Friday, June 04, 2010

Car and doctor's appt

Wednesday during PT we had a bit more success getting Dad into my car in the 2nd row. THe rest of the session went fine as well. Lucinda commented that it "gives her chills" to think about the progress Dad has made.

I arranged for Anna to be able to come with me to Dad's doctor's appt today to help getting Dad in/out of car. It worked out! He seems to get better each time. He still goes into a little bit of the "fear mode" when being asked to come forward (leaning forward to get out of seat) but handled it better with each successive attempt. Note that getting Dad into the car does require someone (in our case Anna) pulling up on his pants from behind to help lift him onto the seat. Once on the seat, Dad participates in adjusting his feet, body to sit in the seat.

At appointment, doctor had requested x-rays, but I asked him if they were needed---mentioned how difficult it was to get him on x-ray table on prior visit. After checking the prior xrays and examining him (he picked up Dad's leg in a flexed position and rotated it in a circular motion, during which Dad chuckled), as well as being told that Dad is walking several times a day, he agreed it was not necessary and to keep up the good work. He recommended that PT continue, but I will probably have to contact insurance if I want to push it to continue beyond next week (anyone interested in researching this?) . I'm sort of feeling he probably is getting enough exercise each day at this point, so perhaps not worth it. Lucinda also mentioned that should Dad's situation changed, they can always try to "re-activate" it.

Anna also reported that Dad is getting more and more talkative.

Bed Alarm mat has been ordered, but is on back-order. Only cost $75.

1 comment:

Justine said...

Wow - Barb, you are a miracle worker! This is really good news. I was hesitant about pushing Dad to use the car, but you seem to have a good sense of balancing the effort with his abilities.

Justine