I am really not doing well at this habit. So much happens and so much is just that incremental Groundhog Day suff, I keep feeling like I have nothing new to say. But that’s wrong. New things are constantly happening among the backdrop of repeats and marginal improvements.

Looking back on the ten days since my Deerfield note, I spent 7 of them recovering my sleep debt from 12.8 hours all the way to zero, and then the last three days adding some back. Therapy has continued, not just more of the same though there is continued everything, but new things!

Workout visits finally got back on track and with new fun on Friday as Sam will be here at 9 am to do a session with my therapists. I think they want him to make me go prone. Ouch. That is hard and hurts a bit, but it helps stretch me out. We have been doing more prone time in therapy, so they want tp have Sam and I add some.

This phase of therapy is coming to an end with discharge scheduled for July 9. We head out for a three week road trip to Portland, OR, for my niece’s wedding. Tomorrow Rachel and I will talk with Rachel and my sister Tracy to work out wheelchair logistics. Rachel will be in her power chair. We will bring my manual wheelchair so we can put the front passenger seat back in. We think that is required for this long trip. Otherwise, with both power. chairs, I get too immobile and cramped to handle long rides. That leaves me more dependent on help, but it worked out ok on the Massachusetts trip and this time Jacob and Spencer can share the load a bit. This trip is number two on my events target list. Number three is the Livestrong Challenge 5k, and that is worst case doable in my power wheelchair.

We had some swimming pool adventures, with trips to the Twin Lakes Y Friday and Monday. Those went really well, and were extremely tiring. I did walking, leg movement back and forth as well as lifts to the side, sitting, bobbing up and down, and finished with some actual swimming. I was lying on my back with a waist float and pool noodle and super slow flutter kicked my way around the pool. I can do so much more in the pool. I finally understand what Rachel has always told me about the freedom of being in the water.

Yesterday, we had a fun field trip to Mckinney Falls State Park where I borrowed their EcoRover wheelchair and spent 90 minutes wandering some of the mostly paved park trails. Also experimented with what I could do on hills, curbs, and unpaved trail. It wa awesome and I had a huge grin the whole time. If I can convince Rachel, we might spend $15k and get one. It would open up some opportunities, including giving me an option to hike out to that neighborhood Live Oak Tree I want to see.

We also attended an Austin FC win, had dinner out, parts of the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, got Kathi coming to do more arm work outside of OT, and tonight I am going out to dinner through TimeLeft with 5 random strangers.