Jul. 15, 2005 - 22:14 MDT

PENDULUM

Guess this will be a somewhat entry, a perhaps one maybe entry. A bit more than a placeholder but not much more.

Today I took Heather to her first visit to the physical therapist since her surgery. One good thing was the therapist after looking at her chart said that Heather had had some extensive surgery done to her shoulder, which is, of course, what I had been telling her all along. Not like the first one she had on that shoulder which was removing debris and trimming the rotator cuff a bit.

The next thing the therapist stressed to an extreme is that the exercising Heather will be undergoing is extremely passive. No muscle involved. Which is something totally foreign to her.

She was sent home after surgery and told to do the bit of letting her arm hang down totally relaxed and sway her body to make a pendulum of her arm. She tried, oh how she tried. But you know, the arm is supposed to swing back and forth -- so back and forth she would swing it, but her body movements didn't jibe with how her arm was going.

So much for that. She kept at it though.

Today the therapist took Heather in alone and was with her for awhile and then came out and took me in with them. She taught me the three basic Range Of Motion exercises to assist Heather to do and said that Heather had already done her thirty reps, so only had me do about ten reps with her with the therapist watching and advising. Then she showed us the exercise done with a rope and a pulley on a door, one where the active arm pulls the passive arm up and down.

Leaving home early this morning (for us) we picked up my lady cousin at 9AM (visiting from Nebraska) and took her across town to visit with her brother who is recovering from a Macular Degeneration procedure and can't drive yet. We visited and took them to Appleby's for lunch, took them back and then headed west for Milady's appointment.

Doing the usual two things at the same stop Heather had her pro time done first.

I know we stopped somewhere on the way home, but for the life of me I can't remember where or for what. I sat in the car and did crossword while she went in.

The evening drug along, me doing odds and ends for Heather she can't do, and setting and changing the hose out back in between.

Heather is to do her exercises at least three times a day, 30 reps on each one. So she waited 'til she was ready to go to bed to do her exercises.

I pretty well knew what I was in for, having been assisted with physical therapy after our auto accident. Two hand support is required and supplys the muscle power, the recipient must keep arm and hand inert (dead weight). Ah, that's the rub - - - - - Heather knows how the arm is supposed to move and unconsciously tries to move it. Rather than fussing with her about it, when she tried to "do it herself Mother" then I would relax and go inert. Then Heather would relax and we would go at it again.

We don't get the pulley/rope setup 'til Monday when we pick it up at the main orthopedic place in town, so it was a total of 90 reps of one kind or another, taking at least an eternity. Poor lady, she is trying so hard, too hard. I remember fighting the same sort of thing until I could follow the procedure, so the mile in her shoes has already been traversed by me beforehand.

She is overjoyed to be out of the sling now, only having to wear it to bed.

Right now, it is late, my body is inert almost and I am the PENDULUM . . . . . . . . . .

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