Dec 12, 2006
At Walmart we were assigned to get the ingredients for sugar cookies. So we got three bags of cookie mix and four cans of different frostings. Ycchh ;-). For our two $5 gifts, we got a set of two stoneware bowls as one gift and an oven mit and pot holder ensemble as the second gift. We also then got a few supplies of our own – floss and stuff like that.
We got back around lunch time, and I ran off to the library to check email while Gary did his IC. Then we went down to the cafeteria and I had my rice while Gary rounded out his pb and j sandwich and apple with cafeteria-style overcooked vegetables ;-). According to his printed schedule, after lunch he was supposed to meet with the team nurse for “medicine management.” Of course, he doesn’t have any medicines, so this message must have gotten through to someone and his meeting with her had been erased from his schedule on the big board in the third floor gym which lists what everyone is supposed to be doing that day. This gave us an hour of unscheduled time. Horrors! Naturally I asked him what he intended to do to fill that hour. He decided to stretch, and then he did his rickshaw exercises. He went up to eighty pounds on the machine – four times as much as when he left here!
Next was a session with the OT, and today was spent on “bed mobility.” To be “checked off” on this meant being able to do the following things: transfer onto the bed from his wheelchair, get his own legs up on the bed, be able to hop sideways from one side of the bed to the other and back, be able to hop forward from the top to the bottom, be able to hop backward from bottom to top, be able to roll from his back to right side and similarly to his left side, and be able to roll to each side and get up into a sitting position from that side. He was able to do all this except the transfer with relative ease. When I commented this evening to him that I was reminded of the first times he tried to get into a sitting position and how today it had seemed rather easy, he remarked that the particular bed he was practicing on today was extremely bouncy and he was able to exploit that. He noted that when I had left for a short time while he did his stretching today, he had tried getting into a sitting position while on the mat – which is not springy – and it had been more difficult. But still, he had been able to do it by going all the way over into a prone instead of only to the side like they were having him do on the bed. Back in the summer, the first times they were trying to teach him the technique to sit up from being on his back, his thought had been, “God, I’m never going to be able to do that!”
His transfer to the bed, an uphill transfer, wasn’t the greatest; in fact I had to stick my arm out to make sure he didn’t go off the bed and the OT also came forward and put her hands on him to make sure he wouldn’t. So, she made him do two more transfers to the bed and back – he got better each time. She had suggested he put his hand that goes on the bed (one goes there and one stays on the chair when he transfers) a bit further away from his body. He was skeptical, thinking he wouldn’t get as much lift, but to his surprise his transfers were immediately better.
After he had gone through the basic mobility skills, as listed above, she showed him a few more for sitting up in bed from a supine position (i.e., lying on his back). The skills she showed him would be particularly useful if he was in a narrow bed and couldn’t roll all the way over to help himself sit up. The first technique was to grab his pants to each side near his butt and pull (this would take the place of having abdominal muscles to curl himself partways up – try it), and then rock from side to side while walking up on his elbows to lift himself up. That’s the best I can explain it, but I don’t think I understand it correctly, because I get nowhere doing it without using my abdominals. He didn’t make progress on it either without a lot of help from the therapist. Another technique involved starting while on his side, say his right, and pressing down on the mat to his right side with his left hand and while simultaneously digging his right elbow into the mattress while his right hand is pressing into his forehead – and you also rock to the right while doing this. The idea is that this gives you leverage to sit up. He was slightly better at that one (and so am I, I discovered when I tried it later). In the third technique he would again be on his side, say his right, and press both hands together in front of his chest while digging his right elbow while rocking up onto it, again a leverage thing. He was most successful at that one (and so am I).
Then she did the rest of the ASIA test on him. She told him the results said he was a T4. So, he’s been declared anything from a T2 to a T4 when they’ve done these tests on him, though it hasn’t made any functional difference.
She finished by having him do five transfers back and forth from the bed to wheelchair. She gave him another tip of not moving in the backward direction on his preparatory swings, but rather just going from the midpoint forward – she thought he was losing momentum when he went all the way back. He isn’t sure that is the case, but what was clear was that his transfers were better when he did that (combined with her previous tip). He thought he had better control of the forward part of the swing by not going all the way back. He said it was a subtle thing, but hopes to ingrain it with practice.
He finished up his therapy day by being in the standing frame for about forty-five minutes. He wondered if he would have any problems with it since he hasn’t stood upright in four months, but he didn’t have any real problems – it took him a few minutes to adjust to it, but then he was fine. We played cards.
After that, I drove him back to the apartment. While I went for a walk, Gary tried to get us hooked up to the internet. He spent about two hours trying to do that, but was finally successful. Most of the evening was a repeat of last evening.
All for now.
