A Look into Therapy

Thought I'd talk a bit about some of the therapies that Adam is involved with at Mary Free Bed.

Every day, Adam is engaged in multiple sessions of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy. Physical Therapy involves a lot of mobility, strength, and flexilibility type exercises. This may include leg and arm strengthening exercises, standing and walking, and practicing his core strength and balance.

Many times, his physical therapy is in the gym and he might be on a bicycle sort of thing or he may just be laying on a mat doing different types of leg exercises. He got to participate in a few fun ones this week.

He got into a pool. This made his movement easier and more fluid. He liked it.

He also got in the Lokomat (also dubbed the Ironman suit or the Robocop suit). It helps to stimulate the natural walking motions.

Occupational Therapy involves a lot of getting back to everyday skills of living and operating. In some cases, this could be learning how to eat using utensils, getting dressed, getting in and out of a car, and gaining back a lot of the fine motor skills - or adapting in order to be able to do these things. Because Adam has a deficit in his hands and wrists and cannot hold or grasp things well yet, it has meant some adaptions at this point. To eat, he has learned to use a special holder that is wrapped around his hand in which a fork or spoon can be fit into. But he has been feeding himself more and more.

He's also participated in Electrical Stimulation Therapy (ESTIM). Electrode pads are placed on his forearms and an electric current is sent through his arm/hands that stimulates the movement of these areas. It's kinda creepy. :) But also really cool.

Adam has his phone with him at the hospital. He can text people by using the voice command features. And he's starting to try to play with that and his iPad a little more. He doesn't have his phone with him all the time and its turned off some of the time. He can't stay away from technology for too long!

His team of doctors and therapists met on Wednesday and talked about his progress. He is making amazing strides and they are very, very optimistic about Adam's recovery. They still project him to be inpatient at Mary Free Bed for another 8-10 weeks.

8-10 weeks.

I know. That sounds like a really long time. I know.
I'm gonna feel it. I miss him. And I miss him being at home with us.

But it really is all about him being in the most intense therapy and getting back to as much as he can early on. I was a little nervous about his great progress and afraid that they'd be trying to send him home soon while he was still needing a great amount of assistance at things. A bit of a relief that they want to see him pushed and they want to see more progress. With how much he has changed in less than 3 weeks of being there, I'm certain we'll see soooo much more improvement still.