Wish you were here

July 10, 2011

We’re now two-thirds of the way complete with this round of intensive therapy and if I’m not careful, I may need some PT myself after tweaking something in my back. While Nathan was working on going from sit-to-stand, I was at the apartment working on going from my back to an upright position myself. I do feel better today (Sunday) than I did yesterday, when the incident occurred.

Yes, I say we’re in an apartment. For the second half of therapy down here, we decided to take the driving 4 hours a day out of the equation and regain a little time for ourselves. The place we have is two bedrooms and about half the size of our house, but it’s bigger and better than any apartment we would have found for the price.

It was very interesting “moving” mid-week for the longest time we’ve spent away from home and all the niceties and comforts we rely on everyday. We decided to leave Nathan’s feeding chair at home, and opt for feeding him in the stroller. We had to decide what food to take for him and what we thought we could find in a new city. We worried how Nathan would sleep outside of his bed, and honestly not on a bed at all. At home, we have rails on his bed, but we didn’t think of needing those, and not trusting him not to fall out of bed, (especially asking him to work three hours a day for nine of the 10 days.)

Nathan responded like a champ. He’s eaten well, and slept as well as we could have hoped. He’s still taking all of his medications, and still doing his best at Leap Beyond. He’s still not loving the weight work, but if he did, it would mean they weren’t pushing him hard enough.

This is probably as close to a vacation as our family will get any time soon. It’s the first trip we’ve taken as a family in almost three years. One of the pluses of this facility (not to mention the internet access that I can update the site from afar) is the fact it has its own pool. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a body of water that Nathan has a chance to splash around in, kick his feet and work out any pent up energy. It’s the place where I’ve seen some of the strength work pay off.

We’ve been to the pool three times so far, and each time for over an hour in the water. He’s experimenting with working his arms, kicking because he wants to, not only because he’s prompted, and trying to lay back and float, just like Mom. He’s always disappointed to come back to the apartment, change out of his swimmers and have to play on the floor, or in the walker again.

We have five more days to go, and hope that Nathan will finish strong. Friday night, we’ll get out of therapy at 5:30, (probably later after going over the home program) heading back to the apartment, packing everything up in the van and heading the almost two-hour drive home. My guess is we’ll get home around 10-11 p.m., get the necessities out of the van and into the house, head to as activities start back up Saturday morning all over again.

Thanks to all of those who continue to pray for us and our family. We truly believe that good things are happening and more good things are to come. Part one of our summer on the road is almost to a close, and we give thanks for all of the progress we’ve already made.

Last week, I made the promise Nathan would get time to swim again. To be rewarded for his hard work in a way that he would enjoy. Thanks Nathan for all your hard work. Hopefully we’ll be able to get back in the pool before Friday hits. The water is doing us all good. And hopefully after this week, we’ll both be free from PT for a little bit.

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