Standing Man

Matt had a busy yesterday. I was thankful I wasn't working so was able to spend most of the day with Matt. Last week he met with the rehab physician and she arranged for an ultrasound on his kidneys and bladder, to see where the stones are and if they could be causing all the bladder spasms. I was going to spend some time with him watching the Scotties on TV but he was off to occupational therapy for writing exercises.
But the most exciting was physiotherapy in the afternoon. I had brought Matt's left leg brace on the chance they would try and stand Matt. The OT Matt had been seeing in outpatients was there so I knew they were going to try (she doesn't normally work with the inpatients, but she had been waiting for this moment). First they started with what looked like a foot massage, but what they were doing is stimulating the brain to remember how big Matt's foot is. Sounds weird but many pt's with strokes or spinal cord injuries, the brain tells the body that the foot is very small and they believe that is the reason many pt's walk on tiptoes or the side of their feet, loss of balance quickly etc. After they put his shoes and brace on, they placed a table with a box besides his right arm and had him place his hand on it for stability. My job was to take pictures so they could see Matt's alignment, Cecilia would lock his brace in place when he was standing, Sonja stood behind him on the mat and Margaret would make sure his knees didn't buckle. They put the mat/bed in the highest position, then got him to stand. The first time he stood for 3 minutes and they were just testing how he would do. He was able to support his own weight with his right leg and arm. Matt felt fine, no drop in blood pressure and only sat down after muscle fatigue. After a short rest where the therapists consulted over the pictures, they got him standing again, this time for about 5 mins. He noticed his left arm became numb from hanging down so Cecilia held it up for him. They also made him reach for the ceiling with his right hand, which is difficult because of lack of muscle tone but he didn't lose balance, which is what they were looking for (he actually did touch the ceiling he is so tall). We were all very excited and felt there should have been balloons coming from the ceiling or something!
Margaret was very optimistic, but told us that Matt may never walk without the brace or some walking aides and still have a long way to go. But she didn't expect Matt to do as well as he has done so quickly.
Must go, have to go back to work. Just had to write the good news!