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.