You Gotta Read this.

What a great day! I am not long home from visiting Walt and can't wait to bring all the Walt Watch Bloggers up to date!

Walt started walking again today.

Wow after only 4 days of therapy, this morning he was standing between the parallel bars and then walking down the length and back. I thought this was pretty cool. Admittedly it was a bit of a shuffle and the right leg is obviously weak. But then Aaron the physical therapist got a walking frame and had Walt stand himself up in that. Walt, (Mr sceptical) kept saying he couldn't do it but Aaron and I were having none of that. I threatened him with my big stick if he didn't keep going. Walt then walked up and around in the frame. About 20 ft. Aaron was very happy and said that Walt was doing very well. He graduated Walt from the parallel bars. Yahoo!

Another heartening thing was seeing Walt get his appetite back. He made short work of his lunch of soup, tuna sandwiches, dessert and cookies. He is also getting better with his fine motor coordination and wielding the "eatin irons" with greater skill! Lyndsay and Bennett arrived and I had such a good time telling them of the morning's activities.

By this stage we were feeling pretty happy with how far Walt had progressed in the few days. But he had a few more surprises in store.

There was another physical therapy session after lunch and I think Walt wanted to show off for Lyndsay and Bennett because not only did he walk again in the walker, this time he added stairs to the routine. Up and down he went. I gotta tell you I cried when he did it and I am crying again now thinking about it. But of course Walt wouldn't even acknowledge that it was any big deal.

After that it was back to his room for a well earned rest. But before he could doze off, Dick and Bernie arrived with some great old pictures. They were happy as it is the first time in ages that he has been awake for a visit. The Speech therapist arrived but didn't have to take him away as he was getting plenty of talking practice right here. She explained that the quietness of his voice is because he is not breathing deeply enough to push the words out. She has him taking deep breaths and tells him to shout. She suggested that we also remind him to do this when he is talking too quietly.

Finally Walt was allowed to lay down and nap for an hour before one more physical therapy session at 3.30. In this session, Aaron had Walt use his wheelchair as the walker. As Walt did this it became apparent that he was having balance issues. What felt upright to him was actually a strong list to the right and his right leg was not straitening all the way. Aaron was discussing what strategies he could do to help that when Walt asked for crutches. This was not something that Aaron had ever used for this problem but he was happy to give it a go as it was the first time that Mr grumpy (Walt) had shown any enthusiasm for the process. Well didn't he get up and walk several steps with the crutches! Next week they will try him on the forearm crutches as they think it will give him a greater awareness of where his body is in space. They think that Walt may have discovered a new therapy!

Totally awesome don't you think?

Walter is a Super Star!!!!

Love to you all
Cheers
Corinne (CoCo)