Well it's been 4 full months and this is the 100th post to this blog. Wow.... Donna is great. She has gotten the hang of this weekend at home thing and fully enjoys it. Her schedule was a bit loaded this weekend and lately rest is her big issue, so we may need to find her a bit more rest time. I guess it is hard to be so loved:-)
We have asked for a more rigorous therapy schedule and it has arrived. Almost every day after dinner now she is very tired and her support team tells me that it is a rare day that she does head straight to bed as I leave her in the evening. Well for all of that effort she is seeing results. Her strength is growing, her balance is improving and her right arm is improving materially. She gave us two beautiful sights the last few days. One was on Friday when she lifted her right arm to almost shoulder height and held it there (a few weeks ago she may have been able to lift it a few inches) and the second was Saturday when she locked and unlocked her chair brake with only her right hand. I'm not sure you can understand the significance of this last one, to do it she had to get her hand there, grasp the brake handle with adequate strength and then hold that grip while exerting adequate shoulder/arm strength. It was huge and is a large indication of her potential to regain her prior form. We have waited a long time for this.
This week will start with major therapy disruptions as we have two final doctor appointments Monday followed by her leg surgery on Tuesday am, then it will be back to regular therapy work for a while. I think she is ready for the surgery and are hopeful it will remove a big obstacle to a normal walk.
So let me see if i can make all of you parents chuckle. The last 2 weeks we have made church services by just a few minutes despite rising hours before. Its just a laundry list of things to do, Donna's stretch exercises, picking her clothes, shower, outfit has an issue move to outfit #2, breakfast, medicine, outfit #3, 10 minutes for me to get ready, load everybody.... Brings back memories of days long gone by. Like those past days it is all busy but fun but we still have plans to improve the process. We'll see how it goes.
In all the discussion we have with Donna now, I'm not sure she is really able to fully comprehend the journey we have all been on. That's right "all" because I learn as I talk to people that so many of you have gone on it with us. We feel the love. Some of the conversations are amazing and so many of you face material challenges also. I only hope we can be there for you as you have for us.
We plow on, we feel the prayers (thank you), and we remain very hopeful.
Regards
Bob
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