I have recently graduated from physio. I completed all of the exercises and stretches to strengthen my legs and encourage me to walk again. At first it was really hard but I think that means it is working! Now, I have Super Sarah, a fully qualified personal trainer, to help me keep my strength up!

To the first appointment, I appeared in my mobility scooter filled with nerves and dreading what would happen next. I showed the physio what I couldn’t now do and she conducted a thorough interview to see what she was up against. This was when something miraculous happened…

I have this weird feeling of massive discomfort when people touch my feet. I cannot describe how much I hate it. Every doctor/nurse that I have seen recently wants to touch my left foot in particular and it makes me shiver and Super Sarah giggle every time. So when the physio did her examination and I didn’t notice that she touched my feet, we knew that we could trust her.

Super Sarah has come to every appointment that I have had so it went without saying that she was accompanying me to my physio appointments. The physio had no issues with this and actually made sure that Super Sarah got involved with my at home exercises. Sounds fantastic right? Well it was until this happened…

I was lying on my front on the physio bed trying to bend my left leg at the knee. Due to the spasticity in my leg, which causes some extreme stiffness, my leg was not budging. The physio’s trick to stimulate muscles is to rub ice on the affected area, great news for me! So there I was lying on my front trying to bend my leg at the knee having ice rubbed on my thigh when the physio said to Super Sarah “You should do this at home, it will help”!

Can you believe it??! Right there, the physio gave Super Sarah permission to rub ice on me! I couldn’t believe it!

That aside, the physio helped me a lot. She allowed me the opportunity to try the FES system that I have told you all so much about. She convinced me to use a Delta Walker – this is sort of like a zimmer but with wheels on the bottom. It offers extra support as I had to learn to trust my left leg again. Up to this point, I was convinced that my left leg was trying to kill me!

My ego was not happy with this suggestion though and I was really reluctant to use it. Our first outing was to Starbucks at Ocean Terminal. As soon as I stepped into the centre, I felt everyone’s eyes on me. I felt so self conscious, it was horrible. I know that in reality, no-one was paying any attention to me however at that moment, I felt every eye in the centre burn into my skin.

The physio had also given me a temporary splint, a piece of plastic that hugged my lower leg and foot to keep my foot level so that it would stop tripping me up. It was on this journey that I got my first blister in years!

The pain was astonishing, I had completely forgotten this cruel pain and it completely diverted my attention from the fact that I had walked to Starbucks for the first time in such a long time. The temporary splint, or as I called it, my fake foot, had a lip of plastic running up the inside of my foot which caused some rubbing, creating this horrible blister! The physio did offer various other fake feet for me to try but they just caused blisters in different places, I really need one that fitted my foot. I will go into this in more detail another time but this blister made week 2 and 3 of physio very hard!

So off I went with the Delta Walker and after a few outings, my reluctance started to fade away. My ego was quieting down as my pride grew. I walked with a more upright and confident posture, I was starting to get the hang of this walking lark!

The physio kept putting me through weeks of grueling exercises (I am exaggerating) until at week 7 she said that there was nothing left for her to teach me. I was gutted!! I loved physio! I could see the massive difference that she had helped me to make, the huge improvement in my walking and posture.

My physio was fantastic, I trusted her completely. She transformed the way that I walk and it boosted my confidence tenfold. I have hit a bit of a bump since and I will need to pick up my skills again after a recent ear infection, but she has armed me with the knowledge that I need to build up my strength again.