Taking a walk

Yesterday I got a chance to go and see Ariel. She was in a substantial amount of pain but doing well. She was very nervous about PT and wanted me to stick around. I tried to help get her focused on what the PT was asking her to do. We started with flexing the feet and then onto lifting the knee on the bed. We all kept cheering her on and she started feeling some pain. I decided to start talking about my experience in the Aqua aerobics class and got her tickled. Before we knew it she had her knee all the way up and was giggling at the thought of me in the Grandma and Grandpa pool working out. We then moved onto food and talking about all things containing sugar. Before we knew it she was sitting on the edge of the bed and talking through the pain about chocolate chip cookies. Once we got her on the edge of the bed (she had a quivering lip just thinking about sitting up while waiting for the PT to arrive) We looked her dead in the eye and told her "You have come this far and didn't think you would so let's stand up" She accepted the challenge and by the time we were done with therapy she had lifted herself, with help, off of the bed 3 times, stood for 4 minutes while they changed the bedsheets, and took about 6-8 steps across the room and sat in a chair to eat. I was beaming with pride for her. She did amazing. We just had to keep her talking about food, lol. The PT told us that their goal for day 2 was standing and walking and she just blew through it on day one. They were impressed. It just amazes me that someone can have their spine worked on and in 24 hours be standing up and walking across the room. The human body is incredible.