Mama and Rabbi work really hard to keep PT interesting and helpful and fun. I truthfully could not ask for a better group of people to help me through this time of strengthening. The entire staff at the Rehab facility is like one big family. Constantly cheering all the patients on with their successes and lifting them up when they are struggling. And it's not just Mama, Rabbi, and Mr Miyagi that I'm talking about either. There's DuckLady, LittleBit, Irish, Ace, and N.
As promised, Mama and Rabbi added new things to my session during our next visit. Mama had been on my business fb page to get an idea of what types of things I work with on a daily basis and they coordinated my rehab around that. So after walking with the Rabbi (our walks are getting smoother and quicker but I'm still afraid some of the time because even though I'm moving my feet and legs the way they are telling me to and it's moving me forward, it does not feel natural and I have to use a ton of concentration), he told me to stop at this one spot near a bunch of equipment that was in holders on the wall. These are all weighted lengths of multi-colored pipes. Starting at ones as light as a twig and going up to 5 pounds. But they aren't just weights. These are all in various lengths from about 2 feet long to 4 feet long. I was told that my task was to take them down out of their holders first. Once I had done this, I was told to hold them all. Fortunately I could bear hug them. Then we walked some more. Me holding onto this crazy mix of long and shorts rods in various weights and Rabbi holding onto my leash. Truth be told, I really just wanted to drop all but the longest one and then start twirling that one like I was back in color guard. After all, I was glide stepping...I might as well finish out the halftime performance, right?
After we had made a lap and a half like this I was told to take them back and put them in their holders. I kinda sucked at this. The holders weren't labelled so I just had to figure out where each one went. It was like a bad game of Memory. Then we walked some more. I was starting to think we were just gonna walk the whole time but then I got another surprise. They brought out this huge 2 foot stuffed white duck (DuckLady had won it at a conference) and I got to practice picking it up (to simulate picking up soft items without defined handles) and then carrying it around a couple laps. Did I mention the duck squeaked Aflac when it was squeezed? This was great fun! I loved this crazy spin on things. But as much fun as it was I do have to be honest here and admit that both carrying the rods and carrying the duck were extremely difficult. At this point in my recovery I was having to concentrate on moving my feet and legs properly and that was a challenge. Throwing in additional items (balancing extra, uneven weight) while I walked without dropping them was extremely difficult.
LittleBit is another one of the physical therapists that works at this facility, but not necessarily with me. However, she is a great cheerleader and always smiling and offering support. I found out that she had battled Hodgkins Lymphoma just 2 years prior and was now cancer free. I think her great faith and having been on the side of a patient needing lots of support and positivity allows her to bring that added exuberance to work and to the folks going through rehab. I desperately needed that right now.
After PT, I had speech therapy with Ace. even though I seem to be talking better, it still wasn't my usual ninety-for-nothing pace that I had previously had and my inflection and tone were off. Not to mention the weird cottonmouth affect that sometimes came over my voice as if I was just leaving the dentist after having novocaine. Besides I still couldn't feel around my lower left lip and was drooling like an English Mastiff most of the time. Hopefully Ace could help me overcome these things.
The first thing we did was I had to talk to her. I don't like talking now. Can I text or sign language? Perhaps I can write a note. Anything but talk. It's awkward and hard and frankly I dont like it. (by the way, anybody that knew me pre-stroke should mark that on a calendar. The first time I haven't wanted to talk. It may become a national holiday.). So I talked to her and answered her questions.
Then she read some article to me that reminded me of the Achievement Tests that we used to take back in elementary school. You know the ones that are a couple paragraphs of some scientific something or other that is supposed to be interesting but it's written so you just want to poke your eye out with a crayola and move on? Yeah, that kind of article. It transported me straight back to Mrs.
S's third grade class. After she read this article on hydroponic something or other, I had to answer some equally mundane questions about it. Next I had to read a different article to her. I hoped she was going to have to answer the questions this time but there were no questions. We went through a variety of other reading and comprehension questions during this session and she finally agreed that I might only need a couple more sessions and then the rest of the speech therapy could be done on my own at home. I was super excited when I heard that. I needed to get my old voice back, I had people to talk to and things to say...besides, our anniversary was coming up and I didn't want to tell The Warden "Happy Anniversary" in my choppy, 5 year old garbled voice. I had to get this voice thing figured out as soon as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment