The days are starting to wind down for me here in Mason, Ohio.  I had a very productive day of therapy today.  Also the sun was shining and it didn’t snow… I really enjoyed that!  My therapy started at noon, so I got to sleep in this morning.  I was very excited about sleeping in and getting back to therapy today.

I arrived at SCI-Step around noon to start my day of therapy.  My first part of therapy was having acupuncture performed…  There is nothing like starting your day off only to get stuck by a bunch of needles.  I had needles stuck all over my body.  I snuck in a short nap, as this lasted for about an hour.  After all of the needles were pulled out, I then got on with my therapy.  I got in a really good stretch with James.  My legs weren’t nearly as tight as they have been.  We stretched for awhile and my legs felt great.  We followed that with some exercises on the powder board.  A powder board is a small table that my leg lies on.  While on that board I work on pulling the leg towards my chest and pushing it down to make it straight.  This seemed to go great and my legs responded well.  After this we then did the Para Step FES System.  I was placed in a harness where I walked using the Para Step FES System for awhile.  This went great. I really like the Para Step.  It is easy to take steps with the stimulation from the FES of the Para Step.  We finished up our day by doing some upper body shoulder exercises with James.  My arms were a little tired from the days before, but this seemed to go good.  My arms are getting into a lot better shape than when I started last week.  This wrapped up the end of my therapy.

Tomorrow is my last day at SCI Step.  I will be working out all day long tomorrow.  I am excited about the full day of therapy.  After my day of therapy, my mother and I will travel to Cincinnati where we will stay in a hotel close to the airport.  We fly out of Cincinnati at 9:00 Saturday morning.  I am looking forward to my last day of therapy and continuing my progression.  I will keep you up to date tomorrow on everything that is going on.  Thanks for all of the support… God Bless!!!

Matt C   

Today was another wonderful day of therapy at SCI-Step in Mason, Ohio…  And of course, it was snowing yet again!  When we arrived at therapy today, it was 15 degrees.  It seemed to be the coldest day during our stay.  I guess it is a good thing that we did therapy inside, rather than outside. 

I had a very productive day of therapy.  My day started off with me getting in a good stretch on the mat.  I was very tight again today, so it was great to get stretched out before doing anything.  After stretching, we then got in my braces where I was going to work on taking more steps.  The steps I were taking went very well.  However, I think I am going to have to make some more adjustments to my braces.  My heel is trying to pull out of the bottom of the braces.  The reason for this is because my knees are bent in the braces and I am walking on the balls of my foot, which causes my heel to pop out of it’s designed cup.  This will cause skin problems on my heel, as well as me obtaining bad habits.  This is very frustrating, but maybe we will get it fixed soon.  After walking I then did something new today.  I had reflexology performed on me.  Before getting this performed on me, I had no idea what reflexology was.  I still don’t… But according to Google… Reflexology is the physical act of applying pressure to the feet and hand with the specific thumb, finger and hand techniques without the use of oil or lotion. It is based on a system of zones and reflex areas that reflect an image of the body on the feet and hands with a premise that such work effects a physical change to the body.  It looked to me like a foot massage and was very relaxing.  This lasted for about fifty minutes and I snuck in a quick nap.  I finished up the last part of my day on the Spin Cycle Bike.  I was excited about getting back on it.  At first, it didn’t seem to go nearly as well as the other day.  I was pushing as hard as I could and was giving it everything that I had, but couldn’t get my legs to respond like the other day.  Then my mom came in the back and turned on the video camera and it was like a switch turned on.  I started getting good momentum and riding the bike a lot better… I guess we need to film a lot more!  Towards the last five minutes of my therapy I told Kevin to tell me when it came to the last minute so I could give it everything that I had.  I call this ‘Finishing Strong’…  I always did this in the past during baseball, football, etc.  So when the last minute came, I gave it everything I had and when the minute ended I felt like I still had something left.  Kevin told me to keep going…  With sweat pouring off of my face I rode the bike another two minutes.  I was exhausted after this and felt like I just got done riding in the Tour de France. 

Today was another great day of therapy.  We got a lot of great work in today.  Today was also the last day here for my friend Bryan, who is returning to Shreveport.  He is a great guy and I wish him the best on all of his future endeavors.  I also met a pretty neat guy named Gary.  Gary was a horse jockey for years and raced at several race tracks across the country.  He obtained a spinal cord injury after crashing on his horse during a race.  He is a really neat guy and full of a lot of energy.  It was neat to talk to him because I love watching the horse races.  He, as well as the rest of the SCI-Step patients, are such an inspiration to me.  I will continue my therapy tomorrow.  I am crossing my fingers that it doesn’t snow!!!  Thanks for the continued amount of thoughts, prayers, and support…  God Bless!!!

