Friday, October 13, 2006

Randy the Funnyman


Randy today, told me "I don't have a brain injury, I am just a normal 55 year old" in reference to his lack of memory. I found it very humorous.

Today, Randy had to go through testing in therapy today because it was his 5th session.The therapist checked his strength, grip and coordination. There was improvement in all areas and had met all of the goals the therapist had set for him. The goals that Randy set for himself were memory strengthening and improving skills for driving.

For speech today, Randy worked on his planner. Randy said the therapist chastised him for his "to do" list. He does a great job of making the list, but not such a great job of doing it. The therapist suggested that he schedule the task. That is funny that she talked to him about this because this last weekend, I had a big discussion with him about needing to actually do his tasks and I suggested that he use the schedule part of his planner and that he sit down once a week and write in the exact times of his therapies throughout the week and then schedule his tasks around them.

Then the speech therapy tested him with the given task of being given a category and then naming 5 things within that category within 15 seconds. With fruits and tools, he was able to get 5 out of 5. With occupations, wild animals, and planets, he got 4 out of 5. With actors, he got 3 out of 5. Then with rivers, he got 2 out of 5. For homework, Randy is to name ten items within 30 seconds for the categories. Randy really wanted to practice this tonight, so tonight on the way to the store, Cass read off the categories and Randy named as many things as he could. Cass was itching to try to help out with naming them as well.

Tonight, we spent the evening getting the house all ready for Cass's party. This one was a little shorter planned than the first one so she didn't get a chance to get invitations out to everyone that she wanted, but hopefully those that she did invite all get a chance to come. Tonight, we dug out all of the stuff we bought in June for the original party and got all of the decorations up. The house looks all Lua-y. Cass is very excited!

1 comment:

HeatherD said...

Oh, Rachel - I just read your post on the chronic pain. I had fibromyalgia for 7 years, and could harly hold pen or pencil, never mind write, cut vegetables for my 3 year old, etc. (I coulodn't even use a computer mouse - had to get a trackball and operate it with my foot. That was pretty odd looking in our office!) The doctor who cured me helped me enormously with pain management - without narcotics. He has continued to be a blessing.
When you are ready to consider it, I will happily put you in touch with him!)