Today marks three months since Jason’s accident. It feels like it’s been a lot longer than that, probably because our lives have changed so dramatically in that time. It would be easy to be sad today, but instead we’re going to celebrate what strides he has made in this time period. Honestly, his recovery up to this point has been borderline miraculous, so there is so much to celebrate. For those of you keeping track at home, here’s where we’re at...
Mobility: VERY good. He can do all transfers independently and, since moving to his new wheelchair, he has started ditching his transfer board for most transfers. He still needs it for the car, but that’s a pretty big transfer (close to 12 inches between the two seats), so it’ll probably be another month or two before he can get rid of that one.
Pain: Not much of an issue. He’s off of all pain medications, including ibuprofen (though he’ll take this on the rare occasions pain is a problem). His ribs seem healed and his incision area on his back doesn’t bother him. He seems to be in the lucky 50% who doesn’t have to deal with chronic pain post-SCI.
Exercise and Therapy: Jason is finished with occupational therapy, and goes to physical therapy at the hospital once a week. He’s working primarily on wheelchair mobility with his PT. He can do wheelies, and is learning how to safely go down stairs in the chair. He can also get from the floor to his wheelchair on his own. I’m not sure how much longer he’ll be doing PT-at least through October, and probably a bit into November too. He also goes to SCI-FIT twice a week, for two hours on Thursdays, and three hours on Saturdays. This is a pretty intense regimen, but he’s made tremendous gains thus far. In addition to this “formal” therapy, he does stretching exercises at home, and tries to get out with Sonja when possible. We’ve gotten kind of lazy with this, though, because all of our visiting family members have been great about walking Sonja.
Daily Life Activities: He can do everything on his own. Occasionally, I’ll step in to help when we’re running late, but I’ve left him on his own for several hour stretches and he’s fine: he can get in and out of bed, shower, make his own food, get set up on the computer, etc, etc.
Sensation/Motor Control: His biggest gain in the last few weeks has been his hip control. He’s also feeling “deep touch” in his lower belly area. He still can’t consistently feel touch around his belly button, but if he pulls the hair in that area, he can feel that. When sensation returns, it tends to return this way, deep to surface. When he works out at SCI-FIT, he has, on occasion, been able to feel the muscles flexing in his upper thighs. According to his therapists there, all he needs is a bit more motor control in the hip flexor area, as well as some quad control, to be able to start walking with braces and a walker. That’s really exciting :)
Biggest Problem Area: Getting faster with his morning routine. Trying to get this down to a reasonable amount of time, so that he’s ready to take the 7:30am shuttle come December 1.
Biggest Success: Heading back to work full time, regaining hip control, getting the new wheelchair...so much to choose from!
In the next month, we hope to..... continue the transition back to work (he’s heading in tomorrow for a full day at the office), see more gains with motor control and sensation.
Let me know if I’ve left something out that you’d like to know about, or if you have any questions that I haven’t gotten to.
Love you all,
Ashley
Mobility: VERY good. He can do all transfers independently and, since moving to his new wheelchair, he has started ditching his transfer board for most transfers. He still needs it for the car, but that’s a pretty big transfer (close to 12 inches between the two seats), so it’ll probably be another month or two before he can get rid of that one.
Pain: Not much of an issue. He’s off of all pain medications, including ibuprofen (though he’ll take this on the rare occasions pain is a problem). His ribs seem healed and his incision area on his back doesn’t bother him. He seems to be in the lucky 50% who doesn’t have to deal with chronic pain post-SCI.
Exercise and Therapy: Jason is finished with occupational therapy, and goes to physical therapy at the hospital once a week. He’s working primarily on wheelchair mobility with his PT. He can do wheelies, and is learning how to safely go down stairs in the chair. He can also get from the floor to his wheelchair on his own. I’m not sure how much longer he’ll be doing PT-at least through October, and probably a bit into November too. He also goes to SCI-FIT twice a week, for two hours on Thursdays, and three hours on Saturdays. This is a pretty intense regimen, but he’s made tremendous gains thus far. In addition to this “formal” therapy, he does stretching exercises at home, and tries to get out with Sonja when possible. We’ve gotten kind of lazy with this, though, because all of our visiting family members have been great about walking Sonja.
Daily Life Activities: He can do everything on his own. Occasionally, I’ll step in to help when we’re running late, but I’ve left him on his own for several hour stretches and he’s fine: he can get in and out of bed, shower, make his own food, get set up on the computer, etc, etc.
Sensation/Motor Control: His biggest gain in the last few weeks has been his hip control. He’s also feeling “deep touch” in his lower belly area. He still can’t consistently feel touch around his belly button, but if he pulls the hair in that area, he can feel that. When sensation returns, it tends to return this way, deep to surface. When he works out at SCI-FIT, he has, on occasion, been able to feel the muscles flexing in his upper thighs. According to his therapists there, all he needs is a bit more motor control in the hip flexor area, as well as some quad control, to be able to start walking with braces and a walker. That’s really exciting :)
Biggest Problem Area: Getting faster with his morning routine. Trying to get this down to a reasonable amount of time, so that he’s ready to take the 7:30am shuttle come December 1.
Biggest Success: Heading back to work full time, regaining hip control, getting the new wheelchair...so much to choose from!
In the next month, we hope to..... continue the transition back to work (he’s heading in tomorrow for a full day at the office), see more gains with motor control and sensation.
Let me know if I’ve left something out that you’d like to know about, or if you have any questions that I haven’t gotten to.
Love you all,
Ashley
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