November 23, 2008

November 23, 2008


I am continuing at the polytrauma rehab program in Palo Alto. I'm in phase 2 now, and in the next phase, I'll be able to move out on my own. One place I'm considering is at "Shenendoah", a military housing place about 15 miles away from the VA Hospital. I would be coming back for outpatient therapy still.


Right now, I am working with the therapists on the driving simulator, and that is going pretty well. They say that I still have left-sided neglect, and that I keep slowly weaving to the left side of the lane. I can't figure out why, but I am trying to compensate by driving closer to the right side of the road. Hopefully I'll be able to drive soon. Yippee!


I have been working with Smita, the OT, on learning how to get around town and to the airport on the bus. This last week, she was off so I worked on "hippo therapy" again. Those two therapies are on the same day so they conflict and I have to trade off between the bus and the horses. "Hippo therapy" is actually on horses not hippos as someone would think! At hippo therapy, we ride on horses, and weave in and out of cones on the track. We work on balance. One time they had me ride up to a cone, pick up a heavy ball, then continue weaving on the track, and place the ball on the third cone down. One person walks with me, the side walker, who's always there. The therapist stands a distance away and tells you what to do. I ride for about 45 minutes twice a week. It is really fun and relaxing! It's really nice to be outside too.


In Speech Therapy I have been testing a lot.


Physical therapy is in the am. at 7 AM. I tend to be the only one who attends! Usually I do a cardio workout for 20 minutes or so. Then I work out on both legs and stretch out my left arm on the door. I put my left arm up on top of the door and sink my hips down as far as I can. My left arm is slowly getting better. I also carry around a "grip squeezer", that I had from Loma Linda OT, and work on it with both hands. I've been bike riding a couple of times, and am cleared to ride on campus with a therapist, but not by myself yet.


Vision Therapy is going pretty good. I work on a program called HTS. One game, I wear 3D glasses and look at a computer screen to find a box. I have to answer which direction the box is from the X in the center of the screen. It gets progressively harder to see and find. There is also a game/therapy where you look through power lenses, that you hold up to your eye, and figure out which direction the "C" is facing. These games both work to strengthen my eye muscles on different kinds of vergence, base in and base out. Once again, slowly but surely, my eyes are progressing.


In Keep It Cool, a group class, we learn how to focus our anger and keep our cool. When we start to get angry, we do some deep breathing to relax the tension or count to 10, (or 100)!


This weekend: Friday night, a group from the high school came in and helped us wrap som Christmas presents. Saturday, I went shopping with the a rec therapist and another patient, Mihntri, to the Apple and Verizon Store, and then to a Japanese garden in the San Francisco area. On the way home we ordered some pizza. Today, I went to church with Glenn and Sharon (volunteers at the VA) to the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and then to brunch.


Sorry for not posting this sooner. I have been writing things down for awhile to update this blog and keep you all posted.



David