life continued on 3-center, lots of oddities, like why do the give you sleeping meds at 11 pm and then wake you at midnight to take vital signs ? and why does the lab pick 5 am to get blood ? when you're half asleep and someone whispers in your ear "i've come for your blood" it leads to some rather creepy dreams,btw..... and why do they rig up iv bags to run out and beep like crazy at 3 am ? anyway, pt and ot continued in slow motion, i learned how to change gowns myself;but needed the nurse to tie them... learned to balance sitting up, and slide sideways without falling, how to use a rocker knife (although, i never saw it again after i used it, since it disappeared with my tray.....) i continued with my parlor trick exhibitions every shift change, managed to make a fist and lift it up, of course was less thrilled about that feat when the ot said closing a fist was easy;but now id need to sleep with a hand brace till i learned to open it up again... and that i needed to use my arm itself to raise it, not my shoulder, oh well, who knew that any movement after a month of none could be considered wrong ? i was still having no luck with mt foot/leg though;but kept trying, at that point i was convinced i got the arm movement through sheer force of will, so the "foot, foot, foot" mantra started up whenever i thought about it - meanwhile, rehab was still saying no;but all my drs,pt and ot, were pestering them in my behalf, they finally said they'd reconsider if i had a place to stay after discharge (i had been living in a second floor apt i could no longer get to, how are you supposed to housing shop from the hospital ? well, i already had friends looking for me, so i was back to trying to move my foot, and one morning i manage, less than an inch;but it was something, had my largest influx of nurses, drs and therapists yet, to witness what would seem like a very boring event to anyone who didn't know what it meant.... meanwhile, my weak leg/foot was feeling really odd, the tingling was stronger and since i still had no real sensation back i couldn't identify what it was, so i took tylenol at night so i could sleep and switched to saying "toe toe toe" ... well, since i had no proprioception (i love that word) i couldn't tell if my foot or toe was moving without looking at it, so the next morning i tried watching my foot while reciting my toe mantra... just then the nurse came in and i said "i think my foots swollen" she looked and replied "no, its not" so, i continued practicing parlor tricks until the next morning, now i was sure, so said to another nurse "i think my foots swollen" she replied "oh, just a little" so later when the dr's came in, i said "i think my foots swollen" my favorite dr (ok, she was still a med student;but i liked her a lot) looked at my feet next to each other, poked them, looked up at the other drs and my next favorite dr (ok ok, intern) checked my feet and legs, looked up at the big cheese dr and within 10 min i was being whisked off to ultrasound... well, whisked to the waiting room where i waited two hours;but the intent was there - can anything beat bed travel for getting around a hospital ? results later (hey, they made me wait, so can you !!! )