Went to see Colin today with 17-year-old puppy Shadow, who once again snuggled into his chest, this time licking a murmuring Colin up and down his arms as his hands stroked and stroked and stroked . . .

He tells me the underlying constant nerve pain continues low, from 2 to 3.5. Ten days now!

He does still have pain waves, each one lasting 8 to 12 seconds, but with  declining frequency. Once in a while one of them goes so high it reaches a 7.

But the big story for today is his continuing tale of the $25,000 electric wheelchair (that Josh bought on facebook for $250, or 1% of its value). One thing this special does, is turn on a time, made possible because as two wheels turn one way, the other two are geared to turn at the same rate in the opposite direction. So yesterday, before zooming out into the sun to lay back under the tree — where, he told me, he “spoke to Jesus” and I asked, “About what?” and he said, “I thanked him for my continuing recovery” — he was in the big room, and one of the old women out there in her chair admired the way he could turn so quickly. “Oh yeah,” he said, “want to see me spin around?” When he said this the other old women in their chairs, who also heard the exchange between them, wheeled up, so that they were all in a row. Whereupon he commenced to SPIN, round and round and round, first one direction, then the other.

“The nursing staff didn’t appreciate it . . .”

“And I’ve already been castigated for zooming . . .”

He then launched into stories from his work in the laborer’s union, back in Boston, when he was in his 20s. So that by the time it was time for me to go, he had been talking so long that, wouldn’t you know, the throat vibration once again revved up his nerve pain and he experienced a pain wave that might have reached, yes, a 7.

As I hugged him to go, I whispered, “I guess your body is telling you not to get too cocky. That it’s still in charge.”

When he answered the phone this morning, Colin sounded unusually upbeat. I told him so. He agreed, said he had had a great day yesterday, and his pain continues to be low. So what is this, 9 days/nights straight? [Nearly twice as long as the next longest low pain period, nearly a month ago.]

Here’s how his day went, and it’s a doozer.

Marita there in the morning. [She visits three times a week.] Then, in the afternoon 45 minutes with PT Brooke, doing the same balancing exercises to build core strength while sitting on side of bed with feet on floor as the day before, for 36 minutes this time, about one/third longer than the day before. After that, the mode on the machine that stimulates thigh muscles, followed by the mode on the same machine that electronically soothes thigh nerves.

Then, he got in his newly revived wondrous $25,000 electric chair [which his friend Josh found for $250 on facebook] and zoomed outside, to stop under a tree. He adjusted the chair so that he was horizontal, but with head lower than feet, so they could drain. (They were congested, as the day before, from all that time being on the floor, but not as bad!) Next, intuitively, he realized that he needed to fill them up again, and drain them again, over and over, TO GET THE BLOOD MOVING. So he did that, adjusting the horizontal to feet below head, feet above head, etc., on and on.

“And you know what, Mom? I could actually feel the blood moving to and from, up and down my legs. So does that mean I’m not really paralyzed? What does it mean when I can feel the insides of my legs but not the outsides?”

Wow. Quite an intuition. And quite an observation [and question!].

He had told the staff to come get him when they were ready to put him to bed. So, five and a half hours later, he was finally fetched inside, after spending the afternoon in a near ecstatic state, absorbed in loving the leaves, and continuing with his new wheel chair design in his imagination. Absolutely glorious, he concluded. (And it was a glorious spring day, with temperature just right and bugs not yet out.)

“Wow! Sounds like it was your best day ever!”

“Yes. My best day ever.”