How to Maintain Mobility After a Serious Accident

I count myself lucky that when I found myself lying in the street, trapped beneath the weight of my Harley, two women who’d witnessed the accident ran over and worked together to lift it off me. The x-rays taken in the hospital emergency room showed only that no bones were broken. Although science has developed a vast array of useful tools to assist with physical therapy, some of the most important tools I utilized during my recovery were pain, personal commitment, and imagination.

Pain
It was pain that served as the most useful tool available to me to determine the true extent of my injuries. Through pain, I became more intimately familiar with my own body than I’d ever been before. As I worked through the series of range of motion exercises recommended by my physical therapist, pain was the gauge I utilized to determine how far I’d come as well as how far I still needed to go, and at what speed.

Commitment
Commitment is the tool most necessary to win the battle against the sheer boredom and frustration of performing a seemingly endless number of repetitions of range of motion exercises to achieve even the slightest degree of measurable progress. However, these small increments of progress served to strengthen both my hope for a full recovery and my commitment to achieving the highest degree of recovery possible. Make sure you keep ample reserves of patience and commitment in store for when boredom and despair hits.

Imagination
The power of imagination in the process of recovery from an injury cannot be over-estimated. It was imagination that allowed me to envision myself back on my Harley, savoring the sweet aroma of fresh-mown alfalfa and feeling the wind in my hair. Because of my imagination, being able to bend my leg a fraction of an inch further without wincing in pain than I had the day before was transformed into the possibility of one day winning a country line dancing competition.

Science
One of the tools provided by modern science that helped me regain mobility was electrical muscle stimulation therapy. Relaxing the muscles through the use of electrical pulses resulted in reducing pain, which allowed me to increase the number of range of motion exercises. Another wonderful tool is the goniometer, which is a kind of protractor designed for use with the human body. This tool makes it possible to measure joint range of motion by degrees. It is useful for both providing concrete mathematical evidence of your progress and in setting goals for continued progress.

After all the technology has run its course you are left with only the basics to help you get around and moving. For example, crutches or a KneeRover can be a life saver for those who are looking for increased mobility in this stage of their recovery.

Maintaining mobility after a serious accident requires a combination of mind and matter, but above all, it requires keeping in mind what matters—to you.