Robert's Fifth Week

It has been five weeks since Robert has been in the hospital, three of the five he has spent in rehab. As stated before, he does so much everyday. He is retaining information better, learning to cope with his headaches as to not become dependent on pain medicing and he is feeding himself and sitting in the chair longer. He is just doing so much that often times I forget to document every little thing he does.

You never know how precious something so small seems such as the simple act of touching your hands or blinking your eyes. Imagine watching someone who was only able to move one arm make a quick turnaround and can move every limb... Watching my brother recover is an amazing process. I know I can speak for my entire family when I say we take things for granted in life and we have all learned to appreciate everything we have and can do...complaining doesn't exist anymore...

Anyway, here is what happened with him this week:

Monday:

Robert had a rough day today. I was able to sit in therapy with him. During his physical therapy he lifted a foam thing in sets of 15 and held for 5 seconds above his head…
He played catch with his friend. He was working on strengthening his left arm, gripping the ball, releasing it and gripping it again.


Tuesday:

Robert walked today. He said he was walking and ready to run. He enjoyed his therapy today, he is gripping juice bottles and drinking without a straw now. He is doing very well… Dancing and moving his body much more. You wouldn’t even think that just a month ago he could only move his right arm. He has hot and cold flashes often which make it difficult for him to get comfortable while trying to rest.

Wednesday:

Laying flat on his stomach atop a mat, Robert worked on doing push ups and learning how to work one on one with his occupational therapist. He had a heavy day today… working with his physical therapist 3 times, therapeutic recreation twice, and speech therapy once and occupational therapy twice. He was so tired by the end of therapy that he just rested.

Thursday:
He rolled…and rolled and rolled. During his therapy today he had to lay flat on his stomach and stretch his limbs and rolled. He rolled until he got dizzy. He said he rolled until he couldn’t roll anymore. He rode on an exercise bike for about 7 ½ minutes without anything holding him up or anyone assisting him.

Friday:

With the assistance of the walking robot…Robert was walking again. He was quite the comedian this day… No need to repeat everything he said but once again, he had the entire room in tears.

Saturday:

Today, Robert listened to a lot of songs and had a few visitors. He sat in chair for a while. His therapy was not as strenuous as his therapy during the week… He had physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. He is doing so well.

Sunday:
The weather was nice today so we took Robert outside. We had an early morning conversation today where he requested to go to church. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to take him off the premises so I told him I would play a sermon online for him. However, my Pastor said he would bring church to Robert one Sunday… I can’t wait to see how he enjoys that. When I got the hospital from church today my sister and I sang some songs with him and he enjoyed that a lot. He even started clapping like our Grandfather use to clap back in church. He was enjoying himself today.