Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

We thought today was an exceptional day. David started PT with a new therapist (Debbie) and they stood between the parallel bars while I rolled a soccer ball at him and he kicked it back with either his left or right leg. The right was stronger, but the left was working. I think that she was there to ‘spot’ him if he lost his balance, but several times she walked away and left him standing there with just his right hand on the bar. It was cool to see him just standing and ‘chilling’.

She then had him walk with a ‘regular’ walker, unlike the ‘other’ regular walker that had a raised support for his left arm. This required that he hold on with his left as well as right hands. He did it very well, with the therapist mainly there to ‘spot’ him if needed.

Then, spurred on by his mastery of the ‘walker’, she had him try a cane that had four little legs on it. These are much more stable than a ‘normal’ cane, and David was walking all over the place with it. Pretty darn exciting! He still had the therapist right there beside him, but I bet that it won’t be long until he’s ‘cruising’ the halls on his own. Then it will be the ‘normal’ cane, and then I’m sure he’ll be walking unassisted. It is an awesome thought, and I have no idea how long this will take, but I believe that it will happen.

During OT, Georgette worked on his left shoulder and wrist. She had ‘heat’ on his shoulder, and stretched his wrist. During Recreational Therapy, Richard had David doing activities that forced him to move his left shoulder, arm and hand more than ever. He was picking up a small ball with his left hand off of the floor (he was sitting in a wheelchair), and transferring it to his right hand, he was passing Richard candy with his left hand, (Richard made out pretty good), and when therapy was over David ‘high fived’ him with his left hand (sort of). I was impressed with his progress, and realized that his left hand will become an important ‘tool’ again.
Then, right before dinner, a doctor announced that they were going to pull out David’s stomach feeding tube, or ‘peg’ as they call it. They gave David two pills to relax him, and yanked it out of his stomach. I really expected something more, but the Doctor just strained, grunted, and the tube just popped right out, flinging ‘who knows what’ around David’s room. They laid the tube on a sterile, absorbent pad next to David, so he picked it up and more ‘whatever’ got all over his shirt. Then the doctor and nurse walked out and left everything lying there. It’s cool! The best thing is that the last ‘thing’ is out of him, and he is ‘untethered’. It was a very exceptional day!

Steve