday.
I soon built up a good working relationship with her and the Snr. Physio who oversaw some sessions.

I guess that we started on the leg which would enable me to become mobile.  (My right hand was quite clawed and shut tight) How long would it be before I could walk again? Yes - I had to learn how to walk. Just what had exactly happened on that fateful night?

We did work whilst I sat in the chair beside my bed - I couldn't initially pull up my foot from the floor by lifting it from the heel.
Work was done on the bed as she lifted my legs and I tried to gently lower them. "Bed work" included trying to lift my bottom off the bed, pulling my straight leg back so that my knee was at 90degrees to the bed.
Physio Room work included lying flat on the bed with the right leg dangling over the side and the Physio doing a bicycle movement with the leg.
I stood and faced the bed and walked sideways along the length of the bed, leaning into it for safety. Balance was a big issue.
I seem to remember doing work with some sort of small apparatus - but I really can't remember what it was.
Eventually, I would go in a wheelchair to the room but walk back to my room with the assistance of the physio and wall rail.
All of this work was very debilitating.
I was so determined to get better that when I was able I would go outside my room and hold on to the hand rail and try and walk forwards and backwards.

Then the resident ward male physio came one day and told me that he would get me walking. My look of disbelief must have stunned him. No sticks - unaided!!! "Yeah get real" or something similar was my reply, but I had seen this guy work and trusted him implicitly.
He took me outside my room and we did "High 5's" he walking backwards across the corridor and me forwards, then in reverse and we repeated this. Next I was on my own - could I really do this? After a few minutes of training - YES!! How I loved this guy.
He took me back to my room and I began to cry. He said only one word as he smiled at me, "Enjoy".