Matt C 

I continued my therapy today at SCI-Step.  It was again snowing today in Mason, Ohio.  I am so sick of all of the snow…  It seems to snow about everyday here.  I was a little sore this morning from Monday’s workout.  I was excited to get back to therapy today and continue with my progression.

My day started off at SCI-Step with me on the treadmill.  We worked on taking strides using one leg at a time.  Doing this I try to engage my hip flexors, which pulls my leg forward.  We did this for quite awhile and it seemed to go great.  After walking I then went to the mat where we stretched.  My legs were tight today and after stretching it seemed to release some of the tone.  After this I then met up with James, where we did some upper body exercises.  We started doing pull ups or chin ups first.  We then would work on doing some bicep curls.  We alternated back and forth with these two exercises.  The pull ups were pretty tough and I can definitely feel them in my arms tonight.  We did numerous sets of those two.  I then worked on doing some back exercises.  The back exercises are great because my lower back isn’t nearly as strong as I would like it to be.  This will also help my posture as well.  I finished up my day on the FES Bike.  I rode it for an hour and broke a nice sweat.

We got a lot of work done today in the amount of time that we had.  I can tell that my upper body is getting stronger with each and every day.  My lower back muscles are also starting to get stronger.  I will continue my therapy tomorrow at noon.  I look forward to getting back to work tomorrow.  Thanks for all of the thoughts, prayers, and support!

Matt C

After a long slow weekend, it was now time to get back to continuing my therapy.  My weekend went great and was very laid back.  It was very cold all weekend.  It even snowed a little bit more this weekend.  I am so tired of all of the snow… I want some sunshine!  I got to sleep in a little bit this morning because my therapy started at 12:30.

My day started off with me doing some upper body exercises.  I started off on the bench where I did around 12 sets of bench press and about 15 reps per set.  No, that is not a typo…  I did 12 sets!!!  My arms felt like jello after lifting.  I worked out with James at first and we also did several tricep presses.  I was pretty exhausted after doing this and it was only 45 minutes into my week.  After this Liz came and got me and we went over to the mat where I did some crunches to work my abs out.  We also got in some stretching exercises for my legs.  My legs were very tight today after not working out all weekend.  Liz and I did this for awhile before getting into my leg braces.  With my braces on, I worked on taking steps with the walker.  My legs didn’t want to cooperate with me as I first started taking steps.  However, after walking a bit my legs began to loosen’ up and I took some quality steps.  I walked the rest of the day in the braces.  It was a really good workout to start off my week.  My arms are extremely tired from the upper body workout.  I now know that I need to get in a little bit better shape with my upper body. 

I want to thank all of you for all of the kind and motivating comments regarding the Spin Cycle Stationary Bike.  I can’t wait to get on it again because I know that I will do a lot better and be more controlled.  My therapy will continue tomorrow at 9:30 in the morning.  I am excited about getting back to work.  Thanks again for all of the thoughts, prayers, and support.  God Bless!!!

Matt C         

Today I had a very busy day of therapy.  It was also very encouraging as I did some new things that I haven’t been able to do in the past.  I will get to that later.  Snow covered all of Mason area this morning as we drove to SCI-Step. 

I had a very long day of therapy today.  I arrived at 9:30 in the morning and didn’t leave until 4 in the afternoon.  My day started off on the treadmill with Liz and James.  It was a great way to wake up and start the morning!  They both said that they could feel me pulling my leg forward while I was taking steps.  This was very encouraging to hear and motivated me to keep trying to take better steps.  After this I then went over to the mat to get stretched out.  I love it when I get stretched because it releases a lot of my tone.  After stretching I then tried something new.  I got on a spin cycle exercise bike.  This bike doesn’t have any type of motor, where as I do all of the pedaling.  This is the same type of bike that you see in your local gym.  I got on a spin cycle once in the past at Project Walk with my trainer Jerry.  I really couldn’t do much on it while I was at Project Walk.  Well as I got on it this morning it was very difficult at first.  I really didn’t know what I was doing.  James would have to help me get some momentum to get started.  However, after a few minutes I was then pedaling on my own and started to get it down.  I got a pretty good speed up while pedaling.  This was awesome because I was doing all of the work.  I rode this bike for about 45 minutes.  Towards the last minute I really pushed hard and my speed picked up drastically.  I was pouring with sweat after riding this bike.  After riding the bike I then went over to the mat to work on some core exercises.  We did quite a few of crunches and lower back exercises.  After this we then used the powder board to work on triggering my hip flexors.  Here I would try to bring my knee towards my chest while laying on my side.  We worked on various exercises on the powder board.  I then got in the Parastep FES System to work on some walking.  This also went great as I took some good steps.  I also continued to try to maintain good posture while walking.  After walking for awhile I then got a massage from the massage therapist.  This was the best feeling in the world.  With my muscles being tight, this relaxed my muscles.  I felt like a new man after this.  This is the first massage I have ever had.  It definitely won’t be my last…!  I then wrapped up my day this afternoon on the FES Bicycle.  I rode this for an hour and it went very well.  This was an awesome day of therapy and as I arrived back at the apartment, I took me a long nap!

