The Path to Walking

Today was a momentous day.

During morning PT, Bridget's therapist encouraged her to try side-stepping around the mat without her harness attached. She did OK, and was surprised that it really wasn't any harder than with the harness attached. Her therapist then encouraged her to try walking over to a chair across the room, with her and one side Bridget and me on the other side for support.

And so Bridget was suddenly walking across the room, supporting all of her own weight! When she got to the chair it was a really emotional moment for her. She was really happy and also pretty surprised, and started crying tears of joy. It was a huge leap forward in her walking ability, and she said it felt so much like walking on her own, and she has been so worried deep down that she might never walk again. But this is hard evidence that she is closer to walking again that she thought. It all happened so fast, and I think that neither of us was expecting that to happen today (though I suspect her therapist knew she was ready for it).

After that she did some more walking down the hallways with our help. Such a super fantastic thing to see after all these weeks! She was pretty beat after this, and slept all afternoon in between her afternoon sessions.

This is a huge improvement in so many ways! It made us both very happy all day :)