Finding My Feet

Chapter Six

"So you're ready to do this?" My mom asks.
"Yes. And you know you have to stay here right?" I carefully climb into the wheelchair that she's holding for me.
"Yes, of course," she nods. "I'll take note of the things they do and perhaps we could do some at home."
She wheels me up the ramp and into the doors of the rehabilitation center where a middle aged woman greets us.
"Hi there," she smiles. "I'm guessing you're Amber. And you must be?"
"Helen," my mom shakes the woman's hand.
"I'm Jennifer. I'm your instructor. Believe it or not, I was once in a wheelchair for almost four years. And look where I am now," she grins, gesturing for us to follow her and we do. "All I ask, is that you don't give up after today just because you can't walk after only one session. It doesn't work like that. It takes weeks, months, even up to five years to get only walking right."
"Uh, yeah, of course. I didn't expect to walk after today anyway," I shrug.
We get to a room with mirrors on all four walls and Jennifer takes my wheelchair from my mom and locks it into place in the middle of the room.
"Onto the floor you get," she smiles.
I scrunch my eyebrows at her before flopping out of the wheelchair and onto the floor.
Jennifer helps me get into a sitting upright position.
"Alright so we'll begin with some leg stretches," she tells us. "You should do this at home as well if you want it to work a little bit faster."
I nod and she nudges me down onto my back and lifts my legs, bending them at the knees and bringing it towards my chest.
"Can you feel that?" She asks.
"I can only feel my stomach scrunching and my back stretching," I say truthfully.
Jennifer nods, putting my legs straight again and then bringing them back up.
"You're very stiff. How long haven't you walked for?" Jennifer asks.
"I would say about seven months," my mom replies, sitting on my wheelchair.
"Why did you wait so long?" Jennifer inquires.
"I didn't want to get better at first," I answer. "I missed a very big dance competition which was supposed to get me into varsity. Nothing seemed important enough to start walking again."
She nods, laying my legs straight and putting pressure on my knees.
"Can you feel that?" I shake my head. "Alright. Do you want to try the pool or not?"
"Uhm, sure," I say.
My mom and Jennifer then help me back into the wheelchair and wheel me back through the door and into another room.
"Here are costumes, don't worry they're clean. Just get your size and get your mom to help you into it and I'll be through this door," Jennifer says and walks out.
I look towards the rack of costumes. They're plain black, full body costumes. I search through them and find my size and my mom and I struggle to get me out of my clothes and into the costume, but we finally manage.
"It's actually cold in here," I murmur.
"I'm sure the pool will be warm," my mom assures me.
She wheels me into the room. It has a large pool in the middle of it and a couple of chairs all around.
"Alright, get in," Jennifer claps her hands.
She's in the pool already, wearing a plain red full body costume.
My mom helps me onto the first step and I sit on it, waiting for Jennifer to tell me what to do.
"I want you to hold onto the sides and just try stand, the water will keep you afloat but it sort of teaches you how to stand again," she tells me.
I push myself over the edge of the step and grip the side of the pool as I see no surface under my feet.
"Just push yourself onto the ground basically," Jennifer says and my feet fumble around as I push myself deep into the water.
"Can you feel anything?" She asks.
"I can feel the bottom of my feet but that's it," I shrug.
"Try moving your legs and feet around?" She suggests.
I will my legs to move but nothing happens. I decide to just swish my hips around.
"You'll get there, don't worry," Jennifer says. "What we'll do, when you start moving your legs, is we're gonna put you in leg braces and you'll use crutches. They'll keep your legs upright and then you won't need to use the wheelchair anymore. They are very bulky though so I suggest taking time off from school at first to get used to them."
"I won't fall? Like even if I can't feel some places of my legs?" I ask, still moving my hips around.
"They come up to your waist so you won't bend the wrong way or anything, don't stress. They keep your legs stiff though and apply pressure at just the right places to let you move," she explains. "Normally you can have leg braces about a month, month and a half after starting this because that's when most people start feeling their legs from all the stretches and the swimming that we do."
"So you're saying like after next month, I can basically stand again," I smile.
"Well yeah, stand and sort of shuffle around," Jennifer shrugs. "But it takes a lot more to start running and jumping and in your case, dancing, again. After the leg braces, you'll either go into knee braces or a waist brace depending on where you can move the most. With all that, you still use the crutches. After that, only crutches. After that either one or no crutches anymore."
"Wow," I say. "Mom, please can I come here everyday?"
My mom purses her lips, looking at Jennifer.
"I don't mind. I don't train any other people so of course," she tells us.
"Oh my god, yes," I grin, pumping my hands into the air and realizing last minute that I have to hold onto the side to stand.
I submerge from under the water, gripping the sides of the pool hard, getting myself upright and coughing loudly.
"That was stupid," I blush, my throat burning.