Update #115 from Linda

Hello! Beth has Steve on the recumbent bike right now, so I thought I'd give a little update.

Today I had the chance to attend therapy with Steve, and came out of there feeling so good about the way some things are going. He got on the eliptical in PT and was on it for 15 minutes. I gave him a little assistance in keeping his left leg moving as fast as his right, but after about 10 minutes he was able to take over and didn't need any help. His left hand was able to hang onto the bar for the most part; just slipped down now and then and it was a quick adjustment to get him going again. This was the best cardio workout he's had since his injury, and it was obvious that we need an eliptical at home, so that's the next thing on our list! The cardio issue has been driving us a little crazy, and it was great to find a big part of that solution.

In OT we got him on "all fours" on a mat table, and he was able to support himself for long periods of time, including with his left arm. He also sat on the edge of the table, and held his balance very well. Add the "sit/stands" they had him doing in PT and it was a pretty exhausting two hours!

Then on to speech, which just keeps getting better. I remember, in July, Steve taking many minutes to tell his previous therapist that we went to "Ruth Ann's" for ice cream in Muskegon, and we were so excited that he could say those two words so clearly. Now, for example, he'll be given a minute to say as many things in a given category as he can, and he routinely names 7 or 8. Today he was asked to name methods of transportation; his response was "car, boat, plane, walk, run, canoe, para-kite, and pogo stick" so you can see his sense of humor is right there. I think he could have said more, but we were all laughing about the pogo stick and the time ran out!

After such a busy day, including all the usual things that go on at home, he now is spending an hour biking with Beth. We're so proud of his willingness/eagerness to work so hard. It pays off slowly but surely! We're so thankful for Beth's dedication, too. She is a combination saint/slave-driver, and has really turned this into a valuable activity on many levels.

Steve plays tennis with our friend Jennie every week. She has many types of drills that she does with him, and it's amazing to see the progress he's making. Besides tennis, she has him do things like hold a ball in his left hand and move it onto the racquet (which is held in his right hand). Last week she had him do some things like play catch just using a tennis ball. Rob took some videos, and I'm hoping he can attach them at the end of this post. I'm going to go ahead and publish this, but we'll add some videos and/or pictures, so stop back in a couple days to see them!

It seems to us that we have a nice combination of things that have Steve back on track. He has traditional therapies, swimming, biking, tennis, horseback riding, gym workouts, and massage. Very busy days! The other night I looked at a video from about a year ago, and watched it many times. Even in that little video you could see such progress in so many ways.

We have an appointment later this month with a low vision specialist. It's really hard to tell what Steve's vision issues are, and to know if they're the result of his left side neglect or some other injury. He also just had terrible vision before he was hurt. He gets better all the time with things like reading the newspaper, using his computer, and playing games. But there are areas he doesn't seem to see, and his eyes don't always "line up" when he's looking at things. We wonder if these problems cause some his issues with balance and walking, too; we're hoping this doctor can help us figure things out.

Now it's Sunday and I wanted to mention a couple things I noticed at the gym today. There's a machine called an overhead press; Steve pushes his arms straight up (I help the left), controls the weight as it comes back down, then pushes it up again. Today for the first time I noticed his left wrist flexing so that his hand could help control that downward motion. He also does an "ab" machine and I have always positioned his left arm on it. Today he reached it out and his fingers curled to hold it in position. Those were two very little things, but they surprised me. So tonight I asked him to move his left thumb, pointer finger, flex his wrist, turn his hand to face various ways...he could do all those things (very slowly) and I wondered why we hadn't noticed this happening before. Maybe it has, or maybe something else has started working. In any case, it was great to see!

Sometimes I think you'll read the progress we talk about here and think he's back to his old self. That's not the case at all; he has many issues and lots to work on, but we long ago decided to be patient and optimistic! Steve is still texting like crazy, so feel free to keep in touch in that way (248-770-6092). He'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for continuing to read this blog, and for keeping Steve in your thoughts and prayers. I hope life is good for all of you! Take care!

Love,
Linda