Janet was here with me for Dad's OT and PT (she works with him down in the Cincy area).

Both sessions were somewhat abbreviated today because Dad got his very own wheelchair today! Some time had to be spent making sure that it fit him well. They had to adjust the back, for example, because as he was maneuvering around the "stems" (from which the handles for we pushers sprout) were rubbing the undersides of his arms.



As you would expect of my Dad, his first few laps with his shiny new chair were full of fishtails and other fun things so he could get familiar with how his chair behaved. He did not, after those few runs, have any trouble getting his chair where he needed it to go.

While he did take his time and try to rest today, his right shoulder was still tired and comparitively weak (especially compared to Wednesday afternoon).

He got to play a peg game that reminded me of chinese checkers.. The foam board was sitting on an incline, and after filling an alotted area with pegs, he had to remove them by chinese-checker-style jumping. Of course, the therapist at first demonstrated only single jumps. It didn't take long for Dad to ask the "Can I only make one jump at a time?" question. The answer was that he could string together as many jumps as he wanted, and he proceeded merrily to do so.

The woman sitting next to him, who is his backgammon date for Sunday, started protesting: "Why didn't you tell me you could do more than one hop in row?" Dad left only four pegs on the board. The therapist said most people left around 10. I get the feeling this woman was leaving more on the board than she wanted, but hadn't thought to ask the question. We'll see how many she leaves next time...

In PT, Dad did some brief stump exercises, and walked 50 feet easily with a walker. He acknowledges that balance poses a problem, but is very confident in his ability to stand up and move around with the walker.

Lifting weights was very tiring. His right shouldercontinued to bother him--the muscle showed fatigue early in every set.

We did go down for another bandage change with Tammy in thw burn unit. Again, he was able to get himself from the wheelchair to the table with minimal fuss. He was also able to stand up for part of the rebandaging, which gave Tammy some more options.

The troublesome graft spot is apparently holding steady--it isn't getting any better or worse. On our way back up stairs she said it did seem likely that that area would need a touch-up regrafting. Even so, Dad is clear to take an assisted shower this weekend (i.e. they plunk him on a shower chair and hose him down). This will be the first time someone other than Tammy will do the bandaging--Dad is a little anxious about that.