First PT / OT Day at Kessler

Kathy's first full day at Kessler really tired her out. I arrived to see her around 5pm and she had already been napping for a full hour. We chatted for a bit and she explained about how busy the day was. Things got going first thing in the morning, around 8am. The morning consisted of breakfast, visit from her doctor, nurses, speech therapist, and psychologist. The process of getting ready to go to the gym and see all of the people who came by took almost two and half hours.

It is great that Kathy can wear her own clothes so the night before we had picked out an outfit for today. I imagine that getting dressed is a bit more laborious now. Once she was dressed there is a harness that helps her from the bed to her wheel chair. Kathy told me that because she has been laying down for so long that her first time in the chair resulted in being very dizzy and light headed. The Kessler therapists use ace wraps to wrap her legs and belly area. These help counter act the light-headedness.

Once strapped into the wheel chair, she is off to PT (this is at 10:30). PT goes for one and half hours and wraps up for the lunch break. I did ask her about some of the exercise that she was doing and she described sitting in the chair, I believe no longer strapped in and working on blowing bubbles. This was to help build back her core strength.

After lunch Kathy was back to the gym for OT where she worked on moving in the bed (practice bed) and brushing her teeth. Kathy was totally blown away by how difficult and tiring a task like brushing her teeth was. She told me that she got back to her room around 4 pm and totally crashed out. Kathy's sister Colleen and her family arrived around 6:00pm to hang out see the new accommodations. I was sent out for Dove soap, Tom's deoderant, and her own towel. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are shower days and Kathy wanted to be prepared with wash supplies that are just like home.

By the time I got back with these things Kathy could barely keep her eyes open. She had a quick phone conversation with her parents said goodbye to her sister and we picked out an outfit for tomorrow. I gave her a kiss and she was out for the count. Since she barely slept over the past week so I hope she sleeps great and straight through to the morning.