Sylvia's Journal

Axel’s OT appointments are coming to an end, at least the regular ones. Betty his occupational therapist who focused on his left arm and hand, is letting him go. He is on his own now to bring his hand, upper arm and shoulder back into full service. It is a matter of exercise discipline. The radial nerve is continuing to regenerate slowly but surely. Yesterday he came back from Abi’s massage in great spirits. He suddenly realized that his hand felt like a normal hand. It certainly looks normal; the skin tone is again the same as the skin tone of his other hand and he can extend his fingers, albeit with considerable effort. His lower arm gets sore after doing this for while but that is to be expected after this long period of inactivity.

I can tell when he gets tired because of his stoop. It reminds me of his dad (he doesn’t like it when I make that comparison). Herman walked like that in his later years, stiff and stooped.

Axel’s scar is healing nicely. When we saw Tim and Rhonda last weekend they did not even notice the scar at first. And Tim, of all people should remember, having seen Axel practically scalped. The only part that has not gotten much better much is the ‘woody’ feeling in his head. His hair has grown back nicely and even starts to curl again. But underneath it is a considerable ditch that crosses his scalp from front to back. We should have drawn the outline of the part with the wooden sensation in permanent ink to see if anything has actually changed. It may be in the same category as my tingling toes – something we’ll have to learn to live with.

I had a long and intense workday at home finally finishing a considerable chunk of a big writing project that has been in the works for months. I took some time out around noon to have my weekly massage with Abi which was, as always, wonderful. She is the one health provider who will never discharge us and that is fine with us. We expect to be needing those massages for a long time to come.