July 31 2016 - Sitting and standing

Not much to blog about.
I have been letting my stump heal as much as possible. Yesterday I put the silicone liner on my stump. It took a long time, and any time I forced it on, it hurt.
Today I am pain free, and when the phantom pain acts up, it is more of "phantom uncomfortable" than "phantom pain".  It did wake me up a few times last night, but there was no real pain.

I have been practicing standing up from the wheel chair.
Anytime I try to get up from being down, it is more about balance than strength. I tell my friends thats if I fall,  to never try to help me up.  Just protect me from any damage, and keep others from "helping" me up. Balancing as I get up is hard, and if someone pulls or touches me, then my balance is thrown off. It is best for them to stand strong, and let me "climb" up them.
Getting up from a chair, or wheel chair, is difficult without hanging on to something to help keep my balance. With my foot in front of the chair, my center of gravity is far to the rear of my foot, and so I can't get my weight forward enough to be able to stand unless I pull forward on something. That is why I have grab bars bolted onto the walls in the bathroom.
With the pain being less in my stump, it means I can push down and rearward on the chair seat hard with the stump while getting up. This means I do not need a grab bar to pull forward. Creating pressure with the stump, also makes me much more stable while getting up and down.
So today I have been practicing getting up and down from the wheel chair without gripping anything. It takes a lot of stump pressure, and good balance. This will make my life easier, as I can get up from the wheelchair with something in my hands, like taking dishes to the sink.

Next I want to work on getting up from the floor, without using the cane.

My solar system is working well. I just did the math on all the log files from my power monitor. My total electricity usage averages out to be 34.7 KWH/ day for the last 3 months. At R1.65 a KWH, thats R171.90 a month. (or $11.85 a month).
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