Hard work pays off

Today's two sessions carried on from yesterday. Basically lots of practice doing what I've been taught. For some of the time Jennifer took me outside to introduce me some varied terrain. I have to say that I enjoyed the variation of walking on tarmac and uneven paving stones, it makes you more aware of your surroundings, and in my case to concentrate on the control of my leg. I felt pretty confident, so I was pleased with the sessions.

During the afternoon session today I was walking up and down the gym with two sticks, Jennifer came over and I commented on how I found it ok to walk just using one stick, but having the other just raised slighty above the ground, like a kind of safety net. Promtly Jennifer took the stick off me and said off you just use one stick. Amazingly I walked really well and with confidence. It made me focus more on ensuring that I didn't make any errors. In the last session tomorrow my aim will be to gain more confidence using just one stick.

Following on from yesterday I also attempted to walk up and down slopes again. Going up presented no problems but coming down was difficult, I could not get the knee to bend consistantly. However, during the afternoon session Dave the prosthetic technician came in and we tried some adjustments to the angle of the foot. Unfortunatley we could not improve things, however, Dave has my leg next week while I'm in for the operation on my lung, and he will finish off the mounting on the socket to the mechanism and check the whole assembly over.

On a more positive note I have received several very nice comments from people who have watched my progress over the past few days. Mainly how well I walk with the leg, and also how quickly I seem to have adapted to it. Some can't believe that I have only had 4 days of training. So Hard work does indeed pay off !!

Tomorrow I will try and get a video of me walking with one stick to post it.

Watch this space to see my progress