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My Weekly Journal – 07/9/19 Through 08/03/19
Monday, July 29, Through Sunday, August 4 – I got so much done this week, it felt as if I had 30 hours in each day, and had eight days in the week. I guess that’s one of life’s mysteries that none of us will ever be able to fully understand. Why can we get so much done one week and then feel that we get nothing done another? It’s been just over a month since my ninth Spinraza injection, which was actually my fifth maintenance dose. I’ve only had a few days during this month where I felt a little bit weak. Overall, my energy level and strength have been terrific.
When I went for my workout with Emily on Thursday, we had to go through my reevaluation. Every four weeks, we go through these re-evaluations just to take measurements and to check on my progress. My insurance company contacted Emily and told her that they no longer needed the measurements on my knees. They said they weren’t seeing enough improvement.Even though the insurance company stated that they didn’t need these measurements, we still continue to work on the range of motion and flexibility in my legs, just to make sure that I don’t lose any of the range of motion that I’ve gained over the past few months. When we were taking my measurements, she went ahead and took the measurements to see how much of a negative degree bend I had in my legs Surprisingly, I received some excellent numbers. My reevaluation scores are in the test results section of my website. Click HERE if you would like to see these results.The reevaluation process only took about 20 minutes, so we spent the remaining time working on my core strengthening exercises. Everything went as planned, until we got to the point where I was going to be doing my crunches with the resistance band. Normally, Emily will take the blue resistance band and sit behind me. She then takes the resistance band and places it around my chest, and my job is to lean forward while she applies resistance. Instead of grabbing the blue resistance band, Emily grabbed the black resistance band. The black resistance band is the band with the most resistance. I stared at her with a questionable look on my face, but she just smiled and told me to give it my best shot.After leaning forward and feeling her pullback on the resistance band, I slowly came back up into position and began leaning forward. You really don’t know how much improvement you’re getting until you’re forced to do something new. As I leaned forward, I was pleasantly surprised in my ability to do this without much difficulty. I performed two sets of 30 reps. I wanted to do another rep of 30, but Emily told me that we better stop to make sure that I didn’t overdo anything. She said when we do this exercise in two weeks, we would increase it to two reps of 40, and then eventually to three.The thing about Emily is that she takes things slow with regards to my progression. There are times when I want to go full speed ahead, but Emily is there to get me to a more manageable rate.Next week, we’ll work on my usual range of motion and flexibility exercises. Emily is also in the process of writing her next article for the SMA News Today HCP website. If you look at my pictures, you’ll see two of the ones that will be featured in this article. We are working on stretching the muscle that’s in my hip, to make it more comfortable for me. Let’s face it, if you sit as many hours as I do, your muscles tend to get tight. In the article that Emily is writing, she talks about how important it is to do these types of exercises.When I do my next video, I’ll answer a question that I’ve been wanting to address for some time. A few of you have written me emails asking me why I’m not an Ambassador for Biogen. I was very hesitant to answer this question because of certain circumstances that I’ll explain in my video next week.I’ve updated the flash briefings that I do for BioNews Services. Click HERE to go to the flash briefings.I hope that all of you had a fantastic week. Do something for yourself this upcoming week that will make you a better person. God bless you and I’ll see you next week. -
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