Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Another day of Productivity

It is almost 8pm now, I just finished a few games of Foosball after dinner, or "Baby Foot" as they call it in France. I suck, let's just leave it at that. Had it been bubble hockey, then we would have a totally different story. Wow I am too competitive. At least that was the impression my teammate/ 70 year old man gave me when I yelled at him for not playing good enough defense.

Alright, moving on. So this morning I was up and ready to rock at 5am, when the nurse came for a blood sample. I could hear her going from room to room. As much as I hoped this unwanted visitor would pass by my room by mistake, she eventually came knocking at 6am. I said "why do I need a blood test, I am here to strengthen my knee." Apparently it is just protocol.....

So with breakfast at 8am, I knew it would not be bacon and eggs or anything like that, though I was hoping for something other than a baguette and jam, but that is exactly what it was. Fine no problem, I was shocked when I was 8 years old at the French breakfast, but now, it was just wishful thinking for something different. Maybe tomorrow?

Apparently every Tuesday there is a meeting at 9am, so my first activity of the day started at 11am with the strength training for my leg. They had me all hooked up to a machine with a computer, it was really cool, the only problem was that there was a bit too much discomfort in the movements that were to be performed, so that will have to wait for another day. But we did work on some static holds for 40 seconds with about 45lbs, and those were very good for my quad muscles.

From there was lunch, no highlights to speak of, so at 1pm I was in the pool, performing most of the same movements I did yesterday, except this time there was some resistance attached to my ankle. This was ok, and as soon as I was finish I went right back to the gym again, for some more extensive quad training for 1 hour. Then finally finishing off with physio at then end of the day, where I was hooked up to some electric stimulation, connected to a computer showing my strength output. On the screen there was a pattern that showed where I had to control my leg contraction. Starting off at 40%, then moving up to 65%, up to 100% then back to 65% and 45%, forcing me to control every movement, and connect neurally.

Since the treatment ends at 4pm, I retreated to my room for a couple of hours and read a book my parents got me, though it was not the book I had requested ;)

The doctor stopped by, as they do on all Tuesdays, and wanted to see how things were progressing. I was pretty happy with this part, because it shows that they are staying on top of things. Then it was dinner time, we were having soup, roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Not really much else to say, the roast beef was looking a bit weird, kind of greenish, I did not eat it as I was a bit worried about getting sick or some sort of disease. Though this one old man insisted it was fine. For some reason I did not trust his judgment, and I promise, it had nothing to do with him having only one leg.

I started writing this entry a few hours ago, but the France vs. Bosnia soccer game was on, so I watched it with one of the other guys here, as he invited me to have a drink and watch the game. By that I was assuming just some orange juice or coke or something, since we do not have many options for drinks here. Then he pulls out this bottle of whiskey that his girlfriend brought him. hahaha

Bedtime, tomorrow will be my longest/best day!

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