Update & Thought:
I’m settling back down into my routine again. It’s been good to be home as well as get back
to work. This evening (Friday) after
work, I need to get on the floor and exercise for an hour and get my clothes
ironed for Sunday.
Walking has been going well. After
being in the wheelchair for over three weeks, I felt a little less steady and
confident on my legs at first. Now that
I have been walking again for the last week, I recognized yesterday that my
gait is returning to normal. It is kind
of hard to explain but I have begun centering my weight over my prosthesis when
I walk. When you first get a prosthetic
leg, you tend to walk with your legs spread apart for balance. Over time you return to a more normal pattern
with your legs closer together. So in
the beginning you tend to sway a bit side-to-side as you transfer you weight
from one leg to the other. Over time, as
the legs move closer together that swaying is minimized. I noticed yesterday that I’m walking more
naturally than I was. Hopefully it looks
more natural and any limp is less noticeable.
I find that stairs are still more of a challenge to me and I take them
more deliberately and not naturally.
Over time I assume that will smooth out too.
As a result of walking with my legs closer together, it’s time to go
back to the prosthetist to get my ankle adjusted. Since the angle of my ankle is set and locked
into place, as my legs move closer together, I walk more on the outside edge of
my foot. So they have to loosen some set
screws and realign my leg and ankle according to how I am walking now. It is really rather amazing the system that
God built into our legs: joints supplying flexibility, muscles to move them,
tendons to hold them steady, and a brain to control all of the movement to make
walking or standing possible. We don’t
really notice all the micro adjustments that our ankles make to keep up upright
and steady. We were marvelously
created! And I am thankful for human
ingenuity to replicate the parts that I’ve lost. They don’t work as well as the original equipment
but they do a good job providing a great approximation. And I am grateful for what I’ve got.
All the exercise, all the practice, and all the energy I spend is so
that I can regain as much function as possible to return to a “normal”
life. We all face challenges that we
need to overcome; amputees just face an added layer of challenges that “normal”
two-legged people (or two-armed, depending on your amputation) don’t have to
think about. Some people are math-challenged. Some are technology-challenged. Others are socially awkward. I just happen to be mobility-challenged. Whatever challenges we face; we need to work
at them so that we are overcomers and not just quietly accepting our fate,
“That is just the way I am.” There are
some limits that currently cannot be changed (paralysis and some illnesses for
instance) in our current level of medical expertise; but even then there are a
number of things we can do to improve ourselves and continue to enjoy a
productive life.
So get involved in your own life.
Seek solutions or work around obstacles that you encounter. Stretch beyond your comfort zone and seek to
constantly be growing and developing.
Don’t merely exist; embrace life and your future. Don’t be content and satisfied with how your
life is currently going. Set goals and
work towards reaching them. Some days
will be tougher than others, so if you need to take a pause to rest and refocus
do that; but don’t sit down and give up.
Keep striving. Keep moving
forward. Inch by inch. Step by step. Mile after mile. Life is a journey—so get moving!
Philippians
3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained
all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take
hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do
not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I
press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God
has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
No comments:
Post a Comment