Our daily physio appointment loomed at 11 am. Today we had the delights of Mike and we knew that it promised to by a fun filled session. Mike was such an explosive person when it comes to personalities that you could not fail to be entwined fully in the moment of the session. Dana thought Mike was hilarious and many times we had to get her focused, as she tends to laugh so much.
We met with Mike as scheduled at 11am and he immediately got Dana up from her wheelchair onto her walker. She was up for the challenge and started to walk with her walker into the therapy room. It was a long walk from reception to the therapy rooms and at least over 100 foot. Dana was building her stamina slowly but this distance for her was still a challenge.
She rose well to this challenge and this was helped as Mike laughed and joked with her on route. She was soon out of breath and needed our help with the walker to get to her resting place before the session really began.
Mike was in good form today he announced Dana was going to work on the treadmill. Dana likes the treadmill, she never had the chance to use one before and I think she feels as though she is actually improving on it as she can measure her distance.
Mike looked at Dana with those mad eyes as he got her onto the treadmill belt; he announced she was going to walk for five minutes. Five minutes, was he completely bonkers? Dana thought so but off she went at 0.2 miles per hour, he soon increased the speed to 0.3. It does not sound much but to Dana its huge and she started to struggle to keep up.
‘Come on Dana’ Mike said with encouragement. Her legs started to seem to buckle and I was concerned. I got closer to the equipment and Dana but Dana soon regained her composure and started to keep up. I could see she was getting tired and I also shouted out by encouragement to Dana, ‘Go Dana, you can do this’. She responded to the encouragement and regained her momentum.
Five minutes came around and Mike stopped the machine and placed a chair where Dana could rest.
She slumped into the chair, worn out, virtually panting. Mike beamed his smile at Dana, ’Good Job Dana’ he expressed.
Mike turned to his notes and started to write vigorously, Dana just sat and did not move. A few minutes past and Mike turned his attention back to Dana, ‘Ok’ he said ‘Time for sidestepping”. Side stepping? I feared failure as Dana left leg is much weaker than her right and the cause of some functional issues.
Mike positioned Dana to her side and the machine was started, 0.1, 0.2. Dana started to side step but she found this difficult. I winched and could not look as Mike was virtually holding Dana and moving her legs. I could see an accident about to happen, but somehow it seemed to work. Dana struggled again but she persevered but kept asking Mike to turn the machine off. He didn’t listen and just carried on determined she would finish. Three minutes later and she had. Mike placed the chair again on the treadmill for Dana to sit down and rest. While he made some notes in Dana’s file.
‘ How are you feeling Dana’ Mike said ’Ok’ replied Dana, ‘Now we are going to side step with the other leg’ said Mike. Dana looked confused and said ‘How am I going to do that, are you going to turn the treadmill round’ Seriously I do wonder about Dana sometimes. ‘No’ Mike said laughing ‘there is a reverse button on the treadmill which I press and that makes the belt turn in reverse’ It took a while for Dana to think about what Mike said by which time Mike had got her up from the chair and positioned sideways on the treadmill. Mike was talking about what was going to happen when he started the treadmill; Dana had to move her feet sideways. Mike started the treadmill and Dana didn’t move, her legs were bending sideways as the treadmill was moving. Mike reacted quickly by talking with encouragement while helping her legs to move. Dana quickly managed to get a rhythm going but soon her legs started to buckle. She was dragging her feet and pleading Mike to stop. Mike kept up the encouragement but Dana kept pleading to stop. Although all you wanted to do was to press the stop button that would be easy. Dana could do this and Mike knew it that’s why he kept going. We all started to count down the seconds, 5,4,3,2,1 and Mike pressed stop. Dana did it, another 3 mins on the treadmill. Wow what an achievement. Dana was exhausted and sat once again on the chair Mike placed on the treadmill. Mike was so impressed at her determination, although she had pleaded to stop, she was pleased she didn’t. Dana was finished for the morning and looked at me with her tired eyes, pleading with me for no more work.
Mike finished the session by giving us some exercises for the afternoon and we exited the therapy area once again until tomorrow.
The afternoon we spent at our apartment. The weather was hot yet again and back up to 100 degrees. We had spent the last five days driving around to malls, tourist locations and I just wanted to chill a bit.
Late in the afternoon we decided to start the afternoon exercises, side stepping and outside leg raises with and without resistance. Dana got up to start the exercises but soon became tired. She seemed to me to be upset and fed up. I persisted with the exercises trying to get her to perform her best but she started to become angry and upset. Tears start to flow from Dana, lots of tears and lots of shouting, she is really upset. Does she not realize how important these exercise were to her, or was it me that should realize she’s been living this every day for the past month, whether exercises or being operated on, or recovering…maybe she had just had enough. I have if I’m honest and just wish for a day where I did not have to go to the hospital, or do exercises, but I know its so important to continue this, after all only by continuing can we really make a difference.
I sit her down and get some chocolate from the fridge and give it to her. She munches away and we strike a bargain to continue the exercises. We finish off the exercises and Dana lies down on her bed to relax watching TV. Tomorrow is an afternoon physio appointment, so Dana will have to do some exercises in addition to her usually stretches in the morning. I’ll approach this subject with caution in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment