Okay, I lost my last try so here goes. I must have hit the wrong key!

Larry has been going to PT and his therapist has been trying the orthotic and walking Larry around and around the gym. She also tried some kind of contraption using the stretch bands. She had Larry raise his foot up and down 3 steps 15 times each foot. He was exhausted at the end. Not use to this much. Friday he refused to go and said he had a headache. Me thinks he really didn't want to go but did his exercises over the weekend. He said he will go this week Wed. and Fri. He needs to get away from dragging the left leg. Also, when he gets up from a chair, he puts his one foot way back. We are trying to get him to stop this and place both feet in front. This is one of the reasons he falls getting up from his lift chair. He wants me to help him a lot.

Last week we had an episode with his swallowing. I was making his lunch and he was only drinking his milk. He started coughing and then gasping for air. This didn't seem to stop so I called 911. The dispatcher said not to slap him on the back. What? This is how I got the piece of fish out when he was coughing before. Anyway, hitting on the back can lodge the object further down! The Heimlich is best and the one firefighter demonstrated it. They have a class on CPR and First Aid. I might look into this but the class is at night for 3 hours. Anyway, they said Larry must have swallowed some air and this caused spasms. I thought maybe he had something lodged from breakfast! The fire department has everything on Larry's medical history in their computer now. I also have a file on the counter for them and a key hidden outside they know about. I have a file on myself too as it has mostly my meds and doctors. The fire dept. is about 10 min from our house. They always encourage to call them even when he just needs to be lifted. They asked if Larry wanted to go to the hospital and he said "no" and I said I would call his doctor. I am now taking him for another ENT check with same doc as last year!

The weather has been warm and sunny. I went for a walk and encouraged Larry to go but he wouldn't budge. I did get him to sit out on the patio for a spell. I tried to get our cat, Lucy, out so I could brush her, but she suddenly is afraid to go out. lol Maybe she still thinks it is cold out. So spoiled! The other cat is too afraid to even think of going out.

Our kids want to do a kind of intervention on Larry to get him to do more things. He doesn't want to go out, doesn't use the computer, read, eat, or exercise. He is happy just watching TV and now baseball. I think it may be time for an anti depressant change but hard to convince Larry's doctor of this. My daughter will be in town for this intervention, and Larry thinks so much of her that he may listen. At least the kids will show more attention to him. Larry's kids usually give their mom the priorty. Anyway, I don't think it can hurt. Maybe the kids will realize what I go through.

So happy to see spring and the flowering trees start to bloom. Hate winter and bundling up everytime we go out. I just hope Larry will "spring forward".

Julie