Splendid Improvements & 4 Week Testing at Synaptic

So many splendid improvements to report!

I had my 4 week assessment at Synaptic last week and I have improvements on testing. There are a bunch of other improvements that aren’t related to testing. that I’m excited to report.

I jumped for the first time in over a year a few days before the assessment, which was joyful. In total, I must have jumped at least a dozen times because I was so excited.

When Cam picked me up, I jumped in the parking lot to show him. I wasn’t even holding on to anything for balance.

#andIdidntdie

Like a kid with a new toy, I spent the next few days jumping all over the place like some methed-out bunny. That is, until my bones and joints started to hurt because I’m too old for that crap.

But I can jump now!

Who knew the ability to jump and land safely is quite physically and neurologically complicated?

So during my intake assessment, I scored a 13 out of 30 on my walking tests which is bad, but at my 4 week assessment I scored 21 out of 30. Jill seems happy with that, so I am too because she’s the expert. I mentioned to my best friend that I don’t really understand the scoring but I’m glad it’s better. She pointed out that a 13 out of 30 is an F in school, but a 21 is a C-.

Like I was ever a C- student but it’s better than an F.

My balance is slower to improve. Before the assessment I mentioned how I was struggling with balance training but the gait training was going really well. Jill said that for most people, either balance or gait is quick to show improvement right away, and whichever one is lagging takes a little longer but eventually narrows the gap.

On my initial assessment, I had 40 out of 60 errors but at the 4 week mark I had 35. So five less errors, errors being times I fell, lost my balance, had to catch myself with my hands, etc. Such small improvements don’t really thrill me, being a little type A, but maybe the PoNS device can encourage that to rewire too.

I also do a 6 minute test in which Jill follows behind me with a step counter. Or, as I like to call it, ‘taking my physiotherapist for a walk.’ At the four week mark, I took 392 more steps than my initial timed walk test.

So all in all, the assessment went really well. I can’t wait to see more improvements over the next 10 weeks.

I’m amused by how my brain will do things sometimes while I’m unaware.

I sprinted up the stairs quite some time ago It was near the top where I was like, “Whoa, what am I even doing?” And just like that, it was like someone cut my strings. Sprinting over.

I’ve been really struggling with being able to balance on my left leg. Today I did my balance session working on one leg at a time. I balance on one leg until I have an ‘error’ or lose my balance, then I switch. I go back and forth for five to ten minutes, depending on the session. (The sessions themselves are always twenty minutes with the device, but I might do different tasks for two and a half, five, or ten minute intervals within that twenty minutes.)

Anyway…

I was standing on the one leg for awhile until I lost my balance. Then I shook it off and switched legs. But after a few seconds, I realized I was balancing on my right leg.

So had I started the session balancing on my left leg without realizing it?

A couple days ago, I got dressed and I had a little brain niggle right after. Had I, without thinking, just gotten dressed without needing to use my hands to lift and manoeuvre my left leg into my pants? No. Surely I assisted my leg and I’m just so used to doing it now after a few years that it just didn’t register. Right?

We have a baby gate on our stairs to stop the dogs from going upstairs. For quite awhile, it’s been a challenge because it narrows the stair that it’s on. Also, I’d have to grab onto the railing and step over with my right leg. Then I performed some ridiculous acrobatics to drag my uncooperative left leg over, all while not falling to my death or getting tangled in the gate, and then falling to my death.

Yesterday I stepped over the gate and stopped.

I had just stepped over the gate.

As in, I was pretty sure I had just flexed my left hip and knee to lift my foot high enough to clear the gate, then stepped down on the other side.

I went down the stairs and flexed my left hip and knee again. Yup, it was definitely past ninety degrees. Could I put this in the ‘improvements’ file?

I did it twenty more times, just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke. The acid test would be putting pants on.

So this morning, I spent a moment looking at my pants, excited at the thought of being able to add ‘put on pants unassisted’ to the list of improvements. Then I put them on. Just like that, Well, mostly. Full disclosure, I had to really concentrate to balance on my right leg while lifting my left leg high enough to get my foot into the pant leg but I did it!

Holy crap, I did it.

Putting on my pants normally hasn’t been something I can do since 2017.

In 2017, I was doing a lot of weight-training and I pulled my best dead-lift weight ever one day at work. It was the heaviest lift I’d ever done and I was feeling really strong and proud of myself. During my workout, dispatch toned us out on a call so I swapped my workout clothes for my uniform and hopped into the ambulance.

The ambulance I was in came to a very sudden stop on the way to that call, but I did not.

It’s a good thing I always wear my seat-belt, so I only sprained my lower back. After several hours, the pain was worse than natural childbirth and it went on and on and on. For a long time after, I couldn’t move. Getting up hurt, sitting down hurt, walking hurt, even breathing hurt for awhile.

Xrays ruled out any fractures so my doctor prescribed muscle relaxers and pain pills to manage the acute injury. I’m sure the pain pills helped me deal with WCB and all their crap while I missed days of work. I was in pain for weeks and then once the pain subsided, if I tried to go for a walk or workout in anyway, the pain came back but mostly in my left hip. More trips to the doctor and a chiropractor and then physio to manage my new SI joint dysfunction.

It was almost a year before I was able to resume normal activities, like going for walks, without triggering intense pain that would last for days. Like, the kind of pain that makes spots dance in front of your eyes and you have to breathe shallowly to fight the urge to puke.

So once I was able to get back to my normal life, I figured that the struggles to get my left leg into pants were related to the hip problem. I noticed difficulties walking with my left leg, but I figured I needed some physio and time to get my strength and mobility back in that hip.

It never occurred to me it was a brain issue. Surprise, surprise. All those years I thought I was having a mechanical issue but it was the wiring that needed some improvements.

I’m cautiously optimistic about the improvements I might continue to see. I still have no idea what I’m going to be when I grow up, but I know less disability equals more options.