-
My Weekly Journal – 12/24 Through 12/30
Monday, December 24, Through Sunday, December 30 – It seems funny that the days leading up to Christmas seem to go by so quickly. One minute you’re frantically running around shopping for the last-minute gifts, then, what took you days and even weeks to find, are opened up in just a matter of minutes. While I got some nice gifts for Christmas, spending time with family and friends means far more to me then any gift that I had to unwrap. Being around people who have known you all of your life and that truly understand who you are, is a feeling that cannot be replicated or duplicated in any way shape or form.In my video last week, I said that I was going to take a week off so that I could relax and spend time with family and friends during the Christmas holiday season. With this being said, and while I’m not going to be doing a video for Sunday, December 30, I did want to update my journal so that those of you that do read it, can keep up with what’s happening in my life. My job with BioNews Services is definitely keeping me busy, and now that I’m their Multimedia Director, along with being their Forums Director, my plate is definitely full, but I love every minute of it. I’m using this time to record some podcasts and some Flash Briefings so that I can have them ready to go in preparation for 2019. For a long time, I tried finding a job where I could work from home and make enough money so that I could not only plan for the future, but also take care of some important needs that needed to be taking care of in my life. By the grace of God, I began working for BioNews Services, and this company has not only taken care of me, they’ve removed the weights on my shoulders that I was feeling with regards to some of the financial decisions that I had to make. To say that I’m a lucky guy would be an understatement, and I’m trying to not only give them a quality product, I’m getting to use some of the managerial techniques that I learned in college. The most important managerial technique that I use is to treat others as I would have them treat myself. Working for large companies, throughout my career, I learned more from managers who had no idea how to manage. I saw how they treated their employees, as if they were nothing more than chattel, and by learning from their mistakes, hopefully, I bring a managerial technique that others will not only respond to, but also look up to. I’m not saying that I’m the best person in the world, because God knows that I do have many faults, but I have found that if you treat people with respect, you will also receive respect.I normally do all my workouts with Laura on Tuesdays, but this week and next week, I’m going to do my workouts with her on Thursdays due to the Christmas and New Year’s schedule. When I went to do my workout with Laura on Thursday, she transferred me out of my chair and onto the therapy table with the assistance of her physical therapy assistant, Emily. The first thing that I did, was sit on the edge of the therapy table with my feet supported for about 15 minutes. The week before last, while sitting unassisted, Laura began shaking the table testing my balance. This went really well, so this week, Laura sat behind me and started pushing me forward, backward and to my left and right testing my balance. By Laura sitting behind me, I had no idea what she was going to do, so this really tested my abdominal muscles and my balance. She would push me forward with her hands, all while being close enough to catch me if I lost my balance. Pushing me forward and to my left and right were not as difficult as I thought, but when she would pull me backwards, toward her, this really tested the muscles in my back, neck and abdominals. Overall, I did pretty well. I only lost my balance a few times, but we were both pleased with the results. After working on my balance, Laura and Emily laid me down on my back and we began working on the range of motion and flexing exercises on my legs, knees and ankles. Laura mentioned that the swelling in my ankles was not as severe this week as it was last week, so she was able to flex my feet back up toward my body at a greater degree than she did during my reevaluation. After doing this, she remeasured the amount of negative degrees in my ankles and my results were slightly better this week than they were last week. We did find out that the negative degree bend in my legs were not as good with me laying down as they were with me sitting up in my wheelchair. She did this just to get an idea on my flexibility, and we should know more in three weeks when I go through my next reevaluation. The only problem that I encountered this week was in the muscle in my neck. After doing a few neck exercises in bed one evening, I noticed that the muscles in my neck were extremely weak. This weakness persisted for about four days, and I was starting to get concerned that my neck muscle was actually getting weaker. On Thursday morning, when I woke up, the muscle in my neck was back to normal. Another reason why I became quite concerned about my neck muscle, was that on Wednesday, I went to Best Buy to purchase new speakers for my computer. After rolling down the ramp in my van, the sidewalk was angled to the left, and I wasn’t expecting this degree of tilt. I felt my body leaning to the left, so to correct this, I turned sharply to the left thinking that it would throw my body back into my wheelchair so that I could regain my balance. Unfortunately, this didn’t work and if it wasn’t for my seatbelt, I would’ve fallen out of my wheelchair. Luckily, my caregiver was only about 15 seconds away from me, and he quickly came over and pushed me back into a seated position. Wednesday was a very depressing day for me because with all of the improvements that I made during my physical therapy, having an incident like this happen to me, really jarred my enthusiasm. When I told Laura about what happened to me, she told me that I probably overworked this muscle while doing these exercises while laying in bed and that the muscle just needed to rest. Like I said earlier in my journal entry, the muscle in my neck regained all of its strength on Thursday, and I felt fine for the rest of the week. I always preach about keeping a smile on your face and having a positive attitude, but this really tested me and I found it difficult to take the advice that I’ve been giving to each and every one of you. Thursday was one of those days that rejuvenated my enthusiasm, and I now know that I’m going to hit bumps in the road along the way and I just have to understand that this is just going to be a part of my life that I have to deal with.While I didn’t post a video this week, I did upload two new podcasts to my SoundCloud account.Podcast #15 – in this podcast, I discussed whether or not Spinraza should be considered a cure or a treatment. The word cure is being tossed around regarding Biogen’s drug Spinraza. In my opinion, this word is being passed around to quickly and to easily, and those of us that are on active treatment with Spinraza, need to understand the differences between these two words, In my podcast, I give my opinion as to what I believe Spinraza should be considered. Click HERE to listen to this podcast.Podcast #16 – in this podcast, I discussed a topic that is very important in my life. While I never try to preach my Christianity to any of my subscribers or followers, my belief in God is a subject that I’m not afraid to talk about. Growing up in a Christian household, taught me the importance of my faith and while I don’t necessarily talk about it on my YouTube channel or my other social media and multimedia accounts, it’s still a subject that I put first in my life. I had something that happened to me not too long ago that caused me to think about my faith, and I wanted to share this story with you so that you could fully understand why I believe in God and his son, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This podcast is not meant to push my religion on anybody that decides to listen to it, but please understand that my faith will always come first in my life and that everything else must take a backseat with regards to importance. Click HERE to listen to this podcastI hope that each and every one of you that are reading my journal had a Merry Christmas. I hope that 2019 brings you and your family great love, prosperity and faith. My next video will be available on Sunday, January 6, and I look forward to bringing all of you positive news and great hope for the upcoming year. God bless each and every one of you and I’ll see you in 2019. -
0 Replies
Sorry, there were no replies found.
Log in to reply.