Had a good Speech Therapy session today with Megan. He is sustaining his voice a lot longer than he was even a few days ago. So that is one positive for today. Also, he is officially is on chunky foods for all meals. Small steps!
Had OT and PT back-to-back this morning. Good practice in getting M ready for the rigors of outpatient therapy. He was super tired, but did great. He got his Independence Day shirt today and got his photo taken and put on the wall with all of the others before him who got well enough to go home. But what was super exciting is the PT had him sign a photo release. I almost told her he could not sign, but instead just let him go for it. He started writing his name and had a nearly perfectly formed M (in the same style he had prior to the stroke) and you could recognize a C and an N. Won't be long until he will have that back to, I have a feeling! yay! In OT, with the adorable Whitney, he bounced a soft basketball off a net and caught it again. Over and over, sitting then standing! His reaction time was really great. Then he did his favorite hand over hand windmill exercise. We still have equilibrium issues and need to learn to straighten up while sitting and standing and not lean...
Michael slept well last night at home in our bed. I know, because I spent most of the night listening to him breathe and waiting for him to need to go to the bathroom. 🙂 I'm sure sleeping will become easier as we get our routine down and I better know what to expect. It felt familiar to the times I brought my babies home from the hospital...you are on constant watch and your ears never stop listening. Earlier this morning I was having a tough moment thinking of the enormity of this situation. But I have to say that we've done a lot for our first morning home. We successfully ate breakfast and took our 5 morning meds, (we have 4 in the evening) used our bathtub chair for the first time for a lovely shower, and we loaded M in the car and ventured for a walk on one of our favorite paths in Four Seasons. We got a call from our Coumadin Pharmacist. They will be responsible for monitoring his blood work and prescribing dosages for this blood thinner. They asked if we ...
Yesterday morning we took a walk on our favorite dirt path in Four Seasons. We did pretty well even on an uphill area. (I'm going to get so buff!!) Here is a photo of M enjoying the beautiful path and all of the trees that had no leaves last time he was there. We enjoyed a visit from Ben and Jake this weekend. It was nice seeing their handsome faces and we had a good time being together. We did a test run with Michael on the wheelchair up and down our street. So I think I'm ready for that! The uphill/downhill was not as scary as I thought it would be. So yay, more quick walks without having to load the car. My parents brought up some lunch today and it was great to see them as well. They hadn't seen Michael since he was at Kaiser. He's improved quite a bit since then. Tomorrow we have our first post-patient visit with M's regular doctor at Kaiser (look out Dr. Patel...I have LOTS of questions and referral requests, LOL...about every "ologist" ...