New Equipment!

On Friday I went out and bought, at the request of the physiotherapists, a gym ball!!! This isn't for me!! When I was asked if we had one I was a bit scared as to what they were going to get Pete to do with it! I couldn't really picture him being able to roll around the floor on it yet! However, it was put to a very good use. Pete's right hand was placed on it and then his left hand on top of the right, and then he had to gently roll it around. This stretched his right arm as well as giving him a different sensation through his right arm and hand. He also had to have a hand either side of it and lift it up and then down and drop it. Then, after a lot of work with the ball, Suzanne was behind him on the bed with both arms around his trunk and he had to sink back against her whilst trying to keep his feet on the floor (I am pretty sure he REALLY enjoyed this exercise!!!!!). The muscles on top of his right thigh were really tight and Susie had to work on that to get them relaxed in order to keep the foot on the floor. Then, finally, before moving on to the kitchen for stepping exercises, the ball was gently rolled towards him for him to kick back. This gets the right leg kicking out forwards instead of to the side. All good stuff. Again he was worked really hard and as it was all new exercises I think he really felt the effects of it afterwards as he took a couple of paracetamols. This is actually good as it means all the muscles have worked harder than they are used to. You know the feeling yourself when using muscles you haven't used for ages. Using the ball also made it all a bit more fun than just straight exercises.
I forgot to tell you yesterday that Pete had a fall! Not a bad one - he doesn't seem to go down with a thump just gently topples!! It was when we were going out. As he gets in and out the door himself I wasn't really watching him, I was busy getting the wheelchair collapsed and into the car. I'm not sure exactly what happened, possibly he didn't quite get his foot down flat from the step, anyway over he went! As Martin was there it was relatively easy to get him up, no big drama. In fact, when Martin asked Ella did she see Grandad fall, she said no and was possibly quite disappointed she missed it!! He had no after effects and the afternoon was fine, but this morning he had got a bit of red knee, but no broken skin or anything.
More physio tomorrow, but not with the ball, mostly core leg exercises with Suzie. But we will work with it over the next few days.