I woke up at 7 feeling rubbish this morning. My right leg was a mass of muscle knots with a dislocated ankle, subluxed fibula (at the knee) and a subluxed hip all being held out of joint by spasms! After some painkillers and massage I got everything back were it belonged then taped my ankle and knee.

After sticking myself back together and getting my TENS machine on I sat down for breakfast with my ward buddies. By the time breakfast was over everyone else was ready to go and I was still in pajamas! I did manage to get dressed in time and I was portered down to the outpatients area.

The stretch class was good and I got myself going a bit! I still felt pretty rubbish by the timey physio arrived. He was kind about it tho and was impressed at how much better my shoulder was today. He decided to take a look at my legs and see how they functioned.

The assessment was hindered a little by the tape but not too much. After much prodding, poking, observing and strength testing my basic problems are pretty simple.

My bum muscles are lazy… (underactive glutes and tight hamstrings) my ileo-tibial muscles need some work too. The lazy bum muscles are also contributing my my lordosis so hopefully I’ll be able to improve my back by working on my core and bum.

My exercises are pretty darn hard but after the results with my shoulder I’m keen to fight through the difficulty. My least favourite exercise (the clam) has made an appearance, this time a slightly altered angle and hovering variation to make sure I’m actually working the right muscles!
My other new exercise involves raising the bed up and leaning the top half of my body forwards then lifting my leg out backwards/upwards while engaging bum muscles. This isn’t too hard as long as I stay out of the clicky hip range, I made the mistake of saying it wasn’t too bad and was ‘rewarded’ with ankle weights! Safe to say my glutes got a workout then!

After physio I headed back to the ward for a rest and some lunch (one again an edible meal with no tummy agrivating foods) 😀 we ate in the newly decorated conservatory.

Our first session after lunch was with the group 3 inpatients and focussed on ‘Assertiveness’ as a coping strategy. It was a very usefully session and I’ll be rereading the notes more than once I’m sure! The discussions withing the group were also brilliant. 🙂

After our session on Assertiveness we had an hour before our multi sport session. One of my new friends and I took the opportunity to escape to the cafe for a hot chocolate and a cheeky mars bar haha

I was portered down to the Aspire gym for the sports sessions and spent most of it shooting hoops with one of the week 3 gals.

I’m pleasantly surprised with my remaining basketball skills after 9 months off! And although me only had one chair between us (not a sport chair either) I actually worked up a sweat and did some proper training! This my first time doing basketball (wheelchair or otherwise) since my big health crash at the inter-uni champs 9 months ago and it’s also my first session since starting my beta blocker for PoTS… I have to once again reiterate how much I love propranolol. It’s changed my life. I could shoot hoops standing and not get my heartrate over 150bpm. Anyone who’s trained with me in the past will know how monumental that is!

I finished the session with some fast chest passes against a wall and was getting sets of 30 before my shoulders complained too much!

After being whisked back to the ward I actually cried a bit. I’m so happy I’ve made it this far, 10 months ago I couldn’t stand unassisted and now I’m shooting hoops again!! I finally feel like me again!

I was totally knackered after that so I flopped in bed for a while and chatted before being a good patient and doing one set of each of my exercises.

Dinner in the conservatory was pretty good and I shared the medication management app I use with some of the others. (MediSafe)

The rest of the evening was spent chatting, chilling and fixing my basketball damaged nails!

I’m probably going to ruin my nails tomorrow but hey ho.

Sorry this is such a late post folks I got totally distracted looking a dog photos with one of the other ladies on the ward. Nothing better than videos of puppies to finish a hard days work! 😉

Ciao for now folks
X