Army Strong

When Dad goes up and down stairs he reminds himself of a mnemonic device one of his physical therapists told him. In order to remember to use your strongest leg to lead going up stairs and your weaker leg to lead going down it's something like: Weak takes you down to the devil, strong takes you up to heaven. Dad has a shorthand he uses, though, to be funny. When going down stairs he steps down and says, "devil...devil...devil..." (I tell him if anyone besides us heard him do this they'd give a call to the proverbial folks in white coats.) When he goes up it's "strong...strong...strong..." A while back, Joe and I took to trying to come up with phrases for each word on every step. Here's how we play: Dad steps and says "devil" and I say, "...may care." Dad steps and says, "devil" and Joe says, "...'ed eggs," etc. and we all think we are very funny. (Yes, we know how sad this is.)


ANYWAY, the reason I'm telling you all this is that my favorite thing to say for Dad on his final step into the house (what used to be the hardest step until recently) was "Army Strong!" One day, Dad picked up the habit, so now he says it instead of me. :) Sometimes we also do a variation and say, "Army of One!" I tell Dad he's my Army of One, a dedicated soldier in the campaign to return to full strength.


You all can't imagine what it is like to see him improving in leaps and bounds, day after day. He is so committed to getting better. For the past week or so he has been doing about 90% of his own personal care (going to the bathroom, showering, etc.). On Wednesday, he said, "I wish I could get rid of the walker," and began practicing walking a little by putting the walker away from him and walking into it so he could stay safe. That day he walked everywhere (with the walker) that he would normally have eschewed or used his wheelchair. He even went into the grocery store with me. And I can tell how much better he's getting because he's not nearly as exhausted by all of this as he would have been even a couple of weeks ago.


Yesterday when he went to therapy, he asked his PT if he could work toward getting rid of the walker and she let him practice with a cane. He did so well she told him he could start using one as long as someone was with him to spot him. We bought one last night and he's been walking all over the house practicing ever since! It's miraculous to watch.


For the past week or so he's also been able to get in and out of his chair at home on his own (it's pretty low, so until now he's needed a boost out). At first it was tough and he really wore himself out, but now it's like nothing. Most times he can just stand right up normally.


The only thing that's holding him back at all lately is his eyesight. That's his huge frustration, but the last couple of days he's been able to consistently see people's eyes in their faces. That's a big deal for him.


Watching him progress like this continues to be such a gift. Dad really is an army of one!