Fun Weekend Leading Up To Discharge

We had a great weekend here at MD Anderson. It started Saturday with animal assisted group therapy. A group of volunteers and their dogs from WAGS come to MD Anderson every Saturday for group therapy. Roger had a great time and it was nice to do something different. Saturdays can be pretty quiet. He worked with four dogs: Zeke a black lab, Cowboy a poodle, Sesame a yellow lab and I can't remember the last dog's name but it was another yellow lab mix. He threw a ball for Zeke to fetch. He started out sitting in his wheelchair then stood. He worked on his balance and lower legs. Then he gave Zeke a