thursday evening

gen did really well in her therapies today. the day started off with pool therapy, and gen did some new things: walking in the pool (with help from sarah), squats which gen did all on her own, and sitting on a weighted bench and having sarah make waves and turbulence in the water so gen would have to work to stay balanced. she did! in ot she worked on putting weight through her arms, leaning on the lower bar of a walker and standing up,leaning on her arms. she also did a new exercise sitting on a mat and pushing a table away from in front of her, using her arms. she had to do this without leaning back while she pushed so she can get used to isolating muscles needed for a job and not throwing every muscle into it. for the same reason, in speech, they sometimes use a bite block to she will have to move her tongue without moving her jaw to make it happen. in speech gen did a lot of conversational work, answering questions and reading headlines from the paper. in pt she got on the treadmill again. she did a great job, holding herself up better than ever. we were happy to have visitors yesterday and today. a good family friend, muriel, from edmonton in alberta, canada came to the midwest for her vacation. she went to joplin and got my mom (gen's grandma "momo") and brought her up here to visit too. we hope they will have a safe trip home. we have been blessed indeed.

susan
ps jenny: gen said you'll never guess what song she heard while she was in pool therapy..."desperado." and she also said "it's not a purse...it's european!"