Before Mo’s hospitalization a few weeks ago, I picked her up every Monday to go to physiotherapy. Physiotherapy is really important for Shymo. It’s the moment for her to have a nice workout and warm up her muscles. I often ask her if she’s excited to go and the answer is always “YES!”. Not everyone would be this excited to have a heavy workout like this, but Mo really enjoys it. Also, the fact that we go together makes it a lot more fun.
Mostly, we are in the car by 9:10 and drive to SMC Fitness in Zaandam. We always get a warm welcome, because everyone there already got to know Mo in the meantime. Mo always starts with cycling. Because Mo can’t use her legs herself, her therapist will hold them in place on the exercise bike so Mo only has to make the cycling motion. Mo told me that she loved to cycle before she became wheelchair bound, so this way she gets to experience it a bit again.
Shymo’s physiotherapist is really sweet. We couldn’t have wished for a better help for Shymo. She always does her best to make it as comfortable as possible and helps Shymo the best she can. She even put a large donation pot on the bar!
After cycling, Mo sometimes trains her arms on the fitness equipment or she goes to the treatment room. In the treatment room Mo always starts with stretch exercises for her legs. After that, it’s time to sweat. Sometimes she trains her arm muscles and her abs. The exercises Mo does are really tough. I’ve never seen anyone workout this hard!
When the physiotherapist leaves the room, Mo and I have to work together on exercises. There is an exercise where Mo sits on the bench and I put out my hands one at the time and Mo has to tap them while she stays upright. It sounds like a simple exercise, but for Mo this is really tough because it is difficult for her to keep her back straight and sit still like that. This exercise is always fun to do together, because I can really encourage her and see her winner mentality up close; she really wants to do well. Of course this exercise doesn’t always go smooth, but that is not Mo’s fault. Often it’s because I say something Mo has to laugh about and then she loses her position. The two of us always have to laugh about this.
When the physiotherapy is done, we often do something fun. Grab a lunch on the beach, get a Mcflurry at McDonald’s or eat a sandwich at the local deli. Our Monday’s are always really fun days where we can chat and laugh with each other. Not only I find it really fun to tag along, but I really like to help Mo too. I can’t cure her, but I can be there for her as a friend and support her with things as physiotherapy.
Dear Mo, I hope you’re feeling better soon so we can go to physiotherapy and do all the fun outings together. I love you.
Big kiss,
Evi