A Busy But Good Day

We woke Jackie as late as we possibly could.  Like yesterday, today was stacked with therapy sessions.  We knew he wouldn’t get a break until early afternoon, so wanted him to get as much rest as possible.

He started the day with OT.  A weekend therapist worked with Jackie and began the session with stretching exercises.  These exercises worked all different muscle groups. They also worked on sitting balance while playing bean bag tic tac toe.

Jackie went right from OT to speech.  He had a therapist we had never met before.  She worked on Jackie’s speaking volume and pronunciation.

It was now lunchtime and Jackie had to be ready for PT by 1:00pm.  We managed to have him eat enough lunch to hold him over till dinner but not enough that would make him too full for his work out.

1:00 pm came quickly and Karen was his therapist.  She had worked at Magee full time before and now is working part time here.  I’m finding that there are many female therapists with similar stories.  It is great that Magee recognizes the importance of families and works with their staff to bring them back part time after having children.  Karen stretched Jackie and then worked on standing and sitting exercises. She also had him do step ups while standing.  The session ended with a walk across the gym using the walker with the arm extensions.  A PT aid supported Jackie’s trunk while Karen worked Jackie’s left leg.

We got back to the room and at this point Jackie had not napped all day.  We still had Rec therapy at 2:30 and gave Jackie the choice to either take a nap and skip Rec therapy or try to make it through and then nap.  He decided to try and make it through and did well.  He played Wii fishing again and Jackie recorded the top score.  We all had fun.  Jim and I were cheering for him like he was participating in the BassMasters championship.  It was fun, we were glad he stuck it out.  We got him in bed as soon as we got back to the room and weighed him.  He weighed the same as last week which was good considering he did not feel well for many of those days.  PTL. He ultimately only slept for about 40 minutes.  He must have smelled the dinner trays.

After dinner and some meds the boys accompanied me to the gym where I did a load of Jackie’s laundry.  Jackie worked on moving his wheelchair on his own. Since all the work is basically in his right leg, it is very tiring.  If he keeps working at it I’m sure he will master it soon.

We then took a quick trip to the second floor terrace for Jackie’s protein snack.  It was very hot and muggy so we did not stay out long.  Then it was bed and evening meds.

Tomorrow we start up all over again.  Little by little Jackie’s strength and endurance will continue to build. We will be patient and celebrate every smile and every step along the way.