The Adventures of R and r: Adventures of a Rock Star

This girl! What can I say? She never ceases to amaze me!!! Everything I have read about the time after and SDR talks about how tired patients are, how they feel bad and start to hurt. If these things are true for Rachel you would never know it!!

She was ready to bolt out of the bed as soon as the PT came in the room. But was surprisingly patient as we moved her slowly to sitting then to her stroller chair. Then she didn't want to get out! So we rolled and rolled and rolled. Only stopping because a tiny bout of nausea caught up with her. After a very short rest she was ready to go again.

(Oh, and we looked like the worst parents in the world when she found out she would be riding in her stroller and not an actual wheelchair! If looks could kill we would have been in serious trouble!)

Her first session of real therapy went really well. She is so much more flexible that she was a pre-op!! It is amazing! I hope she can tell how different she feels. She hasn't said much about it.

Here are her first steps post-op!

It's not much but it is a good start! And the big thing I noticed were her knees. Pre-op she wouldn't bend them very much causing her to drag her feet on the floor, but they are bending so much more and no feet dragging! Whoop whoop!

An extra little perk of the surgery is the effects it is having on her left hand and arm! They did no work on the nerves that feed to the arms, but a great side-effect of this surgery is the possibility of improving the range of motion of upper limbs effected by spasticity. I started noticing that her left hand was staying open every time I saw it. I have been testing it out to see what all is going on with her hand. It use to be difficult to open it, no prob now! There was a lot of resistance when you would attempt to rotate it, very little resistance now. And her range of motion as she raises her hand over head has improved!! Amazing!!!

Check it out!