Observations of therapy

Hello!

This morning Joye, her sister Patsy, and I (Jon) went down to the hospital to see Dad for a few hours. We got there and started talking to him which made him open his eyes a bit. He was looking around and would momentarily stop and look at Mom.

When we were getting ready to go the Occupational Therapist came in and started working, so we wanted to watch her. First she was moving the fingers to his right arm which is in the cast. Nice and slow making sure he could make a ball of his fist and stretching them our to their full length. Her assistant was doing the same to his left hand. Then they worked on his shoulders a little bit, moving his arms up and down, forward and backward. The same thing to his neck. They were also talking to him trying to get a response. Then they did a "deep" pain response ( by forcefully rolling a pen down his nails) he definitely tried to more away. The lighter pain (pulling some arm hair) didn't get much response at all. When they asked him to wiggle his toes, there was a possible response, but it was very weak so it is hard to tell. When asked to wiggle his fingers it was like he was trying because his arm moved a tiny bit, but it seemed hard to wiggle the fingers. I felt like at this point he was very tired from being talked to and moved around. His eyes wouldn't stay open unless they brought his head to a more vertical position.

They told us to keep asking him to do simple commands, like stick out your tongue, or give a thumbs up, or wiggle your fingers to see if his level of consciousness increases more.

She also taught us how to moisten his mouth which is great because patients with trach's usually get really dry mouths from not using them.

After they left the physical therapist came in. At this point in his recovery their jobs (OT and PT) are pretty much the same. Just make sure his limbs don't freeze. The PT did movement of his legs and a few more arm movements. She said the leg with the external fixator was heavy even thought it was made out of mainly lightweight materials. But she was doing range of motion on his right knee which I am sure felt so good.

She is also going to bring us a book she listened to on CD called, "Stroke of insight." Apparently it is about a neuro-scientist who has a major stroke in her left cerebral hemisphere. It is about her experience and recovery. It should be interesting.

Anyway, a second neurologist is coming tomorrow to meet with us and Dad to make plans for his treatment. We are excited and it is exciting to see any reaction from him at this point.
We appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts. We have hung most of the cards up in his room, but ran out of space, so we will find a way to hang them all.