Physical therapy update

The morning upper body training continues to go well. Tension was tightened down on the hand bicycle today but I was still able to complete 20 minutes without slowing or stopping. In addition, weight training with the arms continues daily in order to strengthen my upper body. In the afternoon session, we practiced chair-to-other surface transfers again so that I’ll be able to move from chair to bed, chair to wherever. I was also using a piece of equipment called omnicycle. This is a therapy version of a lifecycle that gives amazing immediate feedback. After my initial surgery, my right leg was considerably stronger than the left. Right now the left leg is considerably stronger than the right. Of course the radiation treatments can be having a significant effect on that. And after those treatments are complete we’ll see what kind of changes in feeling and strength occur.

While I have sensation from the chest down - I am able to feel touch, heat, cold - there’s still a definite heaviness that I’m hoping will dissipate as PT continues.

But back to the omnicycle. Once your legs and feet are secured in the bicycle portion, they’re able to set the cycle so that it automatically turns the pedals. This was set at 10 rpm. My task was to see how much additional effort I could apply to this and the cycle is able to measure how much effort is coming from each leg with instantaneous response. During the 20 minutes on the cycle, the highest my right leg achieved was 18% and at times it would drop to zero as that leg tired. By the time the 20 minutes was complete it gave a summary report showing that on average my left leg was doing 95% of the work and my right leg 5%. It also showed how much of the total effort expended on the bike was generated by the bike and how much was generated by me. The total effort expended by me was 98% of the movement for those 20 minutes.

I am able to wheel myself easily around the facility and had a haircut on Monday. I am no longer using pain killers at all. As I actually have a pretty high threshold for pain.