Sunday, September 27, 2009

It has been pretty quiet this week -

Ted completed his second week of accupuncture and after only 3 treatments is feeling the effects as new parts of his body are waking up. A GOOD thing! He also completed his first speaking engagement as the result of the stroke - talking with College of DuPage Physical Therapy students last Tuesday evening. They were a good audience - both interested in Ted's perspective on the treatment he received / the experience of having a stroke and entertained by his talk. (The first speaker had been in a motorcycle accident and had NOT worn a helmut - "pretty messed up" guy according to Ted. Scary!)

Dr. Sharma, Ted's Marion Joy physician, gave to OK for Ted to go back to work (we already had the OK from Ted's GP, Dr. Nelson) and was pleased with the way we handled taking a vacation - getting things in place to go back to a "normal" life.

As the outpatient therapy winds down the focus is on walking without a brace, doing inclines and other somewhat tricky situations and using the left hand to grasp bean bags and other small objects. Though the control of the arm and fingers have not come back yet - the bean bag therapy works to keep retraining those brain cells!

When not at Marion Joy in therapy Ted has been busy at home using the Wii system and Wii fit to really improve his balance (Ask him about getting the fish in the Penguin Game!) and at the gym. He and Joey (the personal trainer Ted hooked up with before the stroke) work on parts of the body not stressed in the Marion Joy sessions including stretches of the left shoulder / arm and lots of squats (again without the brace). Ted was especially pleased at being able to go to the gym by himself and use both the upright and inclined exercise bikes and to navigate the whirlpool. (The swimming pool will have to wait until the left arm comes back - climbing up / down a ladder with only one arm doesn't seem to be a good idea!)

Speaking of bean bags (and we were a moment ago) all that practice came in handy at the 1st birthday party for Peyton and Jordon Bowen - the twin sons of our friends Susan (Place) and Jeff Bowen. The birthday party included a carnival with bowling, ring toss, Bozo Buckets and ... yes .... a bean bag toss. Ted scored great on the bowling, Bozo Bucket and Bean Bag Toss and shared his prize box including the tattos and pirate note pad with his assistant, Dale. We had a grand time and really enjoyed seeing how much our "adopted nephews" Peyton and Jordon have grown.

Ted continues to work to clean out his Tech Director office (15 years worth of work and other "stuff") as he gets ready to move to his new position at the library as part of the Children's Department. He says the finger play part of story time (can we say "Itsy Bitsy Spider"?) will have to wait until the left hand comes back to life.

Thanks to all for your prayers and support through these challenging times. We love you all more than we can say!

1 comment:

  1. Hi I am soosoo glad that your speech center was not impacted-- soo you can still sing, and now play the piano Your story is quite an encouragement to others

    ReplyDelete