Page 19 of Revive Me

With a smile pasted on my face, I greet him like I would any other patient. “Hi, Roman. It’s nice to see you again. How are you today?”

Unsurprisingly, that earns me a blank stare.

I let out an awkward cough and try again. “Do you need anything before we get started? Can I get you some water?”

“Let’s just get this over with,” he growls.

Swallowing another sigh, I grab the folder with his pertinent medical history. “Your file says you worked with an orthopedic therapist and…a few PTs.” I don’t think either of us misses the way I stumble over the wordfew. “So, I’m not going to start with the basics. I just want to evaluate where you’re at.”

“Doesn’t my chart already tell you that?”

Shrugging, I toss the folder onto a nearby chair. “We’re going to forget the chart.Iwant to see where you’re at.”

His voice takes on an edge. “So you want to waste my time.”

Aaaand that’s enough of that.

I lean back against a treatment table and fix him with an even stare. “With all due respect, you’re two years post-accident with an injury that your doctors said you could have rehabbed at least to the point of assisted walking. I don’t thinkI’mthe one wasting time here.”

There’s a flicker of surprise in his brown eyes.Good. He’s going to have to get used to some tough love.

I gesture at the treatment table. “Should we get started?”

He aims a glare at me that’s reminiscent of a teenager not getting their way, but moves toward the table anyway.

Lily: 1 Roman: 0

When I take up my stance beside the table, he only appears confused for a second before he realizes I‘m not going to offer to help him get up on it.

“You’re seriously not going to ask if I need help?” he sneers. “What kind of physical therapist are you?”

For some reason, his question breaks through every barrier I have, reverting me back to the eighteen-year-old girl who decided on this career because she wanted to help people.

“The kind who’s going to get you walking,” I say softly.

I can’t tell from his expression if he believes me, but at least he moves to climb out of his chair.

I’m watching him closely as he does it. He might think I’m being an asshole who’s just trying to make him work, but this first session is critical for me. It’s as much of an evaluation as he’ll let me conduct without asking him a million questions that he’s answered before. With Roman, I’ll need to rely heavily on what his body is showing me he can do.

Sure enough, by the time he’s lifted himself out of his chair and onto the table, I can already tell he favors his right side. Roman has an incomplete spinal cord injury, which means not every neural pathway between his brain and spine were damaged in his accident. For the ones that were spared, there’s still a connection, and some sensation. It’s those neural pathways that we need to retrain to recover the functions that he lost.

I just need to figure out where they are and which movements he’s capable of.

“Can you flex the toes on your right foot?” I ask, ignoring Roman’s still-intact glare.

After a moment, there’s movement in his right toes.

“And your left?”

Less movement there.

“Can you contract your left quad and pull your leg up?”

No movement, but I also notice out of the corner of my eye that Roman’s gaze has intensified.

“And your right?”

Some movement.

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