Thursday, July 10, 2008

Sorry that it's been several days since the last posting, but the days seem to be getting away from me. It is a little like living in some kind of time warp over the last eight months. Can you imagine, it's eight months since the accident (or as Mark likes to say, his "incident with gravity").

Mark is doing very well, although his new schedule of getting up earlier than 8:30 a.m has him a little cranky (surprise, he's returning to normal)! Anyway, he just has to get his day started earlier, eat breakfast in the day room and get to PT at 9 am by himself. Of course, the first day, he checked his PDA and went to the craft room and started painting, instead of going to PT. The schedule had changed and he hadn't changed his day timer. The therapist and I had to go looking for him after he hadn't gotten to her by 9:15!

Pool therapy is going very well. On Tuesday, he used the new braces again, and walked about 80 feet. The regular therapist was away last week at a conference and hadn't seen him do this, so she was absolutely delighted. It was by far his best effort. He did this again today and again did very well.

He also has gloves now, and with them, can propel his chair much more easily. Although I must say his problem solving skills are very good and he does use his left leg a bit and the handrails on the walls to get places more quickly. One of the new nurses escorted him to the pool this afternoon, and was instructed not to let him cheat with the railings! He did fine.

Tomorrow the physical therapist is going to train us how to get him in and out of my car. Keep your fingers crossed that I can handle this. It will be much better, since we will have the use of my car all the time and won't have to rely on the van. Hopefully, this old gal will be able to master the technique.

This evening saw yet another patient get discharged and move out of the room Mark is in. Since both of us have had our fill of revolving roommates, one of the other Moms and I went to the nursing administrator and asked that our sons be moved in together. She agreed, so Mark's new roommate is JT who I believe I have mentioned in older posts. His mom Chris lives here at the Fisher House and is part of our little "family". It made perfect sense since we have both been here since January and will be here for some time yet. We do things together and it sure beats having a different roommate every two weeks or so. JT, like Mark, and more so, is not able to get up and around and they usually have the same nurses. Having them together looks like it will work out very nicely.

We'll keep ya posted!!!!!!!!