Friday Night in April Written April 27, 2012 10:51pm
It's crazy how time can be bent to any given situation. If your waiting for a phone call ~ a minutes seems like eternity, if your trying to get something done ~ a minute is gone before you blink your eyes!
There have been lots of things going on here at the Wachter house. Max has a new standing glider. Basically he transfer from his wheelchair to the seat of the glider. We block his knees, put on a waist belt and then he can slowly be brought up to a standing position. You don't realize how much gravity helps your body when your up and running until you no longer have that option. It helps your bones, your blood pressure, your heart. I didn't realize how much it helps Max mentally to be standing again. So many things I take for granted.
We have a new bed now, well, two twin beds we can push together! I told Max if he gave me to much grief I would push his bed to the other side of the room! LOL They are great to sleep on, but sometimes a little hard to move Max where I need him. I have a ah oh moment when I went to pull him and was standing up.....my lower back did something it was not supposed to do and brought me right on down. I had to have the boys help me for a few weeks because what ever I did, it was not good. I still have a few problems with it, but it is healing.
At the end of April Max got a manual wheelchair. It's good to have in case his electric one breaks down or the van breaks down. It harder for him to stay in it for long because it's uncomfortable but it is smaller and an option for when we may need to go somewhere his other chair will not fit. We are hoping to get some power wheels for the manual chair so he can push it better. With his left hand not working it is harder for that "hand" to push.
Max has been going to rehab in Jefferson City 2 times a week. It is really helping him get muscle tone in his left arm and they are working on his balance. The plus side is he's getter stronger, the downside is it seems he has a lot more muscle spasms that make his legs kick out. Sometimes by the end of the night he might move and both legs will kick straight out and just sorta bounce in the air. It's the strangest thing!
We went to see Dr. Tanaka the 9th of April. Max had been having a lot of trouble with his back ~ he kept telling me it felt like a screw was loose and moving around. The week before we went to see Dr. Tanaka he was in so much pain they cut down his therapy until he saw the Dr. Dr. Tanaka took xrays and told us that everything looked great, everything was in place and healing well. When Max mentioned the pain she felt around and seemed to think it was the back muscles that were tense and sore.
One of the next things was she told Max that he inspired her to try and get a grant to research spinal cord injuries. She's looking to try and minimize the damage to the spinal cord right after an injury. Max felt pretty good. He said he aggravated a lot of people but he never thought he would inspire somebody.
We are hoping to get some ideas of how to remodel the house so Max can have a bathroom/shower he can actually get into. He wants to try and get something done before the fall rolls around. I know he misses his shower. I wasn't sure but I think I'm going to have them put a roof over the porch. The van blocks my view of the driveway, so I figure I might as well keep the weather off of Max. We put our craft tent up to see how it would work and Max said he did enjoy not setting out in the sun the other day when it was really hot.
It's been an adjustment going from Max being gone to having him home all the time. We are slowly getting into a groove, venturing out to more. I look forward to a time when Max isn't in so much pain, is much stronger and going out is always fun, not exhausting!
Our house is always open and he enjoys seeing and hearing from everybody.
I pray you all are enjoying your own journey, your family and your health. I look forward to filling this journal with many more of our adventures! Sometimes the journey from point A to point B is a slow, sometimes bleak expanse but God has promised that he is in control, he knows what he is doing and he will not be delayed. I look back to how Max was in the hospital, compared to how he was at Rusk, to how he was when we left Rusk, to how he looks now. It's easy to forget just how desperate some of those days were now we are in the slow march to getting better. My prayer is to be content in the knowledge that this will not last forever, that life is made up of seasons.
Till next time,
Sherry
It's crazy how time can be bent to any given situation. If your waiting for a phone call ~ a minutes seems like eternity, if your trying to get something done ~ a minute is gone before you blink your eyes!
There have been lots of things going on here at the Wachter house. Max has a new standing glider. Basically he transfer from his wheelchair to the seat of the glider. We block his knees, put on a waist belt and then he can slowly be brought up to a standing position. You don't realize how much gravity helps your body when your up and running until you no longer have that option. It helps your bones, your blood pressure, your heart. I didn't realize how much it helps Max mentally to be standing again. So many things I take for granted.
We have a new bed now, well, two twin beds we can push together! I told Max if he gave me to much grief I would push his bed to the other side of the room! LOL They are great to sleep on, but sometimes a little hard to move Max where I need him. I have a ah oh moment when I went to pull him and was standing up.....my lower back did something it was not supposed to do and brought me right on down. I had to have the boys help me for a few weeks because what ever I did, it was not good. I still have a few problems with it, but it is healing.
At the end of April Max got a manual wheelchair. It's good to have in case his electric one breaks down or the van breaks down. It harder for him to stay in it for long because it's uncomfortable but it is smaller and an option for when we may need to go somewhere his other chair will not fit. We are hoping to get some power wheels for the manual chair so he can push it better. With his left hand not working it is harder for that "hand" to push.
Max has been going to rehab in Jefferson City 2 times a week. It is really helping him get muscle tone in his left arm and they are working on his balance. The plus side is he's getter stronger, the downside is it seems he has a lot more muscle spasms that make his legs kick out. Sometimes by the end of the night he might move and both legs will kick straight out and just sorta bounce in the air. It's the strangest thing!
We went to see Dr. Tanaka the 9th of April. Max had been having a lot of trouble with his back ~ he kept telling me it felt like a screw was loose and moving around. The week before we went to see Dr. Tanaka he was in so much pain they cut down his therapy until he saw the Dr. Dr. Tanaka took xrays and told us that everything looked great, everything was in place and healing well. When Max mentioned the pain she felt around and seemed to think it was the back muscles that were tense and sore.
One of the next things was she told Max that he inspired her to try and get a grant to research spinal cord injuries. She's looking to try and minimize the damage to the spinal cord right after an injury. Max felt pretty good. He said he aggravated a lot of people but he never thought he would inspire somebody.
We are hoping to get some ideas of how to remodel the house so Max can have a bathroom/shower he can actually get into. He wants to try and get something done before the fall rolls around. I know he misses his shower. I wasn't sure but I think I'm going to have them put a roof over the porch. The van blocks my view of the driveway, so I figure I might as well keep the weather off of Max. We put our craft tent up to see how it would work and Max said he did enjoy not setting out in the sun the other day when it was really hot.
It's been an adjustment going from Max being gone to having him home all the time. We are slowly getting into a groove, venturing out to more. I look forward to a time when Max isn't in so much pain, is much stronger and going out is always fun, not exhausting!
Our house is always open and he enjoys seeing and hearing from everybody.
I pray you all are enjoying your own journey, your family and your health. I look forward to filling this journal with many more of our adventures! Sometimes the journey from point A to point B is a slow, sometimes bleak expanse but God has promised that he is in control, he knows what he is doing and he will not be delayed. I look back to how Max was in the hospital, compared to how he was at Rusk, to how he was when we left Rusk, to how he looks now. It's easy to forget just how desperate some of those days were now we are in the slow march to getting better. My prayer is to be content in the knowledge that this will not last forever, that life is made up of seasons.
Till next time,
Sherry
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