... Upon further review of the ALL the details,

... I'm going to TRY this new exercise-/workout-location/regime.
I'll go there TWICE a week, and I'll see my NORMAL/CURRENT trainer ONCE a week.

(... Since my legs don't exactly "WORK", I guess it's worth a TRY.)

Progress-observation:

... Over my last couple Physical Therapy "sessions", I've noticed that it's become EASIER to lift/move/step with my INJURED/WEAK/LEFY foot.
YAY!

(I apologize that my foot movement-progress/improvement can't really be QUANTIFIED.  So, y'all readers are just gonna have to "take my word for it".)

I've ALSO noticed my "stepping-ease/improvement" during my morning WALKS--with my walker--EVERY DAY.


MORAL: I'm IMPROVING!

I'm making an EXECUTIVE-decision.

So, this afternoon I stretched my WEAKER, INJURED LEFT shoulder with my Trainer.  THEN, my trainer and I traveled to a fitness-center/"gym" to investigate a POTENTIAL, new, additional workout-regimen/routine.

There were some GREAT machines and activities/exercises there. But, I "interpreted" the POTENTIALLY NEW trainer's "presentation" as a "CRITICISM" of my CURRENT "Physical Therapy" and workout-routine.


CONCLUSION: I'm SURE the trainer MEANT well, but based on our meeting, I think I'll "PASS". (My schedule is busy enough AS IS! PLUS, I've been making some GREAT PROGRESS recently with my WALKING!)
I like my CURRENT schedule & "progress-pace".

DOUBLE-TIME!

During my last Speech Therapy session, I ATE (I fed myself--WITHOUT ANY ASSISTANCE--via fork-to-mouth "food-transfers".) some grilled chicken and spaghetti-noodles.
The texture/consistency of the food was GREAT! But, UNFORTUNATELY, I was STILL UNABLE to TASTE ANYTHING. ( :( )
... WHILE I ate, I constructed words in my Scrabble game against my Speech Therapist. (I ended up winning.)


OH,YEAH! Also, I had to "twirl" the spaghetti-noodles around my fork to get bite-sized portions. So, it was REALLY like "Speech Therapy" PLUS "Occupational Therapy".
So, I guess it was more like TRIPLE-time!
(... "Alliteration aside."--'Dodgeball')



(... CLARIFICATION: "Work" with my HANDS is more "OCCUPATIONAL Therapy". "Work" with my LEGS is more "PHYSICAL Therapy".)

"It's a celebration, (FEMALE DOGS)!"

... --Dave Chappelle 1) My family and friends came to my house to celebrate my brother's birthday. 2) I ATE--VIA MOUTH--UNASSISTED--some of the dinner: hamloaf, roasted potatoes, asparagus.   (ALAS!  I STILL couldn't TASTE anything!  But, the texture/consistency of the food made the "routine" fun.)   MORAL: KEEP TRYING!

Start STRONG.

I began my morning with an exercise. While lying flat on my back in bed, I lifted my legs ~six inches  up above my bed. SIMULTANEOUSLY, , I lifted my back ~a foot above my bed. (I held my limbs up in the air for extended amounts of time.) (My lengths of time that I held my limbs UP were as follows: 120 seconds, 90 seconds, 90 seconds, 60 seconds, 60 seconds, 60 seconds.  (So, THAT adds up to 120 + 90 + 90 + 60 + 60 + 60 = 480 seconds = eight minutes of abdominal-"work".   GOO STUFF!

AGAIN, I must quote.

...  "HOPE is a good thing ... maybe the BEST of things."(--'Shawshank Redemption') ... I "HOPE" I can walk again!  I have been making ENCOURAGING progress in my Physical Therapy!  That progress, coupled with my notable improvements in leg-strength in my training-workouts, "PUNCTUATES" my will, perseverance and determination.   BUT, my ultimate-goal (walking--ALONE/UNASSISTED) has not YET been achieved. ("No rest for the weary.") "People should DREAM.  Unless you dream, you can't be SUCCESSFUL."(--Fatih Terim, coach of the TOP Turkish soccer team, Galatasaray) ... I DREAM of walking.   Ergo, according to Coach Terim, I CAN turn that DREAM into a REALITY! (... I "DIG" his "philosophy"/"outlook on life".)

"There are two sides to every coin."

... GOOD    In my Physical Therapy, I'm "walking"--WITH leaning-help from my walker--FARTHER/"GREATER DISTANCES". BAD   ... However,  longer time walking = greater chance of my left/INJURED leg "acting up". ... Ergo, I walked--OUTSIDE--down the street--on the sidewalk--pretty FAR, until my left, INJURED leg became EXHAUSTED.  Then, I sat down in my chair.  After a brief rest, I turned my MOTORIIZED wheelchair around,stood up, PARTIALLY leaned on my walker and WALKED ~halfway-back. So, my TOTAL-WALKING distance was ~230 feet.

HOW/WHY do I remember this?!

