Preparations
"Pull against my arms with this hand Colin." Sybil commanded, taking his right arm, "Now put your other arm behind you and push up."
Colin did as he was told, pulling himself up, but the soft mattress made it difficult, his exercises were still done in his bed and he did not yet seem to have the strength to combat the give of the mattress. He got about three quarters of the way before falling back, he lay there panting and exhausted.
"God, I hate this." Colin groaned, rubbing the sweat from his face.
"It will get easier Colin, it just takes time." He nodded.
"Sometimes that's a bit hard to believe."
"I know, everything seems awfully hard at the moment, but it does get easier. Or at least more normal. You take a little break, I'll come back when I've finished with Private Flanagan." She turned and walked away, rubbing his shoulder as she left. She went over to a man learning to feed himself with what was left of his two mangled hands. As she did, Lieutenant Bloom came over, limping on his new prosthetic leg, making an amusing noise as he sat in the chair next to Colin's bed.
"Want some water Private?" He asked, already pouring the glass, and handing it to Colin.
" You look worn out, but you were doing good back there, you were almost all the way up. Remember when you started in here you couldn't even stay upright for more than a few minutes even with back support, let alone without."
"Thanks," Colin replied, taking a long drink from the glass,
"When we first met you couldn't even manage with crutches. Now you're up and walking without them. At least you've made some useful progress. Nothing I 'accomplish' seems like it will change much, not in the long run. I'll still be stuck in a chair the rest of my life. Whether or not I can sit up in bed by myself won't change that." Lieutenant Bloom shook his head. "You're letting this kill you lad, you're letting it win. You can't let your injury rule you, you'll drown. You have to let yourself enjoy the little victories, they'll add up in time." He stood and went to the foot of Colin's bed, raising it to a sitting position.
"Here, watch." He then pulled an empty wheelchair next to the bed, leaning heavily on the push bar. He stopped the chair right next to Colin's bed and sat in the seat. With great effort he maneuvered himself from the chair to the bed, careful to use only his arms. After catching his breath he moved himself back into the chair.
"See, just that one thing would make all the difference in the world. Every small bit of independence you gain will change more than you know. And you have to fight for it harder than you've ever fought before. Think about it. If you could do that- and I see no reason you couldn't- you wouldn't have to wait for someone to get you out of bed in the morning. You could go to bed whenever you wanted. You could sit wherever you wanted. You would be so much less dependent on other people. Don't you see that?" Colin nodded. He wasn't convinced he could ever do that, but he could see what Bloom meant. If he could do things like that himself, maybe his life wouldn't be so like it was before the garden.
Sybil had seen the commotion and came over, Colin gave her an earnest, pleading look.
"Do you really think I could do that?" Sybil thought for a moment then nodded.
"I would hope so Private. You're young and healthy, you have full use of your arms and there isn't any deformity from your injuries. It will take a lot of practice and maybe some adjustments to your bed or chair, but it should be a realistic goal, at least once you've had some more time to heal." He pressed her further.
"How long?"
"It's hard to say Private. Partly it is up to you. I know that Dr. Hawthorne has hoped to give you some time at home to get stronger before doing any more vigorous therapy. Transfers have to wait until your spine is fully healed or we risk further aggravating the injury, and there's the risk of falling, so we have to make sure you're strong before attempting them. It might be hard to believe with how hard your therapy feels already, but we have been very cautious in your exercises so far. Dr. feels you can begin some more rigorous therapy, like practicing sitting up, but we still have to focus mainly on the passive exercises until your X-rays come back clear. After that, it all depends how hard you work, and how well you take care of your health." Colin adjusted himself in the bed, sitting up straighter even though it hurt his still healing back.
"Let's get back to it then." the young Rajah commanded. Sybil smiled, nodding,
"Yes, let's. I'm going to start stretching your legs, I'll keep you sitting up and you just relax, we'll try some arm exercises after your stretches."
"Right'o Sister- you get him working his ass off." Sybil laughed,
"Go back to your own exercises Lieutenant, I'll take it from here."
Bloom smiled, giving a jaunty salute and a wink to Sybil before limping to the mat where some of the other men were lifting weights. Sybil began the leg stretches and Colin leaned back, breathing through the pain the stretches caused in his back. When she finished with his stretches Sybil handed him two small weights and instructed him in their use. He couldn't lift his arms over his head without pain, but he still managed the exercises she taught without too much trouble. After no more than fifteen minutes he was sweaty and exhausted, but exhilarated. This was not the sweat of fever or the exhaustion of long days in bed, this was good sweat, the good exhaustion of hard worked muscles. And Colin reveled in it.
"That was very good Private. You keep that up and soon you can work out in your chair with the other men. You'll have arms like Adonis in no time." Her eyes twinkled with a smile. He smiled back somewhat sheepishly.
"Don't get ahead of yourself Nurse, those weren't exactly dumbbells." He quipped, but he was smiling too.
"It's a start though, a real start." Colin leaned back, still smiling,
"You a bit stiff?" Colin nodded, stretching as much as he could.
"Here, I'll bring some hot packs, that should help some. You worked hard today, you'll want to rest this evening. Don't want you overdoing it."
"I suppose not. Though I don't see how fifteen minutes of calisthenics counts as overdoing it." he griped.
"You'd be surprised Private. I'd hazard to guess you'll be quite sore tomorrow morning. You've been on near total bed rest, and your body is still adjusting to your injuries. It will take many months of work to rebuild your endurance." Colin sighed, everything that might give him a shred of independence seemed as though it would take months. His life seemed to stretch before him as an endless stream of new trials.