Open the Door

If Daddy thought he was getting an easy Saturday, he was sorely mistaken! He had 2 physical therapy sessions, 2 speech therapy sessions, and 1 occupational therapy session this morning.

In his physical therapy sessions he worked on sitting and standing, walking while pushing a chair in front of him and standing behind a chair while raising his left arm in the air and leg to a stool (meaning all of his weight was on his right, non-working side). All of this was done with plenty of assistance from his therapist, however she said what he was doing was "death defying" and very scary to be putting all of his weight on limbs that may not have much feeling in them. She was proud that he had even made the attempt and done it successfully at that! She learned a little about how brave my Daddy is today.

In speech therapy they worked on "yes" and "no" and shaking or nodding his head. If you've been to visit him, you know that most of the answers to questions are "yep" or "yeah" even when he means no. This is common with aphasia, but I noticed this afternoon I was getting some definite no's and head shakes from him. They also worked on the iPad and had him spelling words from a picture. He would get some letters mixed up, but once he looked at the word he would know there was something wrong about it and fix it. Another thing his speech therapist has started doing, is making him say "open the door" before he's allowed to leave the session. It has taken him several attempts, but he has always gotten it out eventually. I can only imagine what Daddy thinks of this game... But I think it's pretty genius. I am hoping to get to use that some once he's at home! (Ha.)

In occupational therapy they worked with Daddy's right arm. This is the least functioning part of his body. The therapist said she definitely felt more movement in his muscles than she did yesterday. She had him sliding his arm to different objects on a table, picking up a cup and dropping it and using his right arm to put on his wheelchair brake. All of this was done with much assistance from the therapist, but she said she was seeing a lot of improvement.

We got some good news last night about the duration of Daddy's stay at the Rehab Center. They have given us a tentative discharge date of June 16th. That's a month from the day he was transferred. We were told that it is very rare for anyone to stay longer than 2 weeks. We are overjoyed that they see enough fight in him to want to keep him the extra time and that he will be in twice as good of shape when he finally gets sent home! Prayers were definitely answered!

We had to say goodbye to #1 today as she went back to Virgina to her husband, son, and job. We hated to see our assertive attorney leave, but we know that she will still be much help even from a distance! She is planning another trip back towards the end of June and she's expecting to see lots and lots of improvement when she gets back!

Tomorrow is a day off for Daddy, so feel free to stop by to say hello!

#3