This week I went for my second hands-on experience at Project Walk and my first official appointment. No more assessments, this was the real deal, a standard two hour appointment.

After my assessment last week, they told me to check my skin to make sure I didn’t injure it in any way. Good thing they told me this — I had skidded on my left elbow, leaving it raw, unbeknownst to me. Luckily I checked, as they told me to, and luckily I heal fast. But I had to baby my elbow when I went in for Round Two of working out this week.

Instead of going on my knees and elbows like I did during my assessment, we focused on moving my hip muscles, glutes and quadriceps. This was done while I lay on an elevated table as the therapist flicked the largest muscle area of the limb we’re trying to move, trying to activate a spasm.

In some cases it actually seemed to do … something good. I started to get some strange feedback in my right hip. Every time the therapist asked me to move my right leg, he held my leg and guided it as I tried to move it over and over again. He felt the same muscle in my right hip respond continuously.

This is certainly not enough movement to ever be considered useful enough to help me walk one day, but it’s hard to deny the cool factor.

And then he called for a lift, and before I knew it I was being transferred into my wheelchair once again, and next I was put on another machine that allowed me to stand at various angles. And here comes the best part — it allowed me to squat. It felt great, but something annoying kept happening — my right leg kept sliding out of his grip.

Unbeknownst to me, when I was 20 I had a heterotopic ossification (bone growing in soft tissue) and lost range of motion in my right thigh because of it. Frustrated I couldn’t put my legs in a cross-legged position anymore, something I did nightly, I forced it and snapped my femur in two. When my femur healed, it was 1.5 inches shorter. The therapist and I troubleshot this problem by putting a wrist weight under my foot, but the darn thing still kept sliding out of his grip (we need to work on a better solution).

It feels so good to move my body so much again. I think that is what I’m taking away the most so far. It’s hard to remember our physical needs when we become paralyzed, and it seems Project walk is helping me remember how good it feels to move.