Attitude is Altitude

Attitude is altitude

Hi to all my amazing supporters,

This is my first post to my modified Blog Spot and snippets will be posted on Facebook with a link for those who would like to read more.

I’m sitting at my work station on my perching stool which is a stand stool aiding in strengthening my core muscles, writing this post.

Where am I at you may ask.

Well since my hospital stay of nine days close on three months ago now, I have been rather challenged. I left hospital celebrating my discharge as it was rather a harrowing stay I must say and I was left rather weak following the event.

I have always had an element of weakness in my lower back, hip and leg on the left side of my body after the minor strokes that struck me while in the Coma for three weeks. However I had slowly but steadily been making some good gains prior to my hospital stay. I had been managing to walk up to 30 minutes and slightly longer on the treadmill walking at point eight of a kilometre. Sure I was aided by my upper body strength but my legs were keeping up well.

After gaining strength again following the stay in hospital, I ventured back onto the Treadmill and I could hardly sustain 10 minutes which challenged me both physically and mentally.

A good deal of my issues with weakness seemed to be stemming from having cold legs and feet along with areas on my feet and ankles in particular which were swollen after exiting hospital. The Acupuncturist I had been receiving treatment from for close on 2 years, put together an action plan recruit the voluntary help of some very kind and committed folks who attend The Kings Arms church in Trentham Upper Hutt. They truly have extended the Kings Arms to me, one person coming once a day to do massage work on my legs from the knees down and feet in particular. Loosing up incredibly tight muscles and helping to reduce my swollen ankles. This project has now been in operation for close on 5 weeks and what a dramatic improvement has taken place within my legs and feet but right across my body within that time frame. Flexibility and mobility are returning but it hasn’t been without its challenges to keeping the attitude up beat.

The pain and discomfort which was becoming a thing of the past prior to my hospitalisation returned with vengeance and that took some managing I tell you. Having been free from major pain and discomfort for some time and then having it return brought back many old mind sets and the dream of returning to my feet started to slip as much as I fought it. I needed my strength just to get through each day and I had to shelve the dream for a while and that was an incredibly hard thing to do. Why another setback I screamed from within, what have I done to deserve this, can I find more potential hidden deep within, where are you Master of the universe, why did you allow this.

My body played up so crazily during these past few months, stuff that would horrify me in my old life and does rattle my brain going through it even on this wild adventure.

During this phase of my journey, a very special lady crossed my pathway who has been a source of great encouragement and inspiration she herself being a survivor from Cancer. There have been many encouraging words spoken from the team that work on my feet to those that keep in contact via my technology and those that support me on a daily basis.

I decided close on four weeks ago that I would make an appointment with the Physiotherapist who helped extensively when we were training on the tandem for the Lake Taupo cycle challenge. I wanted to get a handle on what the extra weakness issue in the left side of my body related too and how I could manage it and start to make some further gains strengthening that area.

Meeting with her was a very positive experience and I received some great feedback as to the best way I should approach exercising to strengthen the areas of concern. However she was concerned that there was a possibility I may have had another minor stroke. This turned out not to be the case after an appointment with my doctor. So now I have specific exercises I am focusing on at home separate from my workouts in The GYM to help strengthen my sit to stand muscles and to help lessen up ankles and deep abdominal muscles. Phil has been a bit guilty in the past of focusing on new exercises to intently and pushing my body to the limit. With the sit to stand exercises, I park up in front of a wall bar in my studio which is set just below waist height, feet flat to the floor and facing straight forward, one hand on the wall bar to help pull me up and the other on the arm rest of my chair to help lift me until my leg muscles kick in and  the body does the rest of that function correctly. I am slowly making  gains with this exercise, if my body is slightly off the chair I can raise myself reasonably well. Once completely seated, the initial lift is hard work. This is a case of both strengthening core sit to stand muscles and retraining due to muscle memory loss from the trauma of Meningitis.

A good friend from the Kings Arms church has joined me in reading through the book of Psalms which I will have completed by the end of this week. This has been a great habit to form as I must confess I haven’t been a daily reader in the past. The journeys of the writers of this book from the Bible has been an interesting experience reading and comparing their journey to mine, God has seems very close at times and seemingly nowhere to be found at other times. However feelings come and go and we can rest assured that His promises are totally true and they can be relied on one hundred percent1)

Phil needed some more refining work done these past few months on the inside so his attitude could cause him to have alsotitude, rising on the shoulders of the Master Curator who walks on stormy seas and raises us to be more than we could ever be.

Kind regards,

Phil Thorn

"To achieve great things, you not only need to act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe"  

"One should never creep, when one is compelled to soar"