Water Baby

Wednesday 29th July
I woke up a lot better than yesterday,no spasms overnight. Well rested I was planning to have an easy morning as the pool trip was not until 1:30. This was all tossed out the window when they came in at 9 to tell me that I had an Xray of my kidneys at 10.This was just a routine one to look at my kidneys now that I am self catheterizing. I hadn't showered or done bowel care, so it was a mad rush to get all my morning prep done before they came to collect me. But the orderly didn't come for me until 11... It was a bit of a rush to get ready to go to Moorong after Xray.
It didn't really matter because there was still a group using the pool when we did arrive so we had a look around Moorong before hitting the water. There were people playing tennis on the courts next to the buildings. We then went indoors to have a look at the rooms. They were similar to the hospital, but had that a more like home feel to them. The Gym was amazing, and each patient has their own physio working with them and they do two sessions each day.




It was then back down to the pool where the last class was just finishing. To get us into the pool they had a hydraulic lift with a seat on the arm so they can lower you into the water.



The first feeling was my legs suddenly floating, it took a few seconds to get used to it but I was soon floating around the pool with some safety floaties with Alex and Victoria close by. They then did some standing exercises with me, locking my knees in and getting me to roll my hips forward locking my whole body upright, once again took a few goes to get right but it worked well after that.




I then was allowed a bit of time to float around to get used to how the body works in the water. I was able to swim breast stroke around the pool with ease, though when you get to shallow water I had to roll onto my back because my legs would hang behind me on the pool floor preventing me from lifting my head(sort of dragging me down). I then thought well if I can do all this, how about I try some freestyle swimming. It was pretty easy. The trick is to get up some speed and your legs get streamlined up behind your body and you can move along rather well, but I need to work on my technique I think.



Hosing down after the swim session


I got home from the pool and crashed, it took a lot of energy out of me, I actually fell asleep halfway through writing this blog entry. Was a good day and great that Dad was able to check out the place with me. He also did a grand job on the camera.
Stu