Day 312 - Sunday October 21, 2012

As far as physical things that Bridgett is working on doing each day:

• I've challenged her to walk up and down the stairs at least twice each day, with no assistance from anyone.  In the rehab hospital Bridgett was doing seven sets of stairs each day, up and down, with no assistance.  When we got her home in the apartment in Provo she was doing three sets several times a week, but holding onto the railing; they were cement stairways outside.  By the time we got home she was doing one flight to the basement, holding on with both hands to the railing.  Soon she was nervous about doing the stairs, worried that she might fall and hit her head or re-injure her neck.  She began to tell me she didn't want to go downstairs because she might get hurt.  The neurologist here said that initially she had no fear and it was because she wasn't really aware enough to be afraid. Now she realizes fear, which is a step in the healing process.  So, we set small goals and work up to larger ones.
• Bridgett does cross skipping each day.  This is skipping where you touch the opposite leg with the hand (i.e. touch the right leg with the left hand).  Actually, you should try it--it's pretty physical and can be tiring!
• Riding on the stationary recumbent bicycle in the house.  We have been encouraged to get her a recumbent bicycle for outdoors, but we really don't have any good place for her to ride it at this point, so for now we will just use the stationary bicycle inside.
• We were walking 1-1/2 to 2 miles a day outside until we started up with bears in the yard.  So, now we are walking when either Tyler or Mark have time to go with us.  We take bear spray and they take a gun.  It's hard to be consistent with this, but we are working on getting back to daily on the walking.

Right now we are not doing physical therapy because of the issues with the muscle spasm in her neck.  Somehow we will have to figure out how to strengthen the neck without doing the exercises that she was doing in PT that caused the muscle spasm in the first place--mostly doing things over her head aggravated it I think.  I have ordered what they call an aerobic pedal exerciser--otherwise known as the arm (or leg) bicycle.  This is the one piece of equipment that everyone seems to think helps strengthen the neck/arms without causing problems with the muscle spasm that Bridgett has had going on.  So, I just ordered one from amazon.com and it will be here on Friday.  It's under $30 so much less expensive than going to rehab plus so much more convenient to do at home!