Right after leaving Baltimore, my dad and I drove up to Worcester, MA to help Sophia move out of her freshman dorm. She officially finished her first year at College of the Holy Cross! We're so proud of her for making so many strides up in MA. She's made a great group of friends on campus and seems to enjoy her Psych classes. Of course, Sophia and I love any and all chances to move around once school is out, so we spent a few days with family in Connecticut as we made our way back down to New York.
Crazy exciting news once I got back home... Last year, I submitted a grant to the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) to obtain a running leg. When I showed up at A Step Ahead, I thought I was only getting my new foot/ankle/knee as planned, but Erik and his team surprised me by already having my running leg set up!!! It was AWESOME. I spent many hours with the A Step Ahead team practicing taking fast steps, jogs, leaps, and then 'runs' in the parking lot. The foot is so bouncy!!! It was emotional, too. I had not run in 14 years, since I was 6 years old. Besides skiing and swimming, I wasn't used to moving at a much faster pace than walking. It was thrilling and exhilarating. I have a bunch of new exercises to try to build up my core and maintain my ankle. I get tired really quickly, but they say it's just a matter of building up endurance, since my body isn't used to working those muscles at that kind of physical activity level. I trust the process, and just have to be patient. It will come! Little by little, I want to get there. My dad got me a new pair of running sneakers later that day, so we're off to a good start. :) Then we headed out to Frackville, PA. One of the things Sophia and I look forward to most every summer is staying at our family's house in Frackville. When my grandparents moved to NYC after WWII, both of their big families remained in PA. We have tons of cousins there. Summer is the best time to take trips to Heisler's Dairy Bar for the freshest ice cream and most beautiful mini golf course overlooking countless fields, Knoebel's Amusement and Water Park, Hometown Farmer's Market, and basically every ice cream shop I find. There's always something going on when so much family is in the area. Plus, I found lots of terrain in the woods to practice using my running leg. Chugging through lots of water bottles, but making progress! I make Sophia run with me; even when she looks annoyed, I think she enjoys it LOL. When we got back to NYC, I signed up for an Ossur Running and Mobility Clinic, hosted by CAF. Ossur is the prosthetics company that supplies all the running legs that CAF distributes through grants. They host running/mobility clinics all around the country, so I was eager to sign up for the annual one in Harlem. So happy that I went! There were tons of amputees with/without running legs -- kids, teens, young adults, adults. Each amputee was paired with a volunteer; mine was a great DPT student from Columbia University. We split into teams, and some awesome Ossur/CAF staff led us in drills on the field, pacing through cones, working on arm position, doing some criss-cross foot work for diligence, widening the angles of our sound limb to make bigger steps, etc. The CAF staff, Ossur prosthetists and volunteers were motivating and guiding us every step of the way. Made lots of improvements. (Although, I have to improve my running backwards skills for the obstacle course they made us do hehe.) I even ran into Travis Ricks, who is my co-counselor at the Amputee Coalition of America Youth Camp, and works for CAF. The day was just SO MUCH FUN. It also happened to be Sophia's 19th birthday. :) And now, I am all moved into Boston for the summer. Very excited and grateful to be set up where I am... big ventures ahead this summer!
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