First, apologies for quality of the pictures...all taken with my cell phone. Above, Dad is in therapy "Having a Ball". One goal, build up his leg strength, and squeezing a ball between yours legs is one of many exercises they had him do today.
Tuesday they brought him to the therapy room and had him stand between these horizontal bars. He stood twice, it wore him out completely, and that was pretty much it for therapy that day. Back to the room and he was short of breath, and thankfully the Respiratory Therapist came in the room, monitored him, put him on a breathing medicine machine, added oxygen, and got the doctor's opinion. OOPS! Someone missed the part where the doctor from the hospital said, "Needs oxygen when doing PT." Within 30 minutes all was fine, and he has had oxygen during PT ever since. Wednesday they did upper body strengthening, and he did very well with that. Above is a picture of him being led back up into the horizontal bars for today's therapy...I held my breath.
Today the first thing they did was some leg exercises...weights on his ankles and lift, lift, lift. Rubber exercise bands on his ankles and up-down, up-down, up-down many times. Then the ball between the legs (first picture), and it was time to get up.
They help him up...
...he is up and takes a few steps...
...before long he was at the end. Back into the wheelchair, pull him back, monitor him, and it is up again...but this time, "You get up as much as you can Al." With very little help, he is up, and walking to the end...much faster this time. Back in the chair, back to the start, rest, and then, "Ok Al, YOU have to get up on your own this time." And he did. He walks again toward the end, and back to the chair. WOW...I am sure he wondered if he would ever do that again!
Oh, but it is not over yet...today it ended with the hand peddle machine, aka: arm bike. He hand peddled for 15 minutes...without a break, without a sweat. Today was his best day at Physical Therapy...had a ball, and took baby steps.
