12/24

Although he continues to be tired and need a lot of encouragement to get out of bed, he got a glowing recommendation from the speech therapist this morning.  I wasn't at that particular session, but she said that he scored 100% on all the problems she had him working on.  She said that his attention to detail is improving and that next week she wants to start more complex activities.

I was there for his OT session, which went well.  He spent some time doing arm exercises on a machine that sort of looked like pedals on a bike.  You grab the handles with each hand and push forward/cycle as if you were pedaling a bike, just with your hands.  Then he worked on a large puzzle and did perfectly.  It was a large empty mat with rows of holes and he had a big bucket of colored pins.  Then they gave him a photograph with specific design/color patterns that he had to duplicate with the colored pins on his mat.

In PT he did some hip exercises, practiced more with the stairs, and did a lot of walking.

Because today was a weekend, his schedule was a bit different and they had him do all three sessions back-to-back.  I was initially worried about that.  He's just so fatigued I thought there was no way he would make it through.  I thought for sure by the 3rd hour he was going to tell that therapist exactly where she could shove that bucket of colored pins.  But he chugged along and did well.  He didn't even complain that much about wanting to get back in bed, ha.

We are a bit concerned that he's still not eating enough though.  Due to the fatigue, it's hard to get him motivated to do a lot of things and eating is one of them.  He's lost about 20 pounds since this all started.  So I collaborated with the nurses and dietician, he's going to get some nutrition shakes every day and they're going to try to push him to eat small snacks throughout the day.  I plan to do my part by smuggling in cookies.  Tonight for Christmas Eve, I have a huge platter of shrimp, stuffed shells, meatballs, and various desserts to bring in.  That's gotta be better than hospital food!