Walking 7/31/2014

I have been walking around the house pretty good, and most of the time it is without my walker.  I really only use the walker when I do my laps.  I have a lap circle around the kitchen and then one around the pool table.  I like using the walker for these because it helps me to stay centered.  And what I mean by that is that when I use the walker I walk in between the two legs on it and in order to do that I have to walk in the center of the walker.  This keeps me straight and doesn't really give me the room to favor one side or the other or to limp. I have to think about taking normal walking steps and walking straight.  The walker is my physical conscious that will get in my way if I don't do it right.  It's really easy to get around doing things the right way since it may hurt a little, or may take more effort etc.  But I want to take it slow and do it right, I don't want to start any bad and lazy habits that will end up hurting my rehab instead of helping.  So aside from the laps I do, I still have the exercises that the PT showed me to do that I work on as well.

I am feeling a little better today and part of that may be the fact that Kev and I went for a walk this morning. We talked about it last night and decided we would go once I woke up before it got too hot out.  I was asking him if he wanted to go to the mall since they open that up early so people can go walk there, but he said that we should just do what the PT said which was to walk a couple of houses on the block and then just keep adding to that before I try to do too much or go too far that I can't get back.

So we set out to walk on the block for a few houses.  I used my walker because like I said I want it to help keep me centered but also because it was my first time being outside of the house and I was going to go a little further then some laps around the room.  It felt good just being outside, and it felt good to be walking outside as well.

I walked to the end of the block where our mailboxes are and then turned around and then went past our cul de sac and went to the other end of the block.  It was a very slow and thought out process.  But Kev just walked with me at my pace and a couple times he even said how awesome I was and how great I was doing.  It was really cute.  And part of that is because he walks super fast and I have a hard time keeping up, but he never went ahead of me and just walked right with me and made sure I was feeling ok.  By the time I got to the end of the other block I was tired, but still had to walk back to the house.  Which was fine, I made it, but it's just crazy how much that little bit of walking took out of me.  But I felt good.  I got out, my walking was good, my knee felt good, everything was good.  Now I was ready for my ice machine.  

                                       

Kev wanted me to show everyone how I kicked that walkers ass!!  It won't be long before I'm not using it and with the way things are going, it won't be long before I am walking down and around and back around the block even faster.