Alex is still making improvements. They are very small but they are there. One of his nurses that hadn't seen him for a week was amazed to see him Wednesday night, she was amazed at the progress since she saw him last. When I say "Alex walked" He's not walking like he use to, he's not walking like most people do. But he is up and moving a few hours a day. Today his PT put him in a harness and he "walked" around the hallway. He's doing better. He's still in a lot of pain which interferes with his PT sometimes. He can move his feet and wheel himself around in his wheel chair pretty good. Theres not a lot of new movement with his hands. His hands are kind of "stuck" straight out. He can move his pinkie, but once again, when I say "move" its just kind of a twitch, if you ask him to move it and you blink, you will miss the movement. Its all baby steps. One small step at a time, he's doing it. He's Beating the Odds! Kaleen aka Alex's mom
Alex! You're amazing! Just think---you've joined a select few who have been struck by lightning and lived to tell about it! I hope you're keeping notes about your experience. I would LOVE to hear what you think about all this!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to you and your family for all the wonderful things you are doing I hope to see you soon!
Kisses,
Auntie Suze
Alex! It is so cool to see you up in that contraption! You are on the same path that I was on. The timing is almost exact! I think you might be progressing a bit faster than I did, though. (Aren’t the harness wedgies fantastic?!) Just imagine, if you continue to beat my progress you be driving by mid-February!!
ReplyDelete**PARENTS: Ask the PT about paying close attention to Alex’s foot placement and his possible muscle loss in the hips and thighs that might affect his gait during these learning sessions in the harness. I complained while in the harness that my gait did not feel right, but my PT’s told me not to worry about it. They told me to simply widen my stance. After two years of walking incorrectly (too wide of a stance and muscle weakness causing my knees to sink inwards) I earned myself a knee surgery ($3K) – torn meniscus due to improper gait.**
Pretty soon they’ll put a treadmill under you to get your rhythm restarted. Tell them you’ll pass on the metronome and find a song on your iPod that has an appropriate beat to walk to and get your groove on!
Speaking of music and rhythm, perhaps while you’re lying in your bed spacing out to music you can visualize your fingers moving to the beat of the music. Even if your fingers aren’t moving, they will be in your head. You want your brain to make that connection. Your muscles have memory! They will remember! Maybe, over time, it will work even if the movements aren’t “real” right now. ?? I didn’t move anything until someone of authority TOLD me to. How odd is that? They had to TELL me and not ASK me. Strange, considering before the strike I would never have moved a muscle if someone "told" me to. ☺ I am a bit bull-headed.
All of those baby steps are adding up!
Hugs to you all.
Lara
Lara: That's a brilliant idea about "practicing" music on a keyboard in your head. One thing we do know about the brain is its amazing resilience to injury. Imagining DOING it will help to rebuild the connections in his brain!!! Once the muscles have healed more, the brain will help to make it happen!!! COOL IDEA!!!
ReplyDeleteI had a moment to reflect today, and although this has been a very stressful and humbling time for our family, I can't help but remember the laughs that sometimes brighten our day and keep us going. My quote for today is from Alex when he was still in Las Vegas (and still on Morphine!) Kaleen was trying to explain what had happened to him and trying to answer Alex's questions. Alex asks, "what year is this?" Kaleen answers, "it's 2010" Alex say's with incredulity, "Oh yeah! Right! I get struck by lightning and you guys get blasted into the future!" It was hard not to laugh even in that moment.
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