"It's dangerous to go alone. Take this!"

Occupational therapy was probably the most frustrating rehab class for me.  This "class," for lack of a better word, was designed to reteach us the basic life skills that were now much harder.  It was in class that I practiced vacuuming, shopping, cooking, sweeping, GETTING DRESSED!  That last one was probably the most frustrating thing of all.  Most people take it for granted.  Hold the pants out, step in to them one leg at a time, pull them up, button, go.  What if you couldn't move your legs? What if you couldn't move your waist? What if you had to literally everything with your hands, arms, and shoulders.

I didn't actually master that skill until after I was home.  Necessity is the mother of invention right? Well, the way that I figured out to do it was to do it lying down on the bed, sit up, and kind of pull my knees up into a jack-knifed position.  Then, with my pants lying out on the bed, I place my feet into them and then pull the leg up over my knee.  Then, I'm able to pull them all they way up.  I generally have to roll from side to side a few times to make sure my underwear isn't all bunched up... I can't exactly feel that it's uncomfortable, but I remember that it should be, so I make sure they're not.

Wheelchair class... that was a blast.  I'll be one of the first to say that today's world is not wheelchair friendly.  At all.  More than once I've needed to get into a store or down a step and I'm able to pop a wheel and go up or down the step.  Basically, this class was intended to teach us how to cope with an unfriendly environment.  What if we were on an upstairs level, by ourselves, and the elevator is out? I could get down.  What if there are no power doors? I can open them.  What if the terrain is uneven? I can navigate it.

The best part of that class, other than the wheelies, was Go Ball.  It was a great game that inspired team work and was just plain fun.  The idea was that we used a duct tape wrapped Nerf football and passed it to each team member before we could attempt to score.  Scoring involved hitting a floor mat that had been attached to the wall.  We weren't supposed to grab on to the chairs of the opposing team... but that really didn't stop us.  We played some kind of game every Friday, it was almost always Go Ball.