Two weeks down and six weeks to go for my pulmonary rehabilitation and progress are being made just in the three days I have gone. I go two days a week. I woke up Wednesday morning with a fever and dizziness due to my taking of Ciprofloxacin. This medication is strong. Consequently I cancelled my rehab and ride for that day. I set up my rides for the rest of the month and that includes my doctor appointment with my Otolaryngologist on March 19th. I am hoping the culture came back negative. I am still taking the antibiotic pill and the ointment. I have to say the ointment makes it feel so much better.
This week I concentrated on increasing my step performance on the NuRide. The NuRide is a cross training exercise machine. You sit on it like a bike, but you don’t peddle. You push your legs back and forth and at the same time your arms go with the peddles and I like it. At first I was thinking what in the heck, but slowly as I am seeing the improvements that my walking and breathing are doing I like it. I wish I had the four grand to buy one, but I don’t have that kind of money at this point in my life and yet where would I put the sucker.
My goal is to eventually start off on the tread mill and then do the Nuride for a total of 30 minutes and then do the stretching and weights workout for a total of 40 minutes and that is while I am in rehab. When I am out of rehab and I can move affectively on my own I want to do Yoga, walking, riding a bike, swimming, and other activities that I see out there. I know I can’t do it all, but I do want to be able to explore without being afraid of hurting myself. Heck I even would like to do the boxing workout that my sister used to do when she trained to be a boxer. Though that would require me to find me a trainer who would be willing to work with someone in my condition and isn’t afraid of the trach. I am hoping that with the training I am getting from the physical therapists I will be able to invest and trust a personal trainer. I will be in better shape. My philosophy is I am fighting for myself and in order to do that I need a team and you can never have too many team players.
Changing my habits of being immobile is a huge challenge for me at this time. Simply because I have not built new neurons with these new habits of moving daily and I am hoping soon the neurons will be building new bridges and being active will become easier as time progresses. The key is to keep taking the steps forward even when I don’t want to. Thankfully I have some encouraging souls out there in my life and I also have my blog. I am being held accountable for my actions of caring for myself. It has been a slow process, but I am beginning to see how much it is worth it. Walking around my apartment I am meeting some neat people who are on their own journey and still have the courage to smile. That helps me so much. Even some amazing people I have met outside of my apartment that still love and work with people despite fighting for their lives, literally. That gives me hope that I can do the same thing.
It is so easy to be in automatic pilot and just react instead of stepping back and thinking, planning, and slowly moving ahead. That is how I wanted my rehab to go, be fast, quick, and easy so that I can be done with it. The good things that truly let you grow don’t work that way. I am learning that. I am also learning that I have my triggers that cause me to react to things in a not so kind way. I want to quit and say forget it, even though that isn’t my heart. How can I be a vessel for God to show people love and what relationships are when I over react and hurt those that I love deeply? I am learning a lot and I am still taking one step at a time in all manners of my life. To my friends and family I love you and please forgive me if I ever quit on you or over reacted.
As I move forward to week three of my rehab journey I am anxious to see what other improvements I will learn and how much more I can be active in my daily life. I am mustering up my courage to get my trampoline out and see how well I can move on it to get my heart up for a bit. I am a bit scared of doing so, but I will face that beast and perhaps I will do it this weekend if the medication I am taking will permit me to.
Enjoy your day. Take a deep breath in and let it out slowly and remember you are worth fighting for.
Please wait...