A few weeks ago I fibbed a little

Thank you for more than just the photos Larry

Last night's Facebook status,,,,,,

The highlight of my day was NOT that I ran a quarter-mile in Prospect Park. Not that I ran back. Then I thought the highlight was seeing the face of a woman who was totally blind who ran for the first time.

The highlight of my day was drinking a can of beer without a straw

Photos and blog post later

A few weeks ago I posted that I ran and it brought me to tears. Not so much. Three weeks ago I got new ankle-foot orthotics. The ones that I have been walking with for the past nine months were rigid at the ankle. Without them, I was very likely to trip over my own toes when I walked because I have severe foot drop. My ankles don't really get the messages from my brain keep my toes up when I walk. But now I have a little muscle control below the knees and I had new orthotics that have a little hinge in them. That means I can land on my heel and push off my toe when I walk. That's called running. I did that a little in the physical therapy gym. But the orthotics didn't fit right and had to be remade. I got them back on Wednesday. I posted that I cried when I ran, but not so much I got a little choked up when I entered my Facebook status. On Thursday evening I got to take these properly fitting orthotics out for a test drive.

The sign in my gym this week

I met my new friends from Achilles Brooklyn and walked over to Prospect Park. I think I'm a unique member of Achilles because sometimes I'm a guide and sometimes I'm an athlete. Last Thursday I spent the afternoon at the Brooklyn Museum with my daughter,so I didn't think I want to do too much walking in the evening, I showed up in my electric chair, and helped I keeping an eye on three Seeing Eye dogs while their bosses ran a loop of the park. I'm anything but a dog person, but it was an honor to keep an eye on these animals. It was interesting to see how they behaved as they realized they were off-duty. Two just wanted to take a nap, the third wanted to chase squirrels and hump other two. But yesterday I just wanted to be an athlete, and Larry and Gail were very happy to help me.

So I told Larry and Gail that I wanted to walk over to one of the quarter-mile marks in Prospect Park. Then I wanted to stop using the cane and run to the next quarter mile mark. I did know how this would go so in my mind I was ready to get the cane back at any moment. But I made it all the way to the next quarter-mile mark without even needing a break. Six minutes and 40 seconds, three minutes faster than when I did it with the cane. Gail continued her loop of the park, then Larry stayed with me as I ran back. This time closer to six minutes. But who's counting.

Larry and I waited for the other Achilles athletes to make it back. I hope this doesn't embarrass one of our new athletes.... But when I saw the expression on Hope's face when she stopped running and was told she just ran 3 1/3 miles, the loop Prospect Park. You see, Hope is blind, and this was the first time she ran. When she finished I cried for her. I know what a wonderful feeling it is to run. It must be also a great feeling to trust someone enough could run in a public park.
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I don't have cancer. I don't have an army of people trying to cure me. Two things are going to bring me back. Time and exercise.

Just watched the first few seconds of the commercial below. The guy in the red sweater. "You took away my running"  

I got my running back. 

FUCK YOU Guillain-Barre Syndrome, FUCK YOU chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, FUCK YOU acute motor axonal neuropathy. I'm still here!