My second important body renewing and cleansing detox-program is physiotherapy. The most important detox program is naturally mental and spiritual growth. In 35 years I have gone a long way also in regard to physiotherapy, although I have considered the spiritual aspect as more important.
The starting point was miserable as doctors and therapists said to me over 30 years ago that I can expect some kind of recovery of my body functions during the coming ten years, but it is rather unlikely that any remarkable recovery takes place after that.
Once I said to my speech therapist that I would like to study Russian language. My therapist thought that the very idea was completely unrealistic. She thought that the fact alone that Russian has 9 different variations of S-phoneme and I couldn’t even say S in my mother tongue made it absurd.
So I did not begin to study Russian. I studied Chinese, and it just happened that I became a translator for Chinese language, although Chinese has at least as many variations of S-phoneme as Russian.
I am happy that all forecasts of doctors have turned out to be false. Some years ago I read medical reports written about me over 30 years ago. As a matter of fact the doctors had documented in my papers that I have unrealistic thoughts, which – in their minds – was an indication that I didn’t understand how serious my situation was.
I would say now that a smart person understands to keep silent when he doesn’t know. They couldn’t see what was reality and what was an interpretation of the reality created by their own minds.
The starting point in physiotherapy was difficult for me because of a permanent muscle tension (spasticity) so that I couldn’t even exercise my muscles in a way that I would have become out of breath.
Spasticity never goes away, doctors said, but one can learn to live with it. I have learnt to live with my spastic paralysis. For the most part the muscle tension has released. To my mind it means that the spasticity has loosen it’s grip, has gone away.
In physiotherapy we have used different kind of fitness equipment besides mat gym exercises and massage. In the first years as a handicapped person as I had a permanent address and my only challenge was to master my everyday life it was easy to keep the equipment in program.
As I went abroad to study and lived ten years more or less out of a suitcase physiotherapy fell by the wayside. It was my own choice.
Mental and spiritual growth has been more important for me than physical performance, and I am grateful that I have been able to set the goals of my rehabilitation according to that preference. Everybody should set their rehabilitation goals in accordance with own likings and starting point.
I have no reason to regret my decisions, but sometimes I play with the thought what would my life have possibly become, if I had chosen the recovery of my physical mobility as the first priority like e.g. the freestyle skier Pekka Hyysalo, who was severely injured in a ski accident and who spent two years after the crash a skiing holiday in Switzerland.
I am happy that my current life situation allows me to make the physical rehabilitation my first priority. During the past ten years I have got a nice collection of fitness equipment in my home, which boost the blood (energy) circulation, improve oxygen uptake, relax, increase muscle strength and improve body control.
See also:
Videos:
Pekka Hyysalo
FightBack – my recovery from traumatic brain injury