My mom filmed me while I was riding the spin cycle bike.  I wanted to share it with all of you…  It isn’t long, but it is pretty neat to see me pedaling.  I placed it on my youtube channel…  Here is a direct link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edBiJdrsfOU.  I have had a great past week of therapy here at SCI-Step.  I feel like I have accomplished quite a bit in the limited amount of time that we have had.  I am also going to be staying next week for an extra week of therapy.  I am very excited about staying and getting to build upon my progress.  Thanks for all of the support.  I am very thankful to have some of the most wonderful people in the world by my side as I continue my recovery.  Thanks again and God Bless!!!

Matt C   

The snow finally stopped and I was able to attend my therapy session at SCI-Step today.  I was still pretty sore in my upper body when I woke today.  I also had a lot of spasms in my legs this morning.  They were bouncing around everywhere as I headed to SCI-Step.  I think the main reason for my tone being so bad was the weather… I mean it was a very warm 8 degrees outside. 

My day started off on the mat as Kevin stretched me and tried to release some of the tone.  The tone started to settle down a bit.  We then put on my braces and were going to walk with the walker.  We also incorporated a harness hooked to the ceiling so that it would help with my stability.  In the past I have taken steps any particular way possible.  This would consist of me leaning forward and not having proper form.  Claire always used to get on to me about these bad habits.  Well today I did my best to try to correct these bad habits and am starting a new resolution to have perfect form.  With the harness, it allowed me to feel safe and not worry about falling.  I then would try to stay vertically straight taking one step at a time.  I concentrated going heel to toe, heel to toe, etc…  Doing this I would take a step with my right foot and try to make my heel land at the edge of my toe on my left foot and vice versa.  Both Matt and Kevin pointed out that this was the perfect stride for me.  I walked for quite a long time today.  I walked for roughly an hour before sitting down.  My endurance has vastly increased since getting my braces months ago.  I felt like I achieved a lot today by walking with proper form.  It was a lot tougher doing it this way, but it looked a lot better.  After this we then took off the braces and worked on standing with the walker.  Kevin would lock my knees as I stood up.  My hip flexors were really fighting me, which made this difficult.  I felt like I was being pushed backwards by someone.  We pushed through the tone and stood up for a bit.  I then tried something new today.  I tried out the VitaGlide, which is a device that is used to get the heart rate up.  It is kind of like a hand cycle, but uses a motion that isn’t as grueling on your shoulders.  I went at this device for about 20 minutes.  Doing this will help my endurance.  My last part of the day consisted of an acupuncture session.  Many of you know that needles and I haven’t always been the best of friends.  A very awesome lady named Anne, who has a T6 spinal cord injury and is one of the creators of SCI-Step along with Michelle and Matt, walked or wheeled me in to the acupuncture room and told the physician to take it easy on me…  Thanks Anne!!!  Well I gave it a shot and it was pretty cool.  I had a whole lot of tiny needles stuck in my back, legs, and hands.  Then I had some sort of laser device go over my scar.  It was a pretty neat process.  This lasted for quite awhile and I got in a short nap.  I finally woke up as our session ended and was sent back into the cold to our apartment. 

I talked to my friend Claire, my therapist at Kennedy Krieger Institute, this afternoon and told her how I was starting to have proper form in my braces… She was very excited to hear the news.  I also told her how sore I was and she didn’t have any sympathy for me at all…!  It was really great to hear from her and I can’t wait to see her in the future.  It has been snowing all throughout the night here in Mason, Ohio.  I am hoping we have therapy tomorrow, but it isn’t looking likely.  My mom and I are going to stay for another week of therapy.  We feel like it would be best to get some more work in before we head home.  I am excited to continue with some more grueling workouts that really challenge me.  I am very happy with SCI-Step and there work ethic during this past week.  They are working extremely hard to help me get where I want to be.  It is also very inspiring to see all of the other patients push through the pain and make amazing progress… They are all remarkable individuals.  I will continue to keep you up to date on all of my progress…  Thanks for all of the thoughts, prayers, and support! 

God Bless,

Matt C