Kick and Punch
No, the title doesn’t mean that since I spent the whole day with Kat that I got in trouble! It was Mother’s Day. I had previously set up to have the day off to spend it with my children’s mother. I arrived at 8:30 am to have breakfast with her. Unfortunately, the cafeteria only serves lunch and dinner — but they did have coffee, which I enjoyed. My gransdon’s grandmother had a wonderful breakfast of cream of wheat, banana, tea and a cinnamon bun. When I arrived, she had very little more to eat. The only thing she refused to fully devour was the bun! My mother-in-law’s daughter is really polishing away her meals and cutting most of her meats, etc. Alright, I’ll cut it out with the Mother’s Day “play-on-words”.
The day was one of great experiences with my wife … spiritually, physically and emotionally. Shortly after breakfast, Kathy went to Physical Therapy (PT). Russ, her therapist, was excellent. He started Kat right where she left off on saturday: walking! [I took pictures of the day but left the camera in her wheel chair pouch ... so bear with me to post them]. I saw her put forward her feet, place pressure on her left side and then lift and lightly kick her right foot forward to take her steps. Again she went the 15 feet as she did yesterday. Then Russ made a bold move — he took the table hospitals have that slide under the bed so the patient can eat, etc. and had Kat stand and hold onto that for balance as she walked. This took more thought as the table was on wheels not like the wall where the railings are. She now had to think more in here walking to remain balanced. Only once she felt weak-kneed and Russ said to her firmly, “Stand Up!” to which she complied immediately. He (and I) were impressed how she stood right up when he told her without any help. Russ told Kathy that she was strong and this next week would be a good one for her! Wow, such great news on the 2 week anniversary of the incident.
After lunch (which I was able to eat with Kat), she went to Occupational Therapy (OT). Jeff worked with her left hand and arm. He began by asking her to shrug her sholders. There was much more activity in between but I was really impressed when Jeff had her clasp her hands and do exercises which forced the left arm to work with the right! BRAIN RETRAINING is exactly what it was. Finally, Jeff made a strong balloon with a surgical glove and then they began playing volleyball. This again was getting the arm to function asking the brain to cross-over and work that left arm. After the game, Jeff asked Kat to shrug again and he said he felt her left side muscles shrugging! Walking, Kicking and punching — it was a very good day — Stay tuned …
