lac@alice.UucP (Linda Clark) (01/11/86)
Hi Netfriends! Due to overwhelming demand (Thanks Albert, Tom and Bob) via the net and email and phone conversations, I am finally getting around to filling you in on my bionic adventures. I had thought on and off about posting another article, but wasn't sure if there was sufficient interest (or enough people still around who remembered the first articles). Thanks for convincing me otherwise! I am doing ok in the bionic arena. The key word still seems to be SLOW - which makes it a little hard. I started therapy in October at Children's Specialized Hospital in my hometown of Mountainside. (I've been an outpatient there for years, was also once an inpatient about a year after my accident - and it's 5 minutes from home.) I'm going two afternoons a week - each time for 1/2 hour in the pool and 45 minutes on the mat. I also have stuff to work on at home. There's been some improvement in strength and endurance, but when things change at a real slow pace sometimes it's hard to see. We did a video soon after I started and did an update this week, so I was able to see that there really has been some improvement in strength as well as loosening of tight muscles (after sitting around for 20 years things like hip, hamstrings and shoulders get REAL tight...). As much as I tried to be realistic beforehand, I think I expected too much too soon. After all, these muscles have had 20 years to sit around - I shouldn't expect overnight changes. But I'm certainly not throwing in the towel, 'cause there's too much at stake and there's lots of people praying. As my good friend keeps reminding me - no pain, no gain!! :-) Thanks for your good wishes and continued interest! Feel free to send mail anytime for an update. I'll try to be better about posting updates here. I'm hangin in there! Linda (Bionic) Clark (201-582-4807) AT&T Bell Labs Murray Hill, NJ 07974