Just the other day a friend of mine posted a Timehop of her and a few of my other friends at my benefit fundraiser which was two years ago, 4/13/13. I have to say thank you to all the family, friends and businesses who helped contribute and attend the event! You all helped bring me back to the East Coast 10 days afterwards and a plethora of other things. Timehop also reminded me that I need to update my blog…

Therapy, as a whole, is getting trickier and trickier. I’ve moved on from practicing solo task and movements on their own, but I am now learning to multi-task all of the things I’ve learned into one fluid movement.

As far as Occupational Therapy goes I am currently learning to do things such as use my left Hemiplegic hand in everyday tasks while standing. One issue we’ve found is that my posture likes to collapse, but my OT Therapist, Tara Murphy, and her OTA student, Rachel Marshall, found that if we put some weight in a book bag and put it on my back it’ll keep my posture upright. We are hoping to decrease the book bag’s weight  with the goal of getting my back and its muscles more acquainted with staying upright. I have also been working on buttoning buttons since I can now engage my left hand for assistance more than I ever could before, after my tendon release surgery. We initially started with exercise buttons in the gym, but I have now graduated to putting on a button up shirt all by myself. Speaking of dressing myself I have been getting up and out of bed, getting myself to the restroom, doing all of my toiletries and dressing myself in the morning – slowly but surely!

Physical Therapy has had its ups and downs. I’ll start with the downs and end on a good note. I graduated to a single poled Offset Cane and then got demoted due to relying too much on the cane for weight bearing. With my original Physical Therapist, Katherine Bennett, I started working with her for two hours a session four days a week at Roper St. Francis had her first baby, Luke, a week and a half ago. While this in an AWESOME thing and I can’t wait to meet him, it is a major drag cutting back to a little under half of the amount of time I’ve had devoted to Physical Therapy over the past year.

On to the better side of Physical Therapy, I have an great temporary replacement Physical Therapist, Jamie Hamric, and Katherine’s third year MUSC PT student, Amy Graul, who both have stepped up to the plate! With less PT in the hospital it has driven me to do more exercises at home. Everything from standing with no device, heel/toe lifts and working on my posture. I also managed to walk a full quarter mile with no cane, walker or any assistive device on 3/8/15! Yesterday I went to the Neurologist to get my Baclofen Pump filled and we reduced the amount of medicine it’s releasing as my tone is slightly reducing which is due to massage therapy with Jerry Tiller. Before I go in for my massage I see a Neuro Muscular doctor, Blaine Crevar, and we are working on my eye sight right now. That is improving, so that gives me hope that I’ll be able to drive one day! Both of those forms of therapy were introduced and the first three months paid for by a fellow support group member, Tina Doscher!

When it comes to Speech Therapy I have been working on articulation and letter blends all in one with my Speech Pathologists Jo Ann Fischer, Kelly Moose and their third year Appalachian State ST student Rachel Lyszczyk. We started to add Voice Therapy to the mix, but both my articulation and letter blends heavily decreased while focusing on getting my voice out of my throat. Once again, multi-tasking comes into play. Thankfully though I recently met a MUSC Speech Therapist who specializes in Voice Therapy while visiting a ENT for a Laryngoscopy and she did a little trial run to see how her method might work for me to get my voice out of my throat. It was definitely beneficial! I am planning on taking a break from ST at East Cooper Hospital and seeing her for as long as she deems necessary. On a side note, I am speaking to a MUSC 2nd year Physical Therapy students’ Neuro class later this month. I really enjoy spreading the word about TBI prevention and recovery methods and will also be speaking at Shepherd Center’s middle school talks in Atlanta on the way to Shepherd’s Adventure Skills Workshop camp in Alabama.

Speaking of Adventure Skills Workshop (ASW), that is sure to be a blast and you can definitely expect to see an update about how awesome that was!

Sorry for the double post due to GoDaddy technical difficulties.