Pool Time!!! Finally...

Summer has arrived!

We've had our pool open for a couple of weeks now but with our days of late being filled with one thunderstorm after another it was starting to feel like the poor thing might never see use this year; we would get an hour or mayyybe two of shockingly hot sun before an instantaneous storm would appear and in an instant it would be dark outside with flashes of lightning and of some of the LOUDEST thunder cracks I have ever heard in my lifetime! But finally, for the past few days we've had mostly dry days with just a few thunder/lightning drizzles and have been able to get in a few good 'swims'...

We've had a pool for probably close to 20 years now and our pool never suffers lack of use. I seriously LOVE being in the water and spend hours upon hours swimming, so the past few years have been hard with not being physically able to swim. After replacing our old pool last year I did get a few times in the water but it was not an easy deal with my body still deeply stuck in its annoying bout with GBS. I needed help on the stairs getting in, I needed full supervision while in the water, I needed help getting out and getting wrapped in a towel and I needed to be held standing upright while shaking violently from the chill of the water that everyone else found a little too warm... then I needed help walking my uncontrollably shuddering body inside to a hot shower and change of clothes. Still, I was elated at having been in the water again! So this year, with my nerves slowly healing and my body having a lot more feeling back, I was hoping beyond hope that the pool ordeal would prove to be much easier...

We have always kept our pool set at heat to 82°, cool enough to be refreshing but not cold enough to have to either carefully inch or breathlessly plunge into... until Fall hits and then we turn it up to 90° and above to stretch the season out as long as possible and always have propane heaters over the stairs to help us get out warmly. Anyhow, we had the pool cover off, the water was at 82° and Enz made his way easily in with a sigh of approval as our boys watched on from their screened room nap-spots. Enz took a quick lap while I hung our towels, stepped out of my sandals and slipped off my bathing suit overdress. Enz stood at the pool stairs, watching carefully as I started down... instant PAIN! My feet, as soon as they entered the water, began to fight against the cool water and it felt like the sharp charlie-horse-arch-of-foot-cramp-type pain that is so brutal it feels like it might actually kill just from hurting. There was no way I was going to make it fully into that cool water that at 82° wasn't even overly cool in the +32° heat that had hit us. I ended up just sitting on the stair deck and slowly trying to dip my feet and lower legs into the water a little at a time until I could sit with my lower legs dangling in the water and the cramps had started to slightly settle while watching Enz enjoy a beautiful first swim of the season.

I had quite a lot of pain in my legs overnight but I was still determined to start swimming, and soon! I had been so looking forward to getting into the pool and to get started on the strengthening the water is bound to help me with, especially since the heat has been so hard on me this year. I don't do well in the heat on any given year but this year it feels even more of a struggle than usual. I am seriously beyond grateful that my nerves are finally healing but with that healing comes more pain than I understood would happen... every feeling is hypersensitive and though I know it will eventually settle, it's not the funnest thing to deal with; hot or cold just means pain for right now. I'm also really unsteady the past couple of weeks (even more so than usual) and have taken a couple of tumbles but thankfully haven't seriously hurt myself. Even with the unsteadiness I have still been doing my exercises and I've even been practicing for little bits out with only one of my Stix... which is also HUGE, though for lots of walking, uneven surfaces or crowded places I really still do need both. It's still a healing in progress. The tumble scares have been keeping me home for the most part these days and though Enz often takes the boys and I put for drives to the camp, I've really only been able to handle one short camp walk the other day and we didn't make it very far. I know I'm healing but sometimes it's hard to keep looking forward when it feels like I am constantly taking two steps back. Oh well... it'll work out, or it won't and either way I'll survive!

The day following my first pool, attempt was brutally sunny and hot, hot, HOT!!! My aunt had a physio appointment for her post knee replacement therapy and like the other days I picked her up and drove her to her appointment then practiced walking with my single Stix up and down the outer hallway while I waited for her to finish. She had mentioned on the drive over that her incision was looking weepy and after her appointment she told me that her therapist felt it should be checked but she said that she would just get someone to take her the following day since she knew just the therapy rides and walk pacticing were enough for me in one day. Ridiculous... so off to the hospital we went. It was a LOT of walking for me and though I had desperately wished and knew I had needed both of my Stix for that much out and aboutness, I did somehow manage albeit painfully slowly and with headache inducing concentration. I learned a very important lesson about taking both stix and leaving one in the car for just such emergency situations! My aunts incision had become infected but at least by getting to the hospital quickly the antibiotics had a quick start toward healing and she will hopefully be back on the full mend soon! All this running around in the horrible heat had me sweltering far past the swelter meter limits and I could not wait to get back home and start the pool heat up for an evening swim. Since I had expected to be back within a couple of hours I had just figured that the heater would have more than enough time to work its magic and raise the water temperature to 88° in no time but I ended up being gone for over four hours.. still, I held hope as I immediately upon returning home went outside to turn on the heat.

