Motivation Central

So it has been about 4 days since we have have posted an update on Cory’s progress.
Cory is making steady progress everyday and while we are still unable to make a statement as brash as “He will be able to walk unaided again” with any amount of certainty,  his positive attitude and his awesome work rate just speak volumes for where we believe his outcome will be.

While we had a real slow start to Thursday after Anthony and Dale visited, we followed it up with another slow start on Friday…. They tell us that routines are very important in the recovery progress, but I am not sure that this is what they had in mind.

So we missed our morning physio session again, but Lisa (filling in for Nicola while she takes a well deserved break) along with Monique came and did Cory’s physio at around 1400hrs. They got him sitting up on the edge of the bed again and with every time he does this, you can see him getting stronger and stronger.

Saturday morning was a pretty casual start with Nanna & Poppy visiting us and then our weekend physio not beginning until 1200hrs, the morning was nice and relaxing. With Fliss and Gary popping in as they usually do most days and then Aunty Tracey, Uncle Anton, Sarah & Daniel dropping by it was a nice afternoon.

Then we stepped into the next gear when Cory’s Personal Trainer from home dropped in to have a chat. Brad is a 3 time Paralympian and absolutely exudes the traits that Cory needs to get himself through his recovery.
It is amazing the support that we have had from so many people from so many parts of the world, but talking to Brad and the positivity and confidence that he has, is an absolute inspiration not only to Cory, but also to us is truly amazing.

Brad shared a couple of his stories with us and the one that really stays with me is his story of his lead up to the Rio Games. I won’t go through the whole story (I could never give it justice) but I will share his message.
So about 3 weeks out from his event, Brad sustained an injury while training and was in no shape to compete really. In the subsequent weeks Brad went through a lot in preparation for his event always knowing that he was not 100% physically, but mentally he had the strength and the courage to push through.

Even right up til the day before his 1500M race in the T37 event at the Rio Games, Brad was struggling through with a lot of pain and a due to drug testing, could not even get any pain relief in fear of failing the drug testing.
His sleep prep before the event was less than desirable and then once in the warm up mode, Brad basically told himself that all the hardwork is done, the training, the fitness, the strength and the commitment that he had made over the last 4 years were the hard work, now it was simply time to “run the race”.
Brad absolutely smashed his warm ups and even know he knew he was not right, all of his competitors were all focused on him and what he was doing as he appeared to be at the peak of his game in their eyes.
Unfortunately when it came time to run the race, one of Brad’s muscles played havoc with him and he did not get the result that he had worked so hard for.
Brad as one of the favourites to win the event was approached by reporters who proceeded to make all sorts of excuses for him, to which he completely rubbished, saying that if anything the conditions suited him. He then made no offers of excuses regarding his injuries, but did make the following
statement

“To all those kids back home with a disability – the disability doesn’t have to be your excuse; it can be your greatest opportunity.”

This is very inline with the Brad that we have come to know and he is such an amazing role model not only for Cory or for anyone that has some form of physical disability, but those of us who choose to have a negative outlook on life.

If you would like to get Brad to your next function as a motivational speaker or to attend an event, he can be contacted via his website;

www.runred.com.au

Shona left to head to Bunbury on Saturday night to take care of a couple of things back home, which meant that Cory and I spent the majority of Sunday just chilling and relaxing with out any major activities or visitors until Shona returned with Jeldi (YAY 🙂 and then a nice visit from Craig and Cara in the evening. Sunday was a nice relaxing day allowing Cory (and I) to get some much needed rest…

I woke up in the middle of the night with a dead hand Sunday night, It was a super weird feeling to be able to have enough sensation to be able to feel some pressure, but not enough to be able to really pin point where that pressure is coming from, my whole hand was tingling, you know the one, we have all had it, but only at this point has it dawned on me that this is one of the feelings that Cory has been describing he has (along with a crazy burning sensation that I thankfully have not experienced).

We were then awoken at 0404hrs to the evacuation alarms at Ronald McDonald House! There was supposedly a fire in the building, thankfully it was a false alarm and we were able to go back to bed for a couple of hours sleep.

Monday has been a hectic but good day for Cory with a few tests being conducted and whilst he really did not want to keep going, he persevered through getting his first trip outside of the ward for some OT. We got to take him down to the OT centre where we had a tour of the Therapy Pool, OT Kitchen and the OT Gym.

Cory even was even able to shoot a couple of hoops from his chair before doing some bean bag throwing exercises all based around building his core strength back up.
Aside from completely wearing him out, he did so well, even sitting straight up at one point and throwing the bean bags under his own core strength (no back support from the chair)

Thanks for Keeping up to date with Cory’s Progress, we are planning to throw a couple of challenges out in the near future as Cory progresses to a few different things, so we would love to see peoples comments and shares to see if we can get something moving in more ways than one 🙂

Til next time
#corycrombiecan
#muchlove

The Crombies

ps. Apologies for no replies to the Blog thus far, we have been reading them all and we are absolutely loving them, so please keep commenting on them, it is a great source of interaction for Cory (and us) to see.