update #103 from Linda and Rob

Hello! I hope life is good for all of you. Things are rolling along here...

We have reduced Steve's therapy from four to three days per week, and have started taking him to a club to work out twice each week. This was originally due to insurance issues, but we have become excited about it and it appears to be a blessing in disguise. This is a very well equipped gym and they have machines that can target Steve's weak muscles only. This is good because you want to get the weaker muscles to catch-up so to speak. Up until now, this was done at rehab by manually stretching and exercising Steve and took time away from walking. Our plan is to consult with Steve's therapists and formulate an action plan each week. Our good friend Jennie is a director there and has lots of ideas, as do a number of other people she knows. We met them all and they all want to help........just amazing!!! Steve has gone twice so far, and says he likes going. We are sure the atmosphere of the club will be good mentally for Steve, as well as the physical part of things. Before he was injured he worked out just about every day. THANKS, Jennie!

We're trying to give Steve more ownership of his therapy. For example, there are oral motor exercises that he should do several times each day, and we try to make him responsible for them rather than always telling him what to do. The same will hold true for his sessions at the gym...we'll have him keep track of things, tell us what he needs/wants to do there, etc.

We discovered that his recliner has an issue - leans to the right. We have spent weeks propping him up in that chair because he has balance issues, but it turns out this is partly because of a defective chair! Poor Steve. He was the only one who sat in it, so we never knew!

Steve and I play Rummikub almost every night, and I can't tell you how good that game has been for him...mental strategy, physically moving game pieces around, scanning the tray that holds your game pieces (good for his left side neglect issue), etc. Early on it would take a couple hours to play and numerous errors would be made. These days, no kidding, I am lucky to ever win!

We have baked cookies together a few times. His left arm isn't ready for such an activity yet, but he can do plenty of measuring, mixing, and scooping with his right. Last night he commented that he's not much help with things like that (not feeling sorry for himself, just stating reality as he saw it)...I made sure he understood that the fact that he's home, sitting at the kitchen table, and helping at all is beyond a miracle.

His strength and ability to eat are improving all the time. His speech is slower, but he communicates just fine by writing. When at all possible I give him the time to actually say things. He tries hard to talk and I'm so glad to see that he's not giving up on this issue.

About two weeks ago Steve had what I felt was a "good" day, and the next day was also good. Nothing you can really put your finger on, just a lot of little things in regards to his abilities, efforts, and attitude. A couple of days later Rob commented that he'd been noticing improvements, and so have his therapists. Rob and I have a "gut" feeling that a corner has been turned in his recovery. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but good things are happening! Please keep that energy and those prayers coming. They mean the world to all of us. Take care of yourselves.

Love,
Linda and Rob