Graham
I tried every search I could possibly think of and when I was about to give up – bingo! I found Physability.
I had struggled for years, since early teenage to get the medical profession to take me seriously about what I wanted to achieve for me. Fundamentally this was to literally learn to walk using my own legs, I knew I needed to develop everything as if from scratch and address each and every aspect of myself to achieve this.
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Graham |
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In the early days my positive thinking got me through a lot, but at that time I believed it was a case of gaining strength in all the main muscle groups I needed to learn to walk. But at every turn the medical profession seemed to want to do things their way and dismissed what I had to say as if they somehow knew better than what my body was telling me. In short I knew my body had a lot of potential of which I proved to myself on numerous occasions throughout my long struggle to walk and indeed balance my life in all other areas too.
So fed up with banging my head against medical brick walls, I abandoned all notion that I was ever going to be taken seriously by the medical establishment and so embarked on my recovery approach on my own. I knew what needed to be exercised and my key aim was to strengthen as much as possible and to build up stamina and endurance. Over a period of about 5 years I had bought all the equipment I needed to successfully achieve this. It took a bit of saving and some hard work, but I now had what was in effect a gym in my bedroom!
I applied myself, dedicating as much time and energy as I could to my exercise with the sole end goal of learning to walk. I made a lot of strength building progress, by this time I had also learnt a few key techniques to address my state of mind too, which served to enhance my progression and performance all the more and still does. Throughout that time I had kept an open eye out for organisations that would listen and had the facilities to help me further, but initially there was nothing. So I persevered and no matter how much I trained and worked up a sweat, although strength was improving, my standing ability was still significantly lacking. Essentially it was being able to remain upright, my legs were not able to get a full lock and so the strain on my thighs to remain upright was extremely difficult, exhausting and frustrating.
Initially I knew that all the strength building was not having a significant enough effect on reducing the tightness on my knees hamstrings. I tried several ways to stretch them, but felt I was doing it wrong or the techniques were not effective enough. In short I had come as far as I was able to alone. I was desperate to find a professional organisation that would take me and my ideas seriously. For the first time I was losing faith in myself and was seriously doubting whether it was indeed possible for me to walk at all. That for me was a dangerous place to be as I once told myself I would give it my all and if I don’t succeed, then and only then I will accept my disability and move on. For me it had always been not ‘if’ I learnt to walk, it was always ‘when’ I will walk. For several months I even stopped training and closed myself off to it. I needed another perspective and a new direction.
It was then I finally picked myself up again and decided to keep going, but for my own piece of mind I seriously needed someone else to help me and give me the support and guidance I needed. So I did another search for an organisation, it had been a few years or so since I last did a proper search so I had nothing to lose. Searching on the internet, I tried every search I could possibly think of and when I was about to give up – bingo! I found Physability.
The relief to find someone that shared my approach and was keen to listen and was well equipped to deal with my needs, was such an enormous relief. I felt confident almost straightaway that I had finally found what I so desperately needed, I was so excited. My initial consultation with the team was to further reinforce what I had already felt and I knew that Physability was the one for me.
Before I knew it I decided to book a month of training with them, and I had ordered the boots they had told me would be provide my feet with the support that was needed to improve the rest of my standing. The boots themselves were initially awkward to get on, but with a little help from Physability, a few apprehensive modifications to the tongues, a little time and sheer determination on my part I was able to get them on easier and quicker. Most importantly, with comfort!
During my training I received a lot of support and help from the team. They took on board everything I had to say and had been doing and it did not take long for them to establish a new direction and a way forward for which I had been avoiding because I had no effective means of addressing it. That was of course my hamstrings. They recognised the benefit of everything else I had been doing, but quickly made me realise I seriously needed a means of stretching my hamstrings if I was to make any significant progress in getting on my feet.
Having tried several techniques, the most effective and easiest solution was to do it from my wheelchair with a ratchet strap and pad for my knee. It sounds like torture, but it was extremely effective at increasing my stretch by 8cms so far. By far the most effective means of stretching and indeed standing upright and straight, was the standing frame. This provided me with the support at my feet, knees and waist, so I could literally relax into a stretching stand. Initially I was extremely sceptical about how effective this was going to be and I doubted it would work for me. But I do not believe in letting negative preconceptions hinder me, especially when I had nothing to lose by trying.
In short I was extremely impressed and for the first time in my life I knew what it was to; not just stand as I had learnt to; but to stand ‘properly’. By that I mean I was standing on my foot fully, standing firmly on my heels, whereas usually I tended to lean forwards more on to the toes. It was so amazing I could not stop smiling, I was in awe. The hardest part was to pull myself up until I could feel the tension on my hamstrings and then relax as they eased off and I got a proper stretch.
This together with neuro-electrotherapy, helped improve my standing and walking within the parallel bars, which simply made the whole experience simply amazing and only reinforced my confidence in my ability and the knowledge that I knew ’I will learn to walk’. There is still a way to go, but my time with Physability was so rewarding in so many ways. I could not help but go away with a much more positive outlook again. I am now continuing my agreed plan of action, which consists mainly of stretching exercises and I have been able to recreate a frame for standing at home.
I am in constant touch with the team at Physability and I have plans on going back there within the next couple of months to literally take the next step in my progress to walk . To the team, all I can sincerely say is – thank you and I look forward to seeing them later in the year.