Standing is my favorite

After my awesome physio session Friday, I asked the PTs what I could do over the weekend with no scheduled therapy to continue to help my legs. They suggested standing for fifteen to twenty minutes twice a day and offered to bring one of the standing machines up to my station. Later that day, I wheeled through my station common space to see the standing machine waiting for me.

I was so excited to have the nurses secure me up Saturday morning, and I told them to come get me in twenty minutes. I was set up facing the window, watching the soccer field in the France (which is still strange to wrap my head around while I stand in Switzerland) and loving every minute. I was left alone to survey the world before me unaware and unbothered by the patients and nurses behind me. All that was before me was the glorious sunshine; the nurses were supposedly within shouting distance, but I didn't even care. I wanted to stay standing all day.

The sensation of being upright at my full height is wonderful, particularly after being eye to bellybutton with the world for two months. I felt great and loved knowing my feet were receiving critical information about the correct position and my knees were also remembering what holding my weight felt like.

Twenty minutes went by, and I felt a little tired and sweaty but wasn't ready to give up the hight just yet. Nurses kept coming by and commenting on how great it looked to see me standing; one came by at twenty minutes, and I told her I wanted three more minutes.

Unfortunately, two minutes later, my body decided it was done. I started to feel a little light headed and called to ask for help to sit down. A nurse acknowledged me, but wasn't in a hurry; my cry wasn't frantic, just a calm request. However, within twenty seconds my hearing went hollow, an indication to my body I was ready to pass out soon. "Jetzt," I called, still calm. "Now." Sweat soon covered my body in a thin sheen. "Jetzt," I said with a little more conviction before I broke into a steady stream of repeating the German word for now, lacking the vocabulary to articulate, "I'm light headed, sweating profusely, and going to black out in about ten seconds."

The nurses broke into quick action at the second "Jetzt," and I was quickly surrounded by three French nurses unable to speak English but more than able to catch the body signals that I was almost losing consciousness. One ran to get orange juice with sugar while another got the blood sugar kit and still a third grabbed a bowl for me to throw up in when she heard me dry heave on my way from the standing to sitting position. Within minutes, I was completely fine, albeit completely exhausted.

Later in the day, after my midday rest, I asked to get back into the standing machine. The nurse who held the bowl for me to vomit into stared at me dubiously, but I insisted - only ten minutes. The second time went without a hitch, and I didn't push my limits. Today I made it for fifteen minutes (though I only got to do it one time). It was a glorious fifteen minutes, and I spent the whole time grinning like an idiot, giddy to be upright.

I'm hopeful that the PTs are right in the assumption that more information to the feet will decrease the leg tremors. They were reasonable yesterday but downright annoying this evening. Please keep praying they will decrease as my time upright increases. Praise the Lord also that I have heard from insurance that I am approved to stay at REHAB Basel until May 1.