Before I begin this post I have to make it known that I am typing this entry, in full, with my laptop in my lap, using both my left and right hand and with a timer running. I am doing this in place of my New Year’s resolution of typing my OT, Vicky Whalen, one email a week with the my stopwatch’s time featured in bold at the bottom. So, that’s what the random bold type will stand for at the bottom of of this entry, and the posts to come.

I don’t know how many of you use the app Timehop, but I’ve done a blog post about it before and you can learn exactly how it works by clicking the link in this sentence. Anyways, while perusing my past social media posts, via Timehop, on Monday last week, 1/16/17, I was humbled to find that I had posted the video below, from now slightly over three years ago, my first time standing on my own with no hands OR any assistance from anyone else, on pretty much every social media account I have!

https://www.instagram.com/p/jPozgCmW5P/

With the thought of me accomplishing such a milestone in my #slowlybutsurelyTBI recovery process I started thinking about what the most recent milestone that I’d accomplished might have been and/or what the next one can be. I, of course, then started thinking of how awesome it was that I can now pedal around on a trike that I’m fortunate enough to call my own. BUT, my cycling skills are definitely not up to the quality that they very well could be. Because of seeing my standing video though, it encouraged my brain and body to ride with their upmost precision…for a TBI survivor that is. During my ride on Thursday (1/26) my mom, dad and nephew Tyler were all nice enough to accompany me by walking along side me as I pedaled. There were quite a few things to highlight while on this family outing of a ride/stroll around our neighborhood!:

1. My left arm’s flexor tone never felt the need to kick-in and pull my left hand off of the left handle bar…even though it had insisted on doing so on every late afternoon ride prior.

2. On top of my left arm’s flexor tone not making itself known, neither did my leg’s extensor tone. I was mostly surprised that neither of my hemiplegic extremities’ tone had made themselves known due to the fact that I had an audience, of sorts, following me around and spectating my every move. I say that because when I’ve been in the spotlight in the past my first sign of nervousness came out in said tone in both of my left extremities.

3. After getting to the end of our first lap I asked everyone if they’d be willing to go around for a second lap, and they thankfully said yes! The second lap went just as smoothly as the first one and I could have pushed my luck on a third one, but figured it would be best to call it quits after my first go at two laps. Upon me getting back to our starting point (our house) I stopped my Strava cycling tracker and was MUCH more than happy to see that my first go at two laps around our neighborhood was just a mere 1 minute and 41 seconds added onto my, then, triking record of 15 minutes 45 seconds for just ONE lap!

With all of the above accomplishments having been achieved after just my Trike Ride #4, I can only assume that the recovery process via my trike will not exactly follow my recovery hashtag and soon to be new recovery blog’s new primary URL, #slowlybutsurelyTBI. 🙂

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPtNqdkgvk2/?taken-by=amacchio

⏱ = 1:35:46