Time is on our side

Monday was a holiday for me so I got to sit in on Occupational Therapy with Dad. Currently they are working on balancing without his arm brace in the hopes that he won’t have to wear it forever. They have also been actively strengthening his right arm, through rigorous exercises. I say rigorous because it is for him. To the casual observer it looks like simple exercises of raising your arm, pushing your arm, bringing your arm in. And Dad can do it with a little help. The best way to describe it is “tricking” your arm to do what you want it to do through manipulation and repetition. For example, the therapist will tap repeatedly on specific muscles and then slowly raise Dad’s arm. She will do this several times until she feels his muscles reacting and then tell Dad on the next run it’s all him and to raise his arm. He is to raise it, not only a certain way (depending on if he’s lying or standing), but also to a certain point (usually locking the elbow), hold it for 3 seconds and then bring it back. The range of exercises using this technique are multiple. The thought process is that by tapping certain muscles continuously you are kick starting them to work. If those muscles aren’t worked on a daily basis they sort of “go to sleep”. For you and me, well we don’t even think about this, because our limbs just move seemingly on their own, our minds seamlessly keeping everything going. The fascination with how a damaged mind learns anew continues. As for his right hand, I described an arm brace he has that splays his fingers out and keeps his wrist straight. This helps to fix a two-fold problem I found out. If he were not to wear that for several hours each day, eventually his wrist would continue to bend inward and his fingers, already curled in, would curl in even more. If you only stretch out the fingers but not work the wrist, the wrist will bend inward as soon as you straighten the fingers. The reverse is true with the wrist. If you straighten the wrist the fingers automatically will curl inwards. Once that happens with either the wrist or fingers, they can’t be fixed. Since these are so intertwined with one another they need to be worked together in order for a successful recovery.    
Dad did really well, albeit very exhausted when the session was done. His therapist joked they would be arm wrestling next week. I subscribe to a email service of daily motivations. What can I say, we all need a cheerleader on our side once in a while. I rarely read it though; however, I happened to check it out on Monday. It read, “Time is on your side. So are all the angels. And ‘no’ is never forever.” Well time is and has been most definitely on Dad’s side and seeing the improvements he’s still making in therapy highlight what I’ve known all along and what I’ve written on here over and over again like the broken record I sometimes can be. Time is on our side

After therapy, driving around in the car

Ankle Brace

We finally started working with Dad on the new ankle brace he received, oh I don’t know, a couple of months ago. With some of the health issues we had regarding my mother being diagnosed with congestive heart failure and the holidays, there just had not been time to do it prior. Now that we have Mom’s health back under control (she is doing very well) and the holidays are a memory, we can begin to continue strengthening Dad’s right leg. We have to. I keep telling him he’s going to snowshoe with me next winter. The whole reason for the new brace, recommended by therapy, was because his right leg was improving and getting stronger.  

Currently the brace he has been wearing, for almost a year, comes up under his foot and wraps around the front of his shin. When he walks it provides support as he leans forward with his leg. The new brace is a molded plastic that comes under his heel and up the back end of his calf. The balance needed to use this brace is completely different than the other one, because you can’t rely on support being in the front of the shin. We learned this the hard way when he first brought it home and I stupidly put it on him before going to work one day, only to get a phone call a couple of hours later saying he had fallen in the TV room. Luckily he was not hurt, although it freaked him out enough that he hasn’t wanted to have anything to do with the new brace since then. After speaking with his Occupational therapist though, we agreed as long as I’m around to watch him, he should start using the brace at home. So we started this past weekend. It’s going to take him several weeks to get used to it as we are only doing this intermittently on the weekends, but he’ll get there. I’m sure it won’t be long before we can get rid of the old one. We are still working towards the goal of being able to walk one day without the use of the hemi-cane. Always the eternal optimist, I know it’s in the realm of possibilities with time. Happy Friday everyone!         

Out and About

Friday afternoons, specifically the last three months, has been a combination of Doctor visits for not only Mom and Dad, but also my dog (we are trying to get rid of a pesky corneal ulcer in his eye). In between the carefully staggered afternoon appointments; however, the usual chores are still executed, namely going to the dump and weekly food shopping. There is no garbage pickup in Bucksport, resulting in hauling your trash to the dump a couple of miles outside of town. Dad has been taking the ride with me to the dump pretty much since he had returned home last spring. For the last three months or more he has also been going with me to do the weekly food shopping. It takes a little longer, food shopping, and sometimes he doesn’t swing as wide as he should when turning a corner in those little electric carts (resulting in getting “stuck” on an end display), but it’s good for him to be out and about. I think back to last spring when he first came home. He really didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything and he was tired all the time. Now, almost from the moment I walk into the house on Friday I typically hear from him, “So what are we going to do this afternoon?” I like to joke with him to give me a second to take off my jacket first, but still, the eagerness to do something, go somewhere is there and a good thing. I would rather have him eager and looking forward to something, than sitting there depressed, something that has not ever really taken over since the stroke. They say attitude and a positive outlook are the modes by which people overcome tragic events.  No truer statement could be made and Dad still has a great attitude.  

I always like to think of the sing songwriter Beck and a line in his song Strange Apparition, “Anything should make you happy.” Sometimes it doesn’t always, but you know what? It should.