Day 67 - A Wonderful Surprise

Wow.  I was just totally shocked by the progress I’ve made, and it caught me completely off guard.  As some of you know, we do hyperbaric oxygen therapy with Michael.  Generally, we do an hour a day for 30-40 days and then take 30-40 days off.  Stopping always happens when Michael starts getting fussy about going in and staying in.  By the time we start up again, he’s missed it and is eager to go back.  So, flexibility in the dates is really important to us.  Since he can’t go in by himself, either Steve or I always go with him.  That’s the background.

When we stopped doing the last round of therapy, I was having a hard time.  My back would tighten up on me during the hour essentially lying on the floor, and then I would have a real hard time climbing out and moving around.  Many times I would get out of the chamber and go lie down on the bed until my back felt OK enough to move.  Pretty sad, huh?

Well, tonight was so different.  I was comfortable lying in the chamber for the full hour and could have gone longer.  Then, when it was time to get out, I was able to get right out.  My legs were stronger so I could stand up almost immediately, and my back was perfectly fine.  After I got over my shock and hugged Steve to death, I came right downstairs to write this blog.  I am grinning from ear to ear.  I am guessing that all the yoga classes have really helped with all the muscles I need to get up and down.  Overall, I am just so much stronger than I was when I started.

The best part of all is that this was completely, 100% unexpected.  I know I’ve made progress and I’ve lost almost 20 pounds now, but I just hadn’t felt any different.  Tonight I got a tangible reward in my real life.  All this hard work really is paying off!