9 Years Past My Shelf Life

(three)

So I basically had to start over on some things. Like teaching parts of my body how to move again.

And which side was left and which side was right.

That afternoon, we were working my legs. Trying to make them go again. I’d sit on the side of the therapy table and look down at my legs. As I’d make each one lift, I’d have to think very specifically that I was lifting my right leg. I had to think very specifically that I was lifting my left leg. It really helped to look at them as I was doing this, as it helped me orient where they were on my body.

Rewiring the nervous system.

At one point, I was laying on my stomach on the table, trying to work my hamstrings to get my lower legs to lift off the table. I’d look over my shoulder as I specifically told my body to lift my right leg. And I’d look over my shoulder as I specifically told my body to lift my left leg.

And nothing.

It was so frustrating. I could make both lift up if I did them together. But I couldn’t get them to go separately.

I was so perplexed as to how it just didn’t want to work right.

Then I realized that as I was looking over my right shoulder, I was thinking left. And when I was looking over my left shoulder, I was thinking right.

I was just orienting my body in reverse because I was looking at the back of me, and not the front. I saw left over my right shoulder and right over my left shoulder.

Once I got my thoughts and my wires running the same way, things started to progress.

The central nervous system is a mysterious and fickle beastie.