Saturday, September 22

When we walked into the day room to look for John this morning, we actually didn't recognize him right away, and as soon as we got back to his room, I snapped this to show you all why:

After lunch (homemade mac and cheese, at his request), Nora and I went to OT with him. Today, he used the e-stim while working his shoulders:

For the non-OTs reading this, the e-stim is an electric stimulator (the OT reading will correct me if I've got that wrong -- in which case, you'll see an edit!) that helps the muscle contract more. So John's got patches on his right shoulder and when he gets his arm at about the height of the bottom shelf, he pushes a button on the control with his left hand and it gives his right shoulder muscles a small shock to help them move better. It's amazing to watch -- when I was in on Tuesday, he couldn't get his arm up to the top of the cabinet as he is in the bottom picture.

Nora used therapy time to set up her own work-out:

And practice her fine-motor skills with some smack-talk for Mr. Mike (Daddy's PT and a Browns fan):

And Nora did this for the last time today:

Yes, this was her last train ride in to visit Daddy because he's coming home next week!!! His OT and PT have trained me on everything we'll need to be able to do at home (spotting him going up and down the steps, getting in and out of bed, getting in and out of the car, etc.). He's made miraculous progress at RIC and his physiologist says he's ready to transition to outpatient rehab, which he'll do here in South Bend. The journey is far from over -- but the three of us are thrilled that he can come home for the rest of it.