The water was still at 82° and the solar cover was scorching hot so I was sure warmth would quickly happen as I went inside to start dinner. We had dinner in the screened room and I could see the beautiful pool waiting for me as greatly as I was waiting for it! And then, halfway through dinner, the sky blackened, the thunder cracked like gunshots that rang my ears with actual pain, it was so loud. Then came the sound heavy pellets upon the roof as half inch sized hail began to pelt down. The hail turned pretty quickly to rain and it stormed off and on for close to an hour. I was feeling pretty defeated. Until just then, the clouds cleared to a bright blue sky with not a hint of storminess left in sight. Enz checked the temperature... 84°.

We rolled the cover up and upon sticking my arms into the water I decided it was worth a try, you'd be surprised how much of a difference just a couple of degrees does actually make in swimming pools! By the time I had changed and made my way back outside, Enz was already swimming and telling me how much warmer the water felt. So, after making sure the boys were happily settled in the screened room, out I went to the pool... I kept my overdress on that time, just on case, but I was hoping it would be a fantastical night of swimming. Again, Enz came to stand by the ladder as I stepped into the water. I couldn't feel a temperature but I also didn't feel intense pain as I had the night before... this time it was more of just a hurting discomfort of pain rather that the previous SHOCK of PAIN. It was a good sign that by upping the heat, even by only 2°, we were on the right track. I made it in down to the second step (almost in to my knees) but that was as far as I could stand the hurt. Enz had a really good swim and I stood in the water on the stairs while clutching the rails as I worked to keep standing balance through the gentle wave Enz made with his swimming.

I had figured that since the 2° had made such a difference that I would try upping it by just two more last night and so when the heater read 86° I was stoked and ready to swim as we rolled up the cover. I had been bummed about missing a bonfire party with friends because I had fallen in the morning trying to get the outdoor window screens open and was just too unsteady to try venturing across open field so a swim, I was certain, would help to heal my disappointed spirits. I stepped into the pool... no pain. I stepped in further... still no pain. When I was all the way in and standing on the bottom I felt the cool of the water from about mid-hip to waist height and then up to my shoulders as I crouched to duck under up to neck height. I still can't quite tell my legs are in water or feel the temperature with them but I could feel the movements of the water against my legs as I forced my legs to take a few steps along the pool floor so that is definitely something!

Last summer I could do nothing but inch my toes along the pool floor while being supported by a larger pool noodle and holding to the pool sides for dear life until I eventually became braver and found I was able to use the pool noodle for support so I could 'swim' with my arms as my feet trailed behind along the pool floor. I was pretty devastated that my legs had forgotten how to swim even though I wasn't surprised... after all, the had also forgotten how to walk thanks to this illness.

But this year...

...I can lift my legs right off the bottom into swim position and balance like this for almost a whole 30 seconds at a time!!!

And I can even make my legs move in a kick-like movement!! But alas, without proper kick control I was stuck in one spot which caused a MASSIVE giggle fit to overtake me which I'm sure the neighbours were thrilled with hearing ring out over the quiet neighbourhood well after 10:00 at night! But it was absolutely hysterical and the elationary/stationary swimming had me in stitches. My body was floating, my legs were kicking and I was going absolutely NOWHERE! I seriously could not stop laughing!

I did somehow manage a turn but I think one leg must have been moving a little stronger in the water because I can't claim any actual steering was involved which was also hilarious in my overtired giggle fit!

I was exhausted in only a matter of minutes but I finished off my water time with a little stepping and standing knee bends...

...before Enz helped me out and wrapped me tightly in a body towel as the transition back to air from water had my again shivering and shaking in a jellylike mess... but I had made it in for a swim and I was stoked even through the pain and uncontrollableness of getting out!

My body sure feels even that tiny bit of pool work today and my goal is to really be able to swim again by Fall... even if I still need the pool noodle by then, I'll be happy to even just regain some true pool motoring moves.

It turned out to be a pretty positive night and and only helped to cement my swim goals for the rest of the summer to come!