Update #76

In Group today, Ryan and the other patients played a “process of elimination” game with the calendar. They had to figure out what date the therapist was thinking of. She would give them clues and they had to take turns crossing out the days that were eliminated by those clues.

In PT, the therapist did more walking with the quad cane. This time, the therapist didn’t use a knee brace on Ryan. He seemed to do okay without the brace around his left knee. He still uses his right leg more than his left, but he is getting better. The therapist thinks the problem is that he doesn’t really know what his left leg is doing, so he relies heavily on his right side (the side he can control). Over time and with practice, Ryan will get better at relying on his left leg.

In OT, they worked more with e-stim on Ryan’s left hand. While the e-stim was working they had him put weight on his left hand by leaning (from a standing position) on the table. They also did some left arm exercises with him.

After that, they had Ryan take off his shoes and socks and put them back on. He had no problems taking them off, but putting them on was a lot harder.

In speech therapy, Ryan did a few memory exercises. The therapist would read him a short paragraph and he would have to answer questions about the details in that paragraph. After four of those paragraphs, Ryan had to remember what the topic of each paragraph was.

Ryan had an appointment with the OT therapists and a representative from the company that makes the e-stim machine. They are going to order Ryan his own machine so that he can use it in his room and get more therapy on his left arm.

In KT, Ryan did more weightlifting exercises. This time, in addition to the three regular exercises, the therapist threw in some calf extensions. This will really help Ryan balance himself while standing and walking. I never thought about it before, but so much of your standing balance comes from your feet, ankles and calves.