Extracts from Andrew's diary
Being aware of such great numbers Andrew is highly
motivated to send a signal out to other sufferers that he has hugely
benefited from Tai Chi, Aikido and Chi-Kung; all non aggressive forms of
eastern martial arts, that are gentle on the body and mind, but that help to
restore coordination and clear thinking. The continuity and gentleness of
many of the exercises has contributed many fold to Andrew’s steady
improvements.
Let’s move on then to some direct extracts from Andrew’s mammoth diary. ( He
also feels that the daily discipline of diary keeping helped in his recovery
process.) First however ,some extracts from his summary.
The bad old days and the good old
days........................................
I remember vividly coming out of the coma. I thought I was in
prison, and that all the nurses were prison guards (!)I remember the
curtains being pulled around me , then I was dressed, bundled into a
wheelchair and pushed to the table for breakfast............
I was in a coma for four and a half weeks. I left hospital in a
wheelchair and was on sticks and crutches for years, before it was
finally decided that I did n’t need them anymore.
First of all I would walk around the house holding on to the walls and
anything that I could lay my hands on, then I would go for short
walks,........first I could only manage to walk across the road, rest
for a while and then hobble back..
The next stage was swimming, which has turned out to be one of the
best things that I have done. I would get great encouragement from
people telling me how much I had improved.
Back to the swimming. I would get in to the changing room, leave my
crutches on top of the locker and hobble very slowly, holding on to
the walls. I would get in to the water and go straight into freestyle
stroke, when I had completed a length, I would stop and tread water
for a while before starting off again.
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These are the early days on the steep ladder of recovery. What is clear is
that Andrew was determined from the very start that he would succeed. He has
often said that when he was young he would think that he might have an
accident and that he would wonder about how he was going to recover from it.
From being a self confessed boozer and drug taker Andrew has turned his
passions into recovery, fitness and a number of health promoting
disciplines. When some people are injured, or end up in a wheel chair, they
give up, accepting their fate. Not so Andrew Penman, that was never going to
be the way. (Ed) Perhaps the following paragraph from Andrew’s own summary
sums up his attitude to getting well via fitness.
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