Sunday - post op day 10

We had felt a bit disappointed with ourselves yesterday, that despite having a day with lots of time, we had still not managed to finish all the home exercise program, Therefore today we started as we meant to go on, and had Daniel high kneeling at the sofa as soon as he got up (and before we got him dressed)!

After breakfast we then did his full set of stretches and strengthening exercises, which took nearly 2 hours (although some of them also have to be repeated again in the evening). We have also taken every opportunity to have him weight-bearing through his legs today. It's tough, and he does a fair bit of complaining, but little by little he is improving.

We really needed to do a grocery shop, but the children were desperate to go to the zoo (yes.....AGAIN!) so we called there on the way. It is so huge that we have still only done about half of it, and today we just let the children choose one thing each that they would like to see. One of the changes that has become obvious since Daniel's operation, and was very evident at the zoo, is that he no longer needs the straps on the footplates of his wheelchair, because his feet no longer shoot off the footplates. Before, whenever he was at all excited his legs would go rigid and his feet would fly off the footplates, which would also cause his bottom to slide forward in his chair. This would happen a lot at break times at school, as well as other times, so he had straps to keep his feet in place. Now, he doesn't need them as his feet sit there quite nicely on their own.

 

We then went on to Schnucks (the grocery store), although in true Morgan style we were running late by that point, so had to rush round grabbing what we could, before setting off back to the apartment to cook. It's quite a long walk from the car park to our apartment on the 4th floor if you have lots of bags of shopping, plus a wheelchair, and Daniel's toilet, which we have to take everywhere in case he needs it, because he is too weak at the moment for us to hold him onto a normal toilet. Therefore, we borrowed the luggage trolley from the hotel to transport all the shopping, the toilet, and Lucy!

After cooking and eating we finished off the evening section of Daniel's stretches, while listening to music..........

.......and then he just relaxed to a bit of Elton John!

Tomorrow at 9am we are back with Mad Mike for physio at the hospital, which we are looking forward to. We are pleased to have a full week of therapy coming up, since last week was rather fragmented, with us only being discharged on Tuesday, then the break for Thanksgiving on Thursday. We are also all excited about the arrival of Uncle Chris, who is coming down from New Jersey tomorrow for a few days.

Daniel is definitely in less pain now, and is coping for fairly long periods in his wheelchair, although he does start to get sore after an hour or so. He is still struggling in the car seat, and can only manage about 10 minutes in that before he says his back is hurting. He is also still unable to sit on the floor - we are not sure whether that is weakness or pain related, but we are keen to try and crack that this week. The nights are the same as ever - I'll let you know when that improves! All in all though, we are feeling positive about the week ahead - bring it on!