Today Steve took his first WALK with a cane! It was a very emotional day for us as I videotaped him walking. He went about 12 ft. assisted by one therapist who helped him move the left foot forward. In order for him to raise the foot up, he had to lift up his hip to swing it forward. This was extremely difficult for him to do, and he was spent afterward, but what a thrill it was to see him do that. Tears just filled my eyes and I told him how proud I was of him. Then he starting crying too. God is so good!!!
To keep his foot from dropping (also called foot drop), we put his leg back into the boot/cast that he used for the broken ankle, and he wears it night and day. This has really helped to stretch the tendon along with all of your prayers. He said it’s feeling a lot better.
His appetite is very good and I’m starting to bring in some of my own cooking for him, which has also helped to keep up his protein intake.
He really looks good. He has good color, his eyes look bright, and with the weight loss he looks very healthy. Yesterday I was watching him sleep and it looked like there was nothing wrong with him. That was a glimpse of what will be.
Yesterday he had his first shower in over 3 wks. Something so simple for us, but he has to learn how to wash himself. He wants to ignore his left side as if it wasn’t there, so it took a lot of concentration just to wash his arm, etc. In most of these exercises he is usually assisted by two people to protect him from falling. When he had his first therapy session a week after the ischemic stroke he suffered on Feb. 23, it took 4 people just to sit him up on the edge of the bed and to keep him from falling over. And one time it took 5 of them to get him standing and seated onto a commode. So you can see how much improvement he has made.
He is off the IV for dehydration, and a heplock in his arm is used to attach the antibiotics twice a day when needed, so then he doesn’t have to deal with that tube and IV pump all the time. That frees his arm for therapy which he moved 5 times today in a sawing motion.
The blood culture came back negative for any bacteria, so that is good. They were looking for anything else that might have caused the infection, but didn’t find it.
The therapists gave me a new daily schedule today that we have to follow, except for weekends. This schedule will only allow time for visitors around the lunch hour (12:00), dinner hour (5:00) and afterwards. Because the stroke rehabilitation therapy is getting more intense, he needs to get his rest after each session. If that doesn’t happen, he won’t be able to concentrate on the next session. This all came about when his schedule was thrown off this week by visitors that kept him from resting when he really needed it. Then he was late for mealtimes, which made him late for physical therapy. I was scolded a little for allowing that. It’s hard for us to turn away any visitors, so please help us out with this.
Prayer Requests:
1. Please pray for the full range of motion in his arm and dexterity in his hand and fingers to return. As of today there was still no movement in his hand or fingers.
2. Pray for his brain to “reconnect” and send impulses to the nerves and muscles on his left side including his mouth, eye, lung, arm, hand, fingers, leg and foot.
3. Pray that he will be able to empty his bladder each time he has the urge to do so. And never use the word “catheter” around him!! They keep threatening him with that if he can’t empty it, and he said he’d rather die than go through that again.
4. Pray for Steve’s perseverance, strength and a “can do” attitude.
5. Pray for my strength, good health and God’s continued grace upon me so I can be there for him every day. He does so much better when I am there. But today I was feeling very worn out and I came home early at 4:00 to sleep. I can’t afford to get sick again.
And join me in giving thanks and glory to God for all the answered prayers and progress Steve has made. Nothing is impossible with God!! His peace is amazing.
Thank you again for your continued prayer support. I wish I could respond to each one of your emails to thank you personally, but it would be too overwhelming for me.
May God bless each one of you for your faithfulness and love shown to us.
