The Journey – Nolan Powell, November 28th
THE JOURNEY
November 28, 2009
SATAN WILL TRY TO TAKE YOUR JOY AND CHALLENGE YOUR FAITH
Our day began at 7:30 with a 45 minute session with the Occupational Therapist knocking on our door. His agenda today was to first teach Nolan how to dress himself with only the use of one hand and leg. He laid beside him his shirt which had 8 buttons to button and his jeans, socks and shoes. He gave him a few hints at easier ways to do some of these tasks that we take so for granted, but Nolan did it all himself. It was hard for me to watch because it was very hard for him to do, but he never said “I can’t”. His right arm is dead weight and he can’t lift it away from his body to slip it in the sleeve so getting it up the arm is a process. He buttoned his entire shirt except for his left sleeve. His balance is off because there is no support on the right side, so putting on his jeans was a challenge. He was sitting in his wheel chair bending over without falling forward on his head, trying to lift his right foot with his left hand and at the same time pull the jeans up the leg with the same hand he was picking up his foot with. After he finally managed to do this he got the left leg in then had to stand to get the pants up with one hand and get the button fastened and the zipper up and the belt fastened. If you don’t think it is hard, try it sometime. Remember you have to make your dominant hand and arm be paralyzed. After the pants came the socks (try putting yours on using only one hand and not being able to pick your floor off the floor to slip the sock over it) and shoes. Needless to say, he was exhausted by the time he finished this task of just simply dressing. No one knows for sure when the use of his right arm and leg will return of just how much use will return, so they want him to be as self sufficient as he can.
At 10:00 Physical Therapy came to get him and take him to the gym. Once again they did the stretching exercised to get the right leg ready to go to work. To my surprise he told Nolan that he was going to get him out of the wheelchair and let him walk. They would teach him how to rock over to his left side and thrust his right hip forward to make the right leg go forward so he could take a step. He is able to bear weight on his leg but not real well.
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The first thing the therapist did was wrap his foot to keep him from being able to let his toe drop down when he picked it up. Then he helped him stand up straight and Tall and begin to walk. He had to hold him but it was a start and we were praising God!We went back to the room so Nolan could rest and he lay down for a bit. After a little while he began to complain about being cold so I put another blanket on him. The he said he had to get up, he felt very funny. When he sat up for a minute he told me he was seeing double images of everything and he still felt funny. He was quite pale. I called the Nurse who called the Doctor. The Doctor ordered a Cat Scan to be done and I held my breath. After we got back to the room we canceled the next two therapy sessions for a while until we could get the results from the Cat Scan back. They revealed that everything was ok, but Nolan still felt bad.
Later in the afternoon he decided to do the Occupational Therapy. He looked pale and just not right but he was determined. The Doctor sat him on the bed and placed a crate full of foam balls on the floor to his left and another empty crate on the bed out to his right. He had to reach down on the floor with his strong are (left) and pick up a ball then reach way over on the right and drop the ball in the empty crate. He cannot support the weight of his body with his right leg so his balance was off. The doctor pulled his right arm out to his side, positioning him down on the elbow and told him to think about asking the arm to support him. After the first crate of balls the arm kicked in and the muscle began to fire. Again we were praising God. He did this routine through three times before quitting.
Next the Doctor began working on the shoulder (which we were told would be one of the last things to come back. The arm is dead weight and just dangles down beside him. When he rolls over in the bed he has to physically take hold of the arm with his left hand and pull it over his body. If the Doctor let the arm go at this point it would fall hard and possible even hurt him, so we have to be very careful. I am not supposed to help him into the bed or wheel chair by supporting his weight holding under the arm for fear it might pull out of the socket.The next thing he did was try to get the biceps to begin to respond by telling Nolan to think hard about pulling him to Nolan and after a number of tries Nolan was able to pull some
The next step was to work on making the hand and wrist move better. They worked on bending the wrist back and forth as well as turning the hand palm up and palm down. He even put the hand. Nolan felt good about the things he accomplished and I was proud of his determination.
Once again, when 5:00 came the nervous and anxious feeling returned and it became hard for him to sit still. They gave him some medicine and it helped calm him down some. It was a hard day and I must admit fear assailed me when he began seeing double. I get really mad at myself when I allow the fear to come in, but I also know that there is power in the name of Jesus and if all I can say is just His name, the fear will be replaced with peace.