...  "Here come I, aTurkish knight.  I come from a Turkish land to fight.  I will fight this man with courage bold.  If his blood is hot, I'll make it cold." (That's ROUGHLY the quote from Thomas Hardy's 'Return of the Native'.)  ANSWER: The quote "rings true" for/to me, 'cuz I'm Turkish, ... AND I KNOW--thanks to my two black belts in Karate, one brown belt in jiu jitsu and four years of high school wrestling--I KNOW I can "handle myself" in a "physical confrontation/skirmish". P.S. If ANY of "my readers" can do ANYTHING about the IOC's recent RIDICULOUS, LUDICROUS, UNJUST removal of "wrestling" as an "official Olympic sport", PLEASE do. THANKS.

What a KEEN observation!

... My girlfriend--who's in nursing school (Ergo, her MEDICAL opinion bears some credence.)--INSIGHTFULLY noted to me that my tendency to tilt my head to MY RIGHT MAY BE an unfortunate result of my accident.  (I flew out of my car and landed on the LEFT side of my HEAD/BODY.) Ergo, I am more comfortable with my head tilted ~15 degrees to MY RIGHT.  As a math-ENTHUSIAST, I'm PERPLEXED (Dare I say that I'm DUMBFOUNDED?!) as to why I couldn't/didn't "put two and two together", and come to that conclusion MYSELF! Moral: BRAVO to MY GIRL! ('My Girl' = GOOD movie.)

... FURTHER MENTAL "work":

...  380 SECONDS / 99 "bombs"  =  (calculator-noise) ON AVERAGE, I solve for one "bomb" every  3.88 SECONDS. (I like math ... A LOT!)

Six minutes and 20 seconds!

... I just beat the "Expert"-level of "Minesweeper" in 380 seconds!  That's my BEST time that I can remember!  (Granted, my memory's a bit "spotty", but I USUALLY "time out" in ~400 or ~500 seconds.)   (Yes, this is part of my rehabilitation, because it's MENTAL exercise for my "Traumatic Brain-Injury".) Continued MENTAL "work":  380 seconds = 6.33 (repeating) minutes = 6 1/3 minutes

GOOD start!

... I began the day with one of my BETTER, more-BALANCED waker-assisted WALKS from my bed to my chair in the bathroom to brush my teeth.   THEN, I VERY SPEEDILY/EXPEDITIOUSLY put on my shirt--BY MYSELF.    (OVERALL, it was VERY ENCOURAGING!)

I feel the SAME way!

...  "My body has a mind of its own! IT DOESN'T LOSTEN TO ME!" (--'The Bone Collector'--who's ALSO handicapped/disabled, but still VERY SMART) (... I didn't mean that to seem condescending or arrogant.)

... "MY BAD!"

... The CORRECT spelling of my eye-disorder is "nystagmus".  JEEZ!  I "don't know my ASS from A HOLE IN THE GROUND"!

She CONCURS.

... My Speech Therapist agrees with me! After feeding MYSELF A BUNCH of grilled chicken ... and SOME french fries, I remarked, "I think my SELF-feeding is improving."   Her response: "You DEFINITELY ARE!"  Conclusion: YAY for me!

YET ANTOHER "obstacle" to overcome:

I am WEIRD.   OH!  Need I say more?!  ... In addition to my inability to PROPERLY use my legs AND most of the LEFT side of my body, I developed "astigmatism", when I was just a child.   "Astigmatism is an optical defect in which vision is blurred due to the inability of the optics of the eye to focus a point object into a sharp focused image on the retina."(--Wikipedia)    MOST astigmatism-sufferers are born with the AILMENT.  But, ALAS, I'm an anomaly.   I developed "astigmatism" from MOCKING my younger brother, when we were watching television as children. After some years, I guess the joke ended up being "ON ME"!   (Bro, if you're reading: "Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery."  (SINGLE tear) (I've GOTTA joke.) Since my accident, my physician told me that my vision has actually IMPROVED!   (I guess that SOME senses COMPENSATE for the loss of another.)   (... RELATED: BOTH my girlfriend and my mother have HALF-complimented, HALF-annoyed complimented my NOW "supersonic hearing".)   (I apologize for the delay.  I JUST heard my girlfriend dropped a needle in the dining room.)

"Go, go Gadget-ARM!"

... --'Inspector Gadget'  Sometimes I get ITCHES on body parts I can't reach (my LEFT ankle, certain spots on my upper back, etc.).  So, I'm in a bit of an AWKWARD, FRUSTRATING position.  I COULD just ring my bell to get my caregiver to help me.   BUT, in an effort to be more INDEPENDENT, I use my knowledge of ANGLES (Thank you, tenth grade Trigonometry-Honors.) and my flexibility (Thank you, 20 years of Karate-training.) to maneuver my body into positions in which I may relieve myself of the itching-sensation. (THIS PROCESS is ESPECIALLY DIFFICULT, because--ESSENTIALLY-I have only ONE "good", healthy arm.) ALAS, I make do.   (I have a remote-control for my bed that controls the inclination/declination of my bed.  So, that CERTAINLY helps.) (For those who didn't know, "trigonometry" is, roughly, "the study of ANGLES".)