Thursday 16 June 2011

16th June 2011

Hiya,
another good few days. Steven has a new ankle support which is a system of elasticated straps and velcro, and this helps the front of the foot to lift, hopefully to prevent flat footed walking. It's difficult for him to get used to, but he's a trier. The walking is improving in stages. At the moment he's walking a little flat-footed, almost a shuffle, and with his left leg taking a longer stride than his right leg. This is because he's had a heavy plastic orthopaedic boot on his left leg for such a long time. This action causes him to move towards the right, and not in a straight line requiring much adjustment. He's also walking slow, because he's having to "tell" all his body bits to move. He's been told to try to walk faster so that he hasn't got time to think and "tell" the legs to move. He's tried this for short periods and it does work. Sometimes he just glides, and it's brilliant. He's also climbing steps, that's enabled him to visit us at our rented house. We continue to let him have time out of the hospital, shops, cafes, etc, but he doesn't like people staring at him. Wednesday afternoon when Paul went to collect Steven from physio', he was called to the physio' dept' by all the other carers, to see Steven walking with a tripod walker. This is the first time Paul had seen Steven walking independantly. Earlier Steven said he'd been walking with no aids, just leaning with one hand on the wall. The walking is improving faster than anticipated, but there's a possibility he'll need new orthopaedic items to help him, and/or an operation on his left foot. That evening he came down to the house with Paul, he sat in an armchair, and played on Paul's Playstation 3. He was able to use the hand controls with some ease. His talking is improving, sounding more like the old Steven. After a pizza and garlic bread, he returned to the hospital room. Today Thursday he was in the hospital swimming pool, and again tried to swim, the crawl stroke, but his legs sink. But a little better than last week. There is still a sense of depression mainly due to sheer frustration. He knows he's slowly getting better but it's not fast enough for him, and he wants to be out of here, now. So we're having to rein him in and slow him down a little. He still hasn't been taught to shave, shower, or climb steps, but he's doing all these things with great care and under constant observation by us.
best regards
Terry

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