We went to PT 5x a week and speech 2x a week during Nov & Dec, trying to get in all our 60 allotted therapy days. Due to the holidays in those months, then weather toward the end of Dec, we probably made about 50 of them. Our last therapy day was Dec 20, we've been on our own since then, but will still have 60 this year, whenever we want to use them.

Bob's had a couple of new things I'd like to share:

1. Our cordless phones have an intercom system, that I usually use to find a lost one. Well, he has been enjoying going to back into 'his' room where he can sort thru his stuff. He has always been a sorter, can't quit. I walk him back and spot him. But I had to keep going back and checking on him, to see if he was done yet. Now, he has learned to use the intercom! When he is ready to come out, he picks up the phone, hits intercom button, then the select button is set to 'all' so all the phones ring when he hits select. So where ever I am in the house, I can pick up a phone and talk to him (5phones in the house). I can even catch a nap and he can call me when he's ready to come out to the TV room! I didn't think I'd ever get another nap in my life!

2. I noticed that when he picks up a paper to read it, he doesn't hold it straight in front of him, but to the side and looks down the slant to see it all. I started thinking about how our big tv is on a swivel base and when I slanted it, he could see more of it! It would be better if it was slanted with the closer part of the tv, closer to his good eye, BUT, then I'd be looking at the back. He still did see an improvement with the slant reversed. It's just the difference of looking down a fenceline compared to staring at a fence straight on. If you have vision loss on your bad side, try it!

3. One of the exercises they always try to get him to do and he never can is to tap the bad foot while sitting. (like your toe comes upward)

Well, I had thought about how he used to use his IPod when exercising and now couldn't use it, nor remember how. Earbuds would be a bear also. Same problem with any CDs he has, too much trouble. So, when he sent me to buy him a new clock for his room, I noticed some of the digital ones came with a docking station for IPods, so got one! Now he just touches one button and can listen to all his old favorites that he had downloaded before!

Now here's the other great part of this.... while listening, he called to me excitedly and showed me how he was pretending to play drums with the music (was a drummer) and a drummer uses both feet - one for symbols and one for bass drum... guess what automatically happened?! His bad foot started tapping along with the good one! Now if that other hand would just feel like playing too!

4. Sometime in the middle of Dec, when we still had about a week of therapy left, I told him we would start using the 4 footed cane, instead of his hemi-walker to go to therapy. He didn't like it, but I said it was the way to get his balance back, as now the hemi-walker was doing all the balancing, and he was ready for this step. So, we started that, and I began to see him walking a little straighter (can't lean on it as much as the other!) and having more balance. Like when he sneezes, he doesn't almost fall down!

So, Saturday (Jan 5), I said, why don't we try to take a few steps without the cane at all? So, I held my arms out, so that he could grab them for balance and he took some Frankenstein style steps, about 5. Really hard for him. The next day, we did more, and he did better already! This morning, he had a thought, all his own! He said..."You know, I used to walk with the 4 legged big walker and practiced with the 4 footed cane. Then I went to the 4 footed cane, and we are practicing walking without any... but, we missed the one footed." I thought a minute and realized how right he was! If he is ready to practice walk with NO cane, then he should be doing regular walking with a normal cane! He has been doing that today, and his balance and speed in walking is improving at an unbelievable rate! He's not above snagging his toe on something or running into the wall, but I am so impressed at how fast this next step is progressing, and also that HE is the one that thought of the normal cane! He said he feels more like a man now