Update

Kathy's progress is still very consistent. She is making gains in strength and coordination every day. The progress remains very slow in relation to where Kathy would like to be. However, her ability to function on her own inside the home is now almost fully intact. When Kathy initially returned home she needed support with every aspect of life including simply getting out of bed. All of this is now done completely on her own. Out of bed, shower, eating, preparing meals, dressing, shoes and socks etc. Kathy even made me a chicken and asparagus dinner yesterday night. The walker is no longer necessary for moving around the house and in most cases only comes with us in the car. Any walking that Kathy does is still short distances and we typically still use the wheelchair for any extended distances or days away from the house.

Yesterday was a follow up visit to Kathy's inpatient doctor at Kessler. We found this to be a bit underwhelming of a visit. Her doctor felt that she was still making progress and was able to physically measure and show us that progress. However she made a comment that some GBS patients do not always get back 100% of what they lose. This was the first time that we heard this from her (although we have read it in other patients accounts). I think that both Kathy and I understand the reality of what types of deficits GBS could leave a person with. Although, any energy focused in that direction is not positive energy almost as if those types of thoughts are self fulfilling prophecies. I feel as if Kathy is an athlete training for a specific goal, a goal that she will achieve. Right now that goal is resuming normal day to day activities (she is almost there), later in the summer that goal will be resuming a normal work week and returning to teaching. I look forward to supporting her in this and know that she will do what she sets her mind to.

Out and about for some Groceries

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New Walker

Here is a picture of the newest weapon in Kathy's walking arsenal. Thank You to Kathy's mom for bringing this over yesterday. The best thing about the new walker is that Kathy can now easily walk laps around the neighborhood! Right now the laps are short Dudley to Trenton, Trenton to Phillips and back home. The plan is to do these two - three times per day until Kathy is totally comfortable at that distance then increase the distance bit by bit. The new walker also allows Kathy to get in and out of the front door totally under her own power, then easily up and down the ramp in the front of the house.

June 9 - Update

It has been a while since the last update and fortunately in that time Kathy has continued to make great progress. She is now walking from the car into the house (with help) and vice versa. Today Kathy did the steps in the back of the house instead of the ramp in the front. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks Kathy will migrate from the wheelchair, as the primary long distance tool, to a walker with a seat. This will allow her to walk but stop and take breaks when she needs them. Kathy is also now off of "contact guard" allowing her to move around the house on her own. Her stability and gate when using the walker looks very good, almost normal. As the walker is slowly becoming the primary support, she is already working on the use of a cane in therapy.

Kathy's biggest challenge continues to be her strength. Her right upper body and left lower body seem to be much stronger than their counterparts. Additionally, she is stronger distally than proximally. This is all coming along slowly but the advances in her strenght are noticeable on a daily basis. Today we had two doctors visits. The first was to Kathy neurologist who had treated her in the critical care unit. He is very pleased with Kathy's progress and reassured us both that her condition and recovery is purely a matter of time. However, he was sure to remind us both that Kathy needs to eat 2500 to 3000 well balanced calories per day, commit fully to her daily therapy routine, stretch, get massages, see her psychologist and most importantly remain patient. I am certain that the two obstacles from this list will be the calories and the patience!

The second doctors visit was to our family doctor to get him up to speed on Kathy's condition in case we need any additional help going forward. This was a quick visit and after meeting with us he also reassured Kathy that time is what she needs.

Treadmill Work!

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Weekend Update

The Memorial Day weekend holiday was a great opportunity to relax on Kathy's first weekend back. Of course Kathy still had to do daily training work with stretching sessions and upper / lower body strength work. Twice a day we did stretching and added in strength for the upper body in the morning and strength for the lower body in the afternoon. We have also been closely monitoring Kathy blood pressure and heart rate as these are still slowly coming back to normal. She is still on two medicines to control them. We will ultimately need a doctors consent to release the meds, but the goal given to us by her therapy team at Kessler is to slowly wean her off them at home. As long as her blood pressure and heart rate fall within certain parameters she can take less and less of each medication. This has been going very well, and the meds are needed less often today than they were the day Kathy came home.

This past Thursday was Kathy's first day of outpatient therapy at Kessler. She will be working with two new therapists so thursday was a bit slow as both therapists did assessment of Kathy and got to know her. Additionally, Thursday proved to be a difficult day. Kathy told me that she woke up "pissed off" that this had happened to her. Being home and in her own space is good but seeing her family, friends, and neighbors outside enjoying the weather and season was upsetting because she can not fully share in that yet.

Of course Kathy proves daily that she is making great progress. Two key transitions already took place over this weekend. First, we decided to not use the walker inside the house, provided that someone is with Kathy to hold her hand and grab her belt area if she loses balance. Second, Kathy walked under her own power from her car, down the driveway, up the ramp to the front porch then into the front door! This was awesome for Kathy and it was obvious that development made her feel good about her progress.

We are looking forward to more gains over the next couple of weeks.