Two Weeks to Go

    I was late getting to the hospital, fog, and ice on the windshield.

    OT was testing to see improvement. A Dina monitor is a machine that measures your grip. His right hand 30, left hand 15. 89 and 76 are the norm for someone his age. 

     Pinch tester results were 9, 7, 5 right hand, left hand is 9, 4, 5 this measurement is for turning keys, getting the top off a toothpaste tube, and opening milk cartons.

She upgraded him to a pretty blue 7 lb digi grip. 

   We made contact with Corrine, they will do PT at Mountain Valley, the hospital will do OT. 

     The rest of OT was the rainbow arch, the peg tower and finally the arm bike. He did 12 min. on the arm bike. She said 5 min for strengthening and 5 min for endurance.

     PT was stretching and ranging his legs.

       Lunch was tacos and grapes.

     OT was standing in the standing frame! 

It starts in a sitting position and they crank him to a standing position. He said he could feel pressure in his knees. The leg muscles stretch and it is weight bearing. The kidney and colon drain better. The first time up was one minute and the second time was two and a half minutes.

  Here he is standing with his heart warming smile. 

    We have two people in line for home care. The shower chair and wheelchair are ordered. The lift is getting okayed. 

    OT was a wax job on his left hand and stretching his hand afterward.

    We returned to our room and we had visitors! Gary and Pam Howland stopped by for a pleasant visit and some news of the outside world. It was fun to see them. 

   We had a short nap and on to dinner. Dinner was a slice of pepperoni pizza, green salad and vanilla custard with a lemonade chaser. 

    The 'team' decided that Bruce would stay here for another week. The renovations won't be finished until Feb. 3. It will be easier on Bruce to make one transition, he will be stronger and it would put him behind three days on OT and PT if we moved him to assisted care. There are pros and cons and we feel this will be easiest on him. 

    We did one round of Skip Bo with our mother/ daughter partners. Bruce was really wiped out from the standing machine.