End of Rehab Back Home

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 76 Lo 65 --  Rehab proved very interesting. I was really sick the first week with bronchitis so I couldn't do much, especially standing up. There's a big difference in sitting and doing therapy then standing. The longest I could stand was three minutes, the oxygen tank went with me everywhere. My oxygen  was 88 most of the time when I first got to rehab.

There's two different therapy's. One for the leg, Physical Therapy, and the other for arms, Occupational Therapy. Sometimes I would have both in the same day and other times it would be separate days.  For the arms I had to lift two or three pound dumbbells which are really heavy when you're weak and since I haven't worked with arm muscles I've been very sore. We bought three pound dumbbells to continue the exercises at home, both sitting and standing.  There's several people that work with the occupational therapist for stroke patients. Here's a few of what I did for the three weeks.

The bar is two pounds and the ball is thrown in different directions and I needed to pounce it back from the bar.




This was a bicycle for the arms, with four pound resistance.


This was with a balloon which went all kinds of directions. I'm standing and doing well at this point. It's the day before I was able to go home. It took three weeks to get to this point.


Everyone seemed to do this one. It's posts with rubber washers of different sizes that you stack. It seems really easy but if you're having trouble breathing it's hard to stand and do it. I couldn't get past two minutes the first week, the day I left I was up to 10. That's great, it takes 15 min to make a meal.  :-)




For the leg, I loved this machine called NuStep. It works the arms and the leg in bending and stretching. I started out at four pound press and when I left I was doing seven pounds. I tried to do that everyday.














The leg needs to be lifted high  to get the zero degrees for standing, then slowly bent to get the 120 degrees for sitting and bending down. I have reached both goals. I just can't let it get stiff, so I have to bend and go straight a lot which is done with a dog leash looking thing.


I have graduated from the walker to the cane.




I can maneuver the cane very well in the RV. Jim had one of the park residents add a special step for me to get into the RV. It's very nice.



I'm home to recoup. I have a nurse and therapist coming in tomorrow to setup more therapy. We're thinking this week and maybe part of next week. It won't be long I'll be walking and getting around a lot more. It's great being back home, in my own bed and sleeping later in the morning. I'm really tired of getting up at 5:30 in the morning for pills and taking vitals.

I want to thank everyone for the comments and prayers. It sure has been a rough road.  I'll post again when there's something to report.