Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Plateau-ing
Movement for 10/7/08:
- I think we've reached a movement plateau. Today was essentially the same as yesterday, including using the walker only to the rocker from the dinette steps. When it was time for her nap she was so tired that I was reluctant to allow her to walker from the rocker to the steps, although she insisted on walking up the steps, into the bathroom and into bed, and did well, even singing on the way to the bedroom.
- I was able to let the PT know, pre-visit, Mom's feelings about PT. She was fine with Mom's feelings and said that she had already intended her main thrust to be evaluation of safety issues a Mom moved about the house.
When she arrived Mom was still at the dinette table, having stayed there after breakfast through the Hospice RN's visit. This gave us a chance to display our technique of movement from the dinette to the rocker in the living room, including standing up, walking around the table as Mom used the table, and the chairs, and me, for support, going down the steps, taking possession of the walker, moving toward the rocker, our technique for releasing the walker, getting her into the rocker and rising from the rocker. The PT was happy with our strategies.
She also confirmed that if I have the tiniest bit of reservation about Mom walkering the distance from the rocker to the foyer steps, best to go with my instincts and wheel her there. She also surveyed the bathroom, the hall, Mom's bedroom, had me go through all our movements through each room and said she was satisfied with our "system".
She did, indeed, introduce three leg exercises and two shoulder exercises, all of them to be done of which can be done sitting, to help keep strength in mom's quads, keep her ankles flexible and able to handle balancing and keep her shoulders and back relaxed. They are as follows:- Rocking the ankles by pushing the feet to tip-toe while sitting, then reversing to toes up, heels down;
- extending each leg from the knee and lowering it, slowly;
- marching in place;
- shrugging the shoulders;
- rolling the shoulders.
She suggested, speaking to both Mom and me, that we do 10 reps of each exercise twice a day. She solicited Mom's opinion about whether she thought she could do this. Mom responded, "Oh, I think so." Since this isn't so much of an exercise regimen as we've previously performed, I think Mom may not have any objections to doing these. I will, of course, do them, too, and I'll see to it that we do them to music.
I showed the PT the ankle rolls I've been having Mom perform. The PT told me that these are twice as difficult as the ankle rocking exercise she showed us because they require using the quads as well as the ankles. She cautioned that we'd probably have much more success with just the ankle rocking. - Mom was her usual gracious self. When the PT rose to leave, Mom thanked her for the visit. She's not only a trooper, she's a charming trooper!
# posted by Gail Rae @ 18:19 email...
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