Part 2.... Chapter 14....

It has been non-stop since I’ve been in my chair. I’m able to sit in it all day now and have started going to physio once a day for intense training on how to transfer, sit up unaided and work on upper body muscle strength in the gym.
Working in the pub industry before my accident for many years lifting and rolling barrels of beer around the cellar, and carrying up the stairs 2/3 packs/boxes/crates of bottled drinks at a time was a piece of piss. So, in the gym my blood accelerates, pumping oxygen around the body leaving me with a tingle all over after a good session. It makes me feel alive. I love it.
 
My main physio instructor is a young guy, easy on the eye which is a bonus and relaxing to be with. His words are firm, straight to the point and easy to understand even if the body doesn’t want to do what he’s saying I must try to do.
 
Before, sitting up was something done without thinking of the action needed to executed such a position. I just sat up as straight as you would be being able-bodied. Now I’m re-learning how to sit up as a paraplegic. First practicing with the blue square gym cushions on each of my sides to keep my balance centred and one for support behind me to stop me falling back. It ain’t easy trying to keep balance up right without my torso swaying me to the left.
 
It all feels wrong. You know, unhuman and unsettling. My brain is having trouble excepting my new ways of mobility. I’ve only just got used to feeling like Tarzan when swinging in the hoist to land in the chair. Now like a flash in a pan I’m having to change my brain waves of absorbing new information again, to manually transfer myself from my chair.
 
It starts like this:
 

1. I line my wheelchair at a slight angle next to whatever I’m transferring onto
2. Bring my bottom to sit closer to the front of the chair
3. Lift legs up from under the knee, off the foot rest one by one and place feet on the floor. This is to keep my leg bones strong with my body weight.
4. I wear wrist support bands on both arms then place one hand on the wheelchairs arm rest and the other holding a blue plastic handle to give me extra height when I lift to transfer. That hand is then slightly stretched over to the place I’m hoping to land.
5. If I want to transfer to my left side I need to look and think that I’m transferring myself to my right side, and vice versa.

 
It’s crazy thinking. Even crazier because it works, but doesn’t work if I’m trying to be a smart ass and look to the direction I’m transferring to. At that point it’s time to rethink my moves before I ‘almost’ flop to the floor. Madness, that’s what it is, cowing madness. How the mind can sway the body and endure, adapt and give you faith to rise to the challenge.
 
Everything that is being done without the subconscious feel of the connection between mind and body influencing the action is amazing. Thoughts are not repressed they just need to find a different path to follow to get the message to the brains circuit board somehow. It’s kind of subliminal.  
                   
With so much to draw into my sponge brain it’s brain overload. Brain malfunction. Brain frustrated and brain tired. All at the same time.
 
I didn’t know what the fuk it was doing until my butt landed on the bench. I did it. I don’t know how but I made it. It left me with a smile on my face as big as the moon 😉