Intensive Therapy Has Begun

This was the first week of Jake's six week intensive therapy schedule. I don't know if it's because we had three weeks off or because the schedule is a bit nuts, but I was exhausted by the end of the week! I'm used to having a busy schedule (just like most of us are) but not quite used to so many appointments in one day and spread out the way they are. I tried to schedule things this summer all on Monday, Wednesday and Friday so he can have Tuesday/Thursday off as well as the weekend. As he has said to me on more than one occasion, "I lost all of my summer last year being in the hospital." So in an effort to give him some fun time, we have a couple of pretty crazy days. Some of the appointments we had a choice of times on, others we didn't, so we just make it work.

Here's roughly what one of his weeks looks like:

Jake was pretty wiped at the end of the day on Monday and Wednesday and asked to go to bed about 7:30. PT is really focusing on building strength in his left leg, so they are working him pretty hard. On Wednesday, he did five sets of ten leg presses at 25 pounds with both legs. That was followed up with three sets of 15 at 12 pounds with his left leg. Then he did a bunch of side walking with a resistance band around his ankles, walking forward while being pulled with a resistance band from the back and he finally finishes with the treadmill. I was tired just watching him work so hard!

When we get home, he does rest for awhile, but is also trying to pack in summer fun, so is out jumping on the trampoline, playing games with Luke, hanging out with friends, so it's no wonder he's tired at the end of the day.

We realized last week that we are going to be hitting a lot of "firsts" this summer thinking back to where we were a year ago. Jake and Todd were talking Friday morning about how on the 21st last year, he was getting discharged from the ICU and was heading to the rehab floor. That was honestly one of the single toughest nights in the hospital because we were so unprepared for the shift in care from ICU to a general floor. Jake was having withdrawals from the sedation drugs he'd been on and was a mess. He wasn't sleeping, was constantly fidgeting, HATED his feeding tube (which he pulled out every opportunity he could), wasn't eating or drinking regular food and just wanted water. Tough, tough time. Makes me very thankful for a little bit of a crazy schedule. :-)