Forward Motion

A year ago, right after the Bay Area went on lockdown for "2 weeks", my stubborn came out strong and I decided to work on my walking. Pain management had gotten me to the point of walking to the bathroom by myself, but I'd get dizzy just walking across my bedroom. And I knew I couldn't progress like that.

One day, I just walked out of the house with my walker and headed to the corner. It was less than half a mile and I had to sit down a few times. That same distance went a little better a week later and I slowly progressed after that. My dad started to walk with me and that made me brave enough to go around the block, then two blocks. When I made it to a mile, I switched to my cane, but then my progress stopped. I watched how I was walking one day and realized while I was concentrating on keeping my foot from dragging, the rest of my leg was a problem.... my knee was overextending, my quads weren't helping, and my hip had gone back to swinging out instead of forward. Simply put, my control over my leg was worse than it's ever been. I got a big leg brace and put my AFO back on and progress returned.

In November, I made it to 2 miles, 2.5 miles in January. Today, while my car was getting serviced, I had time to try for a 5K. It wasn't pretty, but I made it back to my car in about the same amount of time that my fastest 10K took back when I was able to run. But I did iiiiiiit!!

My leg isn't any stronger, it's just more tolerant... and I have learned I can still just keep going, but I get dizzy of I stop. As always, forward motion is my advantage.