ADAPT Advanced - Day 1

As I hinted at before, I have a week of intensive therapy planned here in Portland. Today was day one of my therapy at ADAPT Advanced where I'll be learning lots of new things about my body and exhausting myself in order to advance beyond my current state. 

I woke up early this morning after the first night in my old bed at my parents house and headed out for a walk in my old neighborhood. My second family lives down the street from my parents, so I started the two block walk and made it half way there before one of my extra sisters pulled over to let me know she was headed out for an appointment by I might catch a few other family members at home. I love the reaction when I ring the doorbell and see the delight on someone's face at our reunion. Last night I had the same experience when I surprised the Stephens family, some of the most important people in my life. This morning, my second momma answered her door and welcomed me in for a few minutes with the youngest two siblings. I shared a short visit catching up with them before Momma Logan chastised me for bailing on teaching her son next year. Eleven years ago, I decided I wanted to be the English teacher at Faith Bible when Jamison was just a kid and from that point on I was looking forward to teaching him someday. God had different plans, and Momma Logan knows they are better for me even though they involve some difficult things like not getting to teach Jamison and having a long road of recovery.

After spending time at the Logans, I walked home ready for my first ADAPT Advanced therapy session. My mom dropped me off, and I met Kandice who showed me around the facility I'll be spending a lot of time in this week. After a few minutes, we got to work on a therapy table where Kandice assessed my mobility and compensation patterns.

"This week is going to be a lot of fun," she kept telling me. My mobility is far beyond what experts would expect based on the location of my injury. She also noticed and explained that the tension in my feet and calves is a positive sign that holds hope for my future progress. Most of today's appointment was allowing Kandice to see what I could do in order to plan what we'll do the rest of the week. Even so, I finished the two hours worn out and ready for some relaxation.

My brother from another mother picked me up from ADAPT, and we headed out to the best coffee shop in Oregon. Beach trips with Givorgy are one of my favorite things. Since this was our first trip in almost two years, we found the 2013 Bella Espresso guestbook to reread our epic cliffhanger story in order to write a new page in this year's guestbook. I'm slower these days though so when we finally left Bella to head to the Cannon Beach Insomnia location we discovered it had already closed for the evening. Good thing there are two locations in Hillsboro!

I'm not able to walk on the beach right now, and that was one of the biggest disappointments to me of this trip. I can pretty much do anything else at a slower pace, but I haven't yet conquered sand. Givorgy was totally understanding and just drove me along the coast and pulled off for a quick selfie with Haystack Rock in the background (since I'm regularly told I don't post enough pictures here).

I'm so grateful for the progresses I've seen and looking for more this week. Kandice says my feet are going to be her special project. Join with me in asking for and expecting good things.