Sorry it has been so long since an update. Kelly has been sick with an ear infection and upper respiratory crap. She has not let that halt her therapy or progress. She has now been in "long term therapy" two days a week for two weeks and it is going great. It seems like the worse she feels with this cold the better her therapy goes. She was exhausted and unable to get any rest because of the persistent cough but still made strides each day.
Many of you are aware of the struggle that we have been going through trying to get Kelly's wheelchair adjusted and modified to be comfortable for her. To make a long story (very long story) short, the chair has been a lemon. We are now meeting weekly with the distributor trying to fix the issues of exploding tire inner tubes, broken bolts, broken brakes and more. I am again, very thankful for the staff at KKI for helping us to deal with this problem. Erin has been such a great advocate in trying to get things corrected and I would be lost without her expertise.
On with the incredible week. Monday, Kelly had an appointment with Dr. Busch, the chiropractor. He is so incredibly intelligent and you can see his desire to help Kelly. He reviewed her progress and then did some massage and pressure treatments on her shoulders and scapulas. She was sore the next day but really feel a difference in how much looser her shoulders felt for therapy. He is a great addition to TEAM KELLY.
Tuesday morning was spent in the pool with Kim and she was cheering Kel on the entire time. She did some knee walking between the parallel bars both forward and backward. Then did side stepping. Her hip joints are really showing a lot of control as she was able to go left and right. Walking on the treadmill was made much tougher when Kim told Max to stand by but don't give her any hip support. She nailed it!
That afternoon was Dennis and the Therastride followed by over the ground walking. She had the "dream team" on the therastride and it went so well that she was able to support a lot more of her own weight and the two "leg movers" said they didn't have to fight her much at all. When Dennis had her walk over ground with harness and walker, Dee was amazed. She has always been Kelly's biggest cheerleader. Kelly was "racing" another patient across the gym and she was lapping him because she was determined to take a step before Dennis could even grab her leg to pull it forward. He told her that she was using both legs better than ever and he couldn't even pick a "stronger" leg. This is great news! Usually Dennis offers Kel a little break after each lap of the gym but not this time. He claimed that standing for 3 minutes (supporting her own weight) was enough of a break. He has become quite the slave driver!
We had a wonderful dinner with friends at a cute little bistro. Dara and her daughter, Kate, joined us and the McAllisters and it was such a nice break from therapy. Kate is such a delightful and sweet young lady and her mom embodies the spirit of KKI. It was fun to just laugh and enjoy one another's company while having a delightful dinner.
Wednesday Quyen had Kelly on the GEO. (KKI has one of two GEOs in the US.) She again changed the mode so that Kelly was driving the machine all by herself but increased the resistance this time from 1 to 20! She did so well that she turned the resistance up to 25 for the last 5 minutes. Kelly was exhausted, like she had run a race. Exhausted or not, there was still work to do. The next hour was spent on core exercises and tall knee work. Quyen told her that she can see a difference week to week.
We were able to schedule the afternoon pool time a little earlier and it was with Dennis. He and a student worked with her in the large pool (which doesn't have a treadmill). She worked on walking with a water walker. She did laps around the pool on her feet and on her knees. More side stepping in both directions which impressed the student and Dennis because she required minimal assistance to go right or left.
Overall a very successful week and we are now seeing improvements every time she reports to therapy. This week we will be in Baltimore for two days and then we go to Wintergreen for PT and SKI with Shenandoah University. We will see about the ski part since it is supposed to be 60-65 and raining this week.
We are hoping to proceed with Kelly's DMV testing, her school work (which has been a bit of a nightmare), and looking for me a job that will fit in with life. We are also trying to look at modifying our hall bathroom to make it more usable by Kelly and Grandma. So much going on and so little time to fill you all in. Thanks for your continued support. It means the world to all of us.
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