Halfway There

We are halfway there. Robert’s doctors estimated that he would be in rehab for 12 weeks. We have hit the 6th week mark and as usual Robert continues to progress. It seems like with each passing day his spirit grows a little stronger, his will to recover gets a little bit thicker and his determination to surpass the doubts of his doubters is off the charts.

He has learned to control his emotions a little more and being sad is no longer an option. He quickly lets people know, “don’t come in here telling me what I can’t do, don’t down me. You are supposed to be here to encourage me, to assist me in getting through this.”

You know there are always those faithful few who want to be your biggest supporters but yet tear you down instead of building you up. Robert doesn’t want that negative energy around him. He is capable to fight his verbal battles alone now, no longer is he letting me or Donna do it. He lets us along with our Mother to fight the battle with the medical staff.

At any rate, this past week he has had an increase in therapy sessions and has started combating other obstacles in his recovery. On he finally moved his toes. He has been trying to move his toes since he was hospitalized. Now he is working to crack his toes (which he loves and use to do all the time.)

On Tuesday, Robert gave love lessons to his younger cousins. He told them, “wrap it up, and don’t be concerned about picking the right girl right now because these girls right now don’t even know how to be the right girl. Enjoy your youth, when the time comes for you to find your forever; you will know it’s her. Once you find that right one, just hold on to her.” Aside from love lessons, he stretched his legs out real good and worked on pushing himself up in the bed by using the bed rails and no assistance from nurses, techs or family members.

Walking Wednesday, Robert walked on a walker.

He was very excited about that but he said, “I will be more excited to walk by myself.” He stretched some more today, his muscles tighten up a lot so he has to work and stretch his legs and arms to keep his muscles loose. He had group therapy today as well. He was read a paragraph and he had to summarize what he heard and had to answer a couple questions afterwards.

On Thursday he worked on standing up and transferring from his chair to the bed using the stand pivot combo and the squat pivot combo. His friends came and visited and they had a semi freestyle studio session in the atrium. Robert was giving God thanks for his life, and rapping about how well he has recovered he even amazed himself. His friends promised to bring the keyboard and some beats in for them to have a real freestyle session.

Friday he had fun. He worked on puzzles and played basketball. His recreational therapist promised that she would bring the Wii in for him to play that. He worked extensively on remembering all of his therapists’ names. He has gotten better with recognizing them and saying their names with little or no prompting.

Surprise…surprise…Robert’s New York family surprised him with a visit today and he was overjoyed and excited. He let me trim his beard today so he wouldn’t be a wolf for too much longer. He chilled today, not much therapy.
Sunday, Easter Sunday… Robert went to church. The rehab center had service and Robert was escorted to service by the New York crew, our uncle and Dad. He was had visitors all day long. We had a big Sunday dinner that our Aunt Edwina catered. We enjoyed mac & cheese, ham, baked chicken, rotisserie chicken, sweet potatoes, collard greens, homemade corn muffins, potato salad and stuffing. For desert we had apricot rum cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Robert refused to eat the cake because it had rum in it… no drinking for him. He joked saying, if he eats the cake we would be sticking a spoon in his mouth to stop him from swallowing his tongue. “I’m seizure free and I will remain that way,” he said.

All in all Robert had a great week. He enjoyed his visitors, his therapy and reveled in the fact that he is still alive and that accounts for everything. He is a blessing everyday and I can’t stop thanking God for all the blessings and miracles he has bestowed upon my family and my friends.