Cosima's story part 11

Cosima's Story Continued Part 11

I started going out to my new studio once a day and spending time painting. I painted on small card size sheets of paper and painted mainly animals. This was a great way to exercise my hands and sitting in a chair and walking out to the shop was a good effort. Making my bed and cooking everyday and exercising on the stationary bicycle and the walker helped out a lot. Jan brought down his stepper machine along with a big ball and stretchy bands. It was like having my own personal gym. I decided the physical therapy I was going to in Bernalillo was not helping my right arm and hand enough.

Sam came to visit and we went for a walk in Gilman canyon and saw fresh mountain lion tracks. Sam and I had a great time catching up and he could see that I was really improving fast. All that equipment and eating my own food made a lot of difference plus having such wonderful visits from my sons.

After Sam left I decided to have Jan take me to Los Alamos and interview all of the Physical Therapists in that area. I wanted to find one that would give me hands on work and who would continue the work like my occupational therapist Liz, who had had some special training, had done for me. Adam, who was also from the nursing home, had really trained me in what exercises I needed to do at home. Bernalillo had a great Physical Therapist but I really wanted more hands on work for the amount of time of driving back and forth. I decided on Physical Therapy Plus because Annette really seemed to know how to do hands on work and there were no machines. Besides Annette was President of the Tough Riders in the Los Alamos bicycle group and she could really relate to what kind of injury getting hit by a car on a bicycle would be like.

Jan and some of my friends helped out with giving me rides to Los Alamos for physical therapy. With Annette's work and encouragement I started practicing putting the key in the ignition and taking it out and stepping on the brake. In two weeks time I was driving the car around my mother's house. Even though it took 2 hands to turn the ignition on I was driving to the bank and post office and practicing with short drives.

Pretty soon I was driving myself to Los Alamos and a few wintry nights I stayed in Gracia's parents Condo in Los Alamos. Being able to drive myself was the most exhilarating feeling about being back to normal. The freedom of not having to depend on someone else to get you where you want to go is unexplainable. Even though the gratitude for having assistance is magical. Driving is so self empowering when you haven"t been able to drive in 8 months. Let's celebrate this empowerment with Joy.

Thanks be for all the prayers and glorious help I have had and the genetic inheritance of persistence from my parents.

To Be continued Story 12

Love and Light

Cosima