Bill: Thurs. Jan. 16: leftasaurus stronger; left elbow looser

[post by Julie]

Bill and Ayn affectionately call his left leg "Leftie."  But sometimes, when it seems to be monstrous and not cooperating (as if it were a separate object), it gets called "Leftasaurus." 

I'm here to tell you, Leftie has made great progress this week.  When Bill is getting in my car, I have had to help lift and maneuver Leftie on his last trip from the running board into the car.  Often it has been fighting the tension in the leg, with verbal clues to Bill to "march," or give the knee-lifting motion. Thursday, however, I was happily surprised when he lifted all the weight, and I only had to help finesse the narrow passage between the seat and the door frame! 

Go Leftie Go!

Speaking of left-sided objects: Bill's left arm.  Occupational therapy (Wednesday) worked his left shoulder and hand; she is quite pleased with how much the left elbow has relaxes. His shoulder and shoulder blade are sensing some improvement, although I can't see it yet -- when she instructs him to roll his shoulder back, I can't see it, but she makes comments like "Very good" or "that's better" because she can feel the muscles/tendons engaging. The left hand is better at staying straight and not curling at the wrist, but the fingers still have to be constantly stretched to be available when control returns.

Thursday was the first speech evaluation in the two month's Bill has been home. Bill and Ayn had a couple of prior appointments they had to cancel because of icy mornings.  Just a reminder, speech covers more than talking: cognition, memory, attention. 

Bill sometimes does the funniest thing of adding difficulty to simple instructions. One evaluation was to name as many animals in a timeframe as he could. So he sets off alphabetically, one per letter, and when he gets to "H" I'm expecting 'horse' but he comes out with 'hyena.'  And us mere mortals might give 'mouse' or 'monkey' for "M" but he delivers 'marmot.' Unfortunately he got stuck on "N" and couldn't come up with anything, and couldn't break his own pattern to continue past, so that will be one area to work on.

He will have PT today (Friday) so maybe an opportunity to try again for some video.