So next week I travel to Houston Texas to complete my driving evaluation again. I have gained a lot of strength in my arms but not enough to be able to use the steering wheel mechanism that I was trying the first time I went to Houston for my driving evaluation back in March. I am excited to start this chapter of my life so that I am going to be able to drive myself to my doctors appointment and just be able to get out of the house without having to find someone to drive me. I thought I would give you a look at everything that a quadriplegic needs to pack in order to go on a three day trip five hours away from home.
​
Must Haves:
-Three suits of clothes
-Two extra suits of clothes.
-Minimum of eighteen catheters
-Minimum of six urine bags
-Gloves
-Wipes
-Medicine
-Minimum of twelve chucks
-Shoes
-Gaitbelt
-Pillow
-Blanket
-Minimum two pairs of socks
-Chair charger
-Cushion pump
-Makeup
-Hair brush
-Minimum of two ponytails
-Toothbrush
-Toothpaste
-Deodorant
-Purse (Wallet, keys, etc.)
-Extra phone charger
-Bra
-Shampoo/conditioner

Just Because:
-Tablet with charger
-Contacts

Often times I blog about the things going on in my life that’s hard or sad. I don’t write about the amazing things going on in my life. We often focus on the bad when you should be focusing on the good. It’s human nature, don’t feel too bad. It’s a habit that has to be pushed out and replaced with a good habit. I’m still working on focusing on the good and letting the bad go. As Florida Georgia Line sings, “Whatever will be will be.”
​This week something amazing happened and I want to focus on that instead of the few days this week that went horribly wrong. Tuesday Numotion came to pick up my chair and bring me a loaner. They would take it back to the office to install new parts that were thankfully almost all covered under warranty. They would bring it back Wednesday and be able to program the standing function too. Finally! Let’s just say the loaner chair was too big for me and I had some crazy adventures, I’ll probably tell you guys at a later date but I’m focusing on the positive at the moment.
Wednesday afternoon came along after a very long day with the loaner chair and Joel pulls into my driveway with my chair strapped into the bed of his truck. Yes, you read that correctly. A truck. I come out and show him where we’re going to be and they put me in the chair, very well I might add, and now it’s time to stand. Yay!
It was 2014 the last time I stood in my standing frame. It was dangerous for me with only my mom to put me in it so I stopped before I got hurt. That’s four years without putting weight on my bones. I figured that my blood pressure would bottom out and drive me nuts but it didn’t. I usually have terrible blood pressure issues, light-headed, dizziness, tingling all over, my vision goes completely white. It can be a scary thing, and usually by the time that my vision for completely goes white I am begging to be taken out. This time everything went smoothly and I had no side effects from the shift in position. It was amazing!
My uncle Mike was there, and mind you it is been ten years since he has seen my standing. I honestly thought that he was going to cry! It's so wonderful after all of the tragedy that my family has been through throughout the years to see happy tears. There are family members who have never seen my standing, mostly because they were not alive when my accident happened.
It felt so good to be back on my feet after so long on my butt. I had forgotten just how tall I am. My body is used to a sitting position all the time so my hip flexor muscles are very right so I have to stand ten minutes a day to get my body use to it. My feet have to get used to the pressure of all my weight again too. So I stand every day again like a person in my situation is supposed too. I'm planning on doing a weight-bearing video and blog soon. My body needs time to get used to it first.
Every week I write a quote on my mini fridge to help give me inspiration and this week I chose one that really hit home because of all of the bad things happening this week. I'm choosing to focus on the things that went right.
”Stop being afraid of what can go wrong. Start being excited about what can go right.”