foot drop

Yesterday I went to Wards Island. It was a beautiful day. Our adventures started out right away, since of course we got on the wrong ferry, (perhaps our excitement of me being able to breathe and do these things, left our brains a bit frazzled) as we stepped off the boat on to center island instead of wards, and did not realize it, until a South Korean family was telling the Canadians where they were haha. We eventually got it figured out, but not before we had lunch with the South Korean family. A couple and their son invited us to have lunch with them. The parents could not speak any english, but their son was over studying english from South Korea, and they were visiting him. Humour transcends language barriers most definitely, as this little Korean woman was sooo funny and loved to laugh.

On center island I sat on a swing for the first time in years...and I pumped my legs...and I breathed through my nose as I did it, back and forth, back and forth. Perhaps I need to go back and do all the child hood things that I could never do, or never appreciated 15 years ago when I was doing them....running on the beach, swinging on swings...next up....building sand castles? three legged races?
It sure felt wonderful as I pumped my legs back and forth, back and forth, and did it all without breaking out into a wind tunnel of gasping air through my mouth, or an oxygen deprived headache....no I just sat there pumping my legs, feeling the air whooshing past me for the first time in years...just like I did when I was younger before CF took my lungs on a permanent vacation. They always say children know a secret...that kindergarten children laugh the most times a day out of everyone....perhaps they know the secret...Perhaps it takes doing childlike things again to appreciate the gift I've been given.

This is a photo I took at Wards Island...which is a bit like stumbling upon a hidden munchkin other world/land with all the quaint cottages....It was so neat. This photo is looking back at the city...cool how it's in the clouds. I miss my cottage.

As for my health, the breathing is still going beautifully. I blew my highest lung function to date this morning on my home spirometer, 1.76 liters. I found out today at physio that I have something called 'foot drop' which is why I keep clomping my feet along....walking in general funny and using my hips instead of my feet to walk, which is also probably why my hips have been aching, since I'm compensating for the lack of feet walking. I'm not sure whether this foot drop is caused by medicine, since it seems to have developed in the last few weeks, or whether is is nerve damage from the surgery...I'm hoping it's medicine induced and can therefore be fixed quicker. The strengthening exercises the physio gave to me are killer...really, really hard to do as my foot feels disconnected from my legs...so to make them work is a huge effort....but whats one more little bump in the road, as long as these lungs keep being able to swing!

I leave you with a photo of me at Cherry beach, where they have the best chip truck in the world! (hamburgers are pretty good too!)