Hair, Feet , Shoulder, Wrist, Hand

In case you're wondering ...
Kat had her hair done last week! Her two good friends came over for a visit and other things. When Mike stopped in for a quick moment, he saw Sue on guitar and Beck on the Zither! They had a food fest and song fest together. Then after the fun, Beck took Kat to her daughter's hair dress shop down the road and Billie Jo cut and later (like on Saturday) permed the hair. I think it looks real cute. Thanks girls for your kindness and love!

Lately, Kat has been trying different things to aid in her walking. Her brace with the swivel heel is the most stable of her aids but it gets bulky by the end of the day. We also noticed that even though she walks more briskly with it -- it hinders her leg muscles. So Kathy tries a variety of her swedo (cloth ankle brace which ties and straps around itself) and her old air brace. I've noticed her walking around the house barefoot much improved!

Now it seems we've learned something new! Her visit to Healthsouth last Tuesday was nearly canceled as the therapist called out. We were in Tilton when the phone message hit my cell phone. I called but they found a replacement so they said keep coming. Mel was tagged to be Kat's 3rd OT since she began back at Healthsouth as an Outpatient (the other 2 were in their lasts days when they worked with Kathy -- you think she may have been too much for these poor OTs?). Well, this week, lo and behold ... Mel was back! The new thing she told us was that Kat's tone in her wrist and hand had to do with tightness in her shoulder blade and that needed to be worked on regularly. So now she has work to do in the pool and at home as well as vision exercises. She keeps busy with all this homework. This week, Mel worked on a new wrist splint for Kat so she would keep her fingers extended through the night and for a few hours during the day. It is working out pretty good. We did remove it at around 6am this morning as her hand tightened up.

Mike's mini vacation (along with Brent being away at his mom's) allowed for a few special trips around the area. We also relaxed at home on occasion. So this has been a good week and there seems like promise for movement real soon to occur in her hand and wrist.

Continue to join us as we learn and work toward stroke recovery! The journey goes on!