1 April 2025
It may look like a big weight drop if you're following the home page ticker but in fact it's merely an adjustment. Daisy the RNA recently weighed the wheelchair with its foam cushion and the air cushion we put on top and it turns out it's 41 lbs. I had calculated it some time ago without the cushions at 37 lbs. So the chair gained weight.
But her weight has been stable since we hit on the ice cream and Boost lunch plan. She'll take a couple of bites of the main dish and maybe some fruit and maybe a bite or two of pie but nothing else that's solid. She will drink all the prune juice, some of the milk and some of the coffee.
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BEFORE LUNCH today, I got her out of bed, she dressed herself and then she walked to the wheelchair, which I put out in the hallway and a room back so she has to take a few steps each day even if she doesn't want to walk.
With the wheelchair in sight, she knows she can't stop to sit down, too. So it's somewhat unaided walking, although she does use the walker.
Today Kevin the Physical Therapist saw us and stopped to compliment her. Then he promised to meet us in the gym before trying her on the stairs.
As far as I know (and it isn't far), the PTs worked with her Monday and Tuesday last week and that was it until today. So I was glad to see them resume the case.
The SciFit was busy so she did a few sets on the Spirit Cycle (which is marked "Out of Order" for some reason).
Then Kevin took her to the stairs, a set of just a few steps with railings on both side to a platform. There is a set of regulation steps on one side and set of shallower steps on the other. Kevin put Joyce in front of the regulation steps.
She got up and tried to go up with her good leg ("Up with the good, down with the bad," as my father's prostheticist used to say). But she just couldn't get her foot off the ground higher than a couple of inches.
She did try twice before screaming she couldn't do it. Kevin said we'd work on it and I asked how. He said, "Marching." You do it in the chair or standing. Lift one leg then the other. Repeatedly.
Joyce did walk halfway down the short hall and halfway down the long hall and then back up the long hall to her room for lunch. So she got more walking in today that she has in a week.
And when I rolled her back inside her room later, I removed the foot supports from the chair so she could start doing some marching. And she did.
When she walks, she shuffles her feet so she really hasn't lifted her feet in months. Even marching in the chair she was constrained by pain in her hips, she said. Not her knees, though. So it may just be a question of flexibility.
We'll see.