31

Exciting things have been happening in physical therapy lately.  Taking the muscle relaxers once a day has really helped ease the problems I was having with popping and crunching in my fusion area, allowing me to make better progress in my workouts.  

In our continuing efforts to improve the quality of my walking, ensuring I don't lean so heavily on my arms, we made the transition from standing and walking with my walker to standing and eventually walking with a pair of four-legged canes.  The canes force me to keep all my weight in my legs, since they are not designed for support, but only to aid in balance.  Initially, with so much more of the work being done by my legs, my walking distance was very very short, about 8 feet on the first try.  But with additional practice to strengthen the muscles that keep my knees from buckling, I've been able to slowly extend that distance.  Now, after about two weeks of working with the canes, I was able to walk 31 feet without resting. 

On Monday I have my next follow-up with the oncology team.  They will be doing blood work, which if I understand correctly, can help them look for certain markers that might indicate whether my cancer is growing or spreading.  Hopefully we will again find that there are no changes there, and just keep monitoring while I continue to do so well in therapy.