Project Walk . . . Week 3

It was another spectacular week for Andrew, although short as PW was closed Friday for the Holiday.

Monday went very well at the VA Spinal Cord Injury hospital. I would feel very confident in Andrew's care if he ever needed to go inpatient at that facility. Andrew had one inpatient stay in Yuma and it was a nightmare; that hospital is just not equipped to handle someone with a high C-level injury like Andrew's. We have another appointment at the VA tomorrow with his new Physiologist, and we will find out for sure whether or not he will have to go inpatient for a week for them to get all the tests they are going to require to be a new patient at that facility. We are hoping he won't have to do it that way, but Andrew is okay with it if he does.

Andrew is still progressing nicely in his therapy at PW. My sister and brother-in-law came into town for the holiday and were able to go to one of Andrew's sessions on Thursday. My sister was surprised at how much better Andrew looked compared to the last time she saw him (couple of months ago). I guess because I see him every day, I hadn't realized it but it is true . . . he is beginning to get some muscle tone in his chest and shoulders that he had lost over the past year.

The trainers at PW are trying to build core muscles so they had him on his stomach a lot this week, working his back, shoulders and abdominal areas. They also put him into a crawling position and then up on his knees . . . it is so weird seeing him in these positions. They told me to try and do some of these exercises at home to keep his hip flexers flexible; so I tried it for the first time today. I lifted him in his hoyer lift and set him on the floor. It is a lot of work, but surprisingly easier than I expected it to be. Just the little bit I was able to do warmed up his muscles and it really seemed to make him much more comfortable throughout the day today.

He is still feeling a lot of muscle soreness and tingling throughout his body and something new that's happening is a lot of spasms during the night and early morning. I would imagine that has a lot to do with the decrease in spasticity medication. Andrew sleeps in a twin air bed and I sleep in another twin bed pushed together with his. I was half asleep one morning last week and felt something in my bed at my feet. In my sleep, I first thought it was our little dog and as I began to wake up, I realized we don't have our little dog with us right now. So when I sat up and looked . . . I found Andrew's feet in my bed. What a crazy thing to feel him moving after so many months. I realize it's involuntary movement . . . but I have read that many people begin moving in their sleep a lot before the brain starts connecting with parts of the body below level of injury in a more conscience state. So, I'm not sure if it's a good thing, but it's definitely a new thing.

We are looking forward to this coming week and as always, we both feel so blessed to be here. God is good!

Joye