I made it up three flights of stairs. It felt good after driving for three hours.
When I arrived Brook Thompson was here talking to Bruce. I got a nice hug. Bruce uses a fun bright Oregon duck yellow squeezy ball to strengthen his fingers and hands. It would make a nice stocking stuffer.
There was s big box full of treats for us. Thank you Ranee! We love the cookies. I like the magazines and CD. They will last awhile.
Thank you Rosala for the dream catcher ornament. I hung it up.
New improvements while I was gone includ:
He can push down with his left leg and can move his left foot up and down.
He can move his right big toe. It is where his left toe was a couple weeks ago.
He can move his right hand six inches up off the bed, a vertical reaching movement (put your armin an L shape shape and push up) He got a steroid shot in his left shoulder and that reduces the inflammation around the shoulder. He can touch his thumb to his forefinger on the left hand.
His voice is back to normal.
His catheter is out.
He is starting to get ability to flex his abdominal muscles. They sit him on the mat and have him use his stomach muscles to balance. He said after 15 min he was sweating.
He had a couple of visitors, the Chadwick's, Lori and Stan Cox, and the Lawrence's.
It is probably best that visitors come after 3 pm on the weekdays and Saturday and anytime Sunday. He has a full day of therapy and they want to keep him busy.
They took a series of X-rays of his shoulder and no bone spurs. They are treating it as a case of severe tendonitis. The shot reduced the swelling in his hand and the pain in his shoulder.
We ate dinner together in the dining area. He fed himself and only dropped his salad a couple of times. He had clam chowder and a bread stick, green salad, cantaloupe and honeydew melon.
There is Christmas music playing in the hall.
He is the only patient in the spine section. There are two teenagers with brain injuries and an older man probably a stroke victim that we see in the dining area.
Exciting News! When his left hand gets stronger they will put him on an electro stimulation bicycle. It stimulates the muscles to develop, he has lost a lot of muscle. It is a new piece of equipment they have and in the team meeting they mentioned it and they want to use it. He has to be able to hold on with both hands so he won't fall off. He will be the first to use it, a live guinea pig.
A new release date is Feb. 5th. That will be 8 weeks. The Dr and staff are very pleased with his progress. I was voting for Mid January. Oh well as long as he is improving they will keep him here.
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