At Walmart we were assigned to get the ingredients for sugar cookies. So we got three bags of cookie mix and four cans of different frostings. Ycchh ;-). For our two $5 gifts, we got a set of two stoneware bowls as one gift and an oven mit and pot holder ensemble as the second gift. We also then got a few supplies of our own – floss and stuff like that.
We got back around lunch time, and I ran off to the library to check email while Gary did his IC. Then we went down to the cafeteria and I had my rice while Gary rounded out his pb and j sandwich and apple with cafeteria-style overcooked vegetables ;-). According to his printed schedule, after lunch he was supposed to meet with the team nurse for “medicine management.” Of course, he doesn’t have any medicines, so this message must have gotten through to someone and his meeting with her had been erased from his schedule on the big board in the third floor gym which lists what everyone is supposed to be doing that day. This gave us an hour of unscheduled time. Horrors! Naturally I asked him what he intended to do to fill that hour. He decided to stretch, and then he did his rickshaw exercises. He went up to eighty pounds on the machine – four times as much as when he left here!
Next was a session with the OT, and today was spent on “bed mobility.” To be “checked off” on this meant being able to do the following things: transfer onto the bed from his wheelchair, get his own legs up on the bed, be able to hop sideways from one side of the bed to the other and back, be able to hop forward from the top to the bottom, be able to hop backward from bottom to top, be able to roll from his back to right side and similarly to his left side, and be able to roll to each side and get up into a sitting position from that side. He was able to do all this except the transfer with relative ease. When I commented this evening to him that I was reminded of the first times he tried to get into a sitting position and how today it had seemed rather easy, he remarked that the particular bed he was practicing on today was extremely bouncy and he was able to exploit that. He noted that when I had left for a short time while he did his stretching today, he had tried getting into a sitting position while on the mat – which is not springy – and it had been more difficult. But still, he had been able to do it by going all the way over into a prone instead of only to the side like they were having him do on the bed. Back in the summer, the first times they were trying to teach him the technique to sit up from being on his back, his thought had been, “God, I’m never going to be able to do that!”
His transfer to the bed, an uphill transfer, wasn’t the greatest; in fact I had to stick my arm out to make sure he didn’t go off the bed and the OT also came forward and put her hands on him to make sure he wouldn’t. So, she made him do two more transfers to the bed and back – he got better each time. She had suggested he put his hand that goes on the bed (one goes there and one stays on the chair when he transfers) a bit further away from his body. He was skeptical, thinking he wouldn’t get as much lift, but to his surprise his transfers were immediately better.
After he had gone through the basic mobility skills, as listed above, she showed him a few more for sitting up in bed from a supine position (i.e., lying on his back). The skills she showed him would be particularly useful if he was in a narrow bed and couldn’t roll all the way over to help himself sit up. The first technique was to grab his pants to each side near his butt and pull (this would take the place of having abdominal muscles to curl himself partways up – try it), and then rock from side to side while walking up on his elbows to lift himself up. That’s the best I can explain it, but I don’t think I understand it correctly, because I get nowhere doing it without using my abdominals. He didn’t make progress on it either without a lot of help from the therapist. Another technique involved starting while on his side, say his right, and pressing down on the mat to his right side with his left hand and while simultaneously digging his right elbow into the mattress while his right hand is pressing into his forehead – and you also rock to the right while doing this. The idea is that this gives you leverage to sit up. He was slightly better at that one (and so am I, I discovered when I tried it later). In the third technique he would again be on his side, say his right, and press both hands together in front of his chest while digging his right elbow while rocking up onto it, again a leverage thing. He was most successful at that one (and so am I).
Then she did the rest of the ASIA test on him. She told him the results said he was a T4. So, he’s been declared anything from a T2 to a T4 when they’ve done these tests on him, though it hasn’t made any functional difference.
She finished by having him do five transfers back and forth from the bed to wheelchair. She gave him another tip of not moving in the backward direction on his preparatory swings, but rather just going from the midpoint forward – she thought he was losing momentum when he went all the way back. He isn’t sure that is the case, but what was clear was that his transfers were better when he did that (combined with her previous tip). He thought he had better control of the forward part of the swing by not going all the way back. He said it was a subtle thing, but hopes to ingrain it with practice.
He finished up his therapy day by being in the standing frame for about forty-five minutes. He wondered if he would have any problems with it since he hasn’t stood upright in four months, but he didn’t have any real problems – it took him a few minutes to adjust to it, but then he was fine. We played cards.
After that, I drove him back to the apartment. While I went for a walk, Gary tried to get us hooked up to the internet. He spent about two hours trying to do that, but was finally successful. Most of the evening was a repeat of last evening.
All for now.
posted by Peg Daniels at 6:21 PM
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