Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Let's Get Physical

Randy did Day 2 of his home therapy exercises. We found that I have put too many tasks that take him too long for Tuesdays so we will have to revamp the schedule a bit.

Today, he worked on some word exercises such as Word Whomp and Text Twist. They are both very similar games. You are given 6 letters and the goal is to come up with as many words as you can during the time you are given. The two games are just in a little different format so I thought it would be good for him to give each format a try.

Randy then moved to working with the Big Brain Academy game. It is kind of like Brain Age, but has different exercises that work different parts of your brain. I then got him started on Sudoku. It took him a little bit to understand it, but once he got it he was really enjoying it. He didn't quite get to finish the puzzle he was working on, though. Today he went down to Ballys to begin working on to get himself physically fit. Randy loves working on the mental side of things, but many people have told us that they have found with getting physically healthy the mental comes along as well. Randy gets a few free sessions with a trainer down there. The trainer he is working with is very nice and has himself had an injury that affected his shoulder so he was able to give Randy some exercises that will help with the issues Randy has with his shoulder being weak and kind of hurting. He also gave Randy a lot of exercises that will work on rebuilding some tone on his left side.

Randy got done there just in time to pick up Cass and head off to the chiropractor. The chiropractor felt that Randy has progressed enough that he can go down to once every two weeks for a couple of visits and then move to once a month.

We had another good thing happen to day ~ well we feel it was a good thing. We have been trying since either late October or early November to get into a Neurophysologist. We had wanted to get into the one Randy saw in Good Samaritan. However, we have had an awful time in dealing with his staff. I have had to leave a message every time I have called and often they don't call me back until I sound not so nice on the message. Anytime we did get to talk to them, they kept saying that they were waiting for information from Randy's primary care physican. and would tell us they were already booking two months out and counting. Whenever we would call Randy's PCP, they would say that they faxed it over days ago. Yesterday, someone from the PCP office faxed it again and then called over there to verify they recieved it, but when I called, they didn't answer and then never returned my call. It is a shame because we like the Neurophsychologist, but his staff is too difficult to deal with it. I finally had the brilliant idea of seeing if Virginia Mason had a Neurophsychologist. They do. I called and left a message and got a very quick response call back. The lady I talked to was so nice. Randy has an appointment for next Monday morning. He is so excited!

1 comment:

HeatherD said...

Rachel - what a sigh of relief that there IS another neuropsych! And, as things often happen, maybe as soon as you guys have "released" this past one and gotten "engaged" with the next, the previous will call!! Then you can choose :~)

Randy "picked up" Cass - as in, walking? driving!? Gee, anyway, he makes great strides (hee hee) doesn't he?

Randy I love to hear about the exercises you are doing. I am eager to incorporate Brain Age and Word Whomp into the curriculum for the Sanctuary (orphanage).

Was it really that easy to set up a blog? I have wanted to find someone to set up a web page for the sanctuary, but maybe a blog will do fine?! I will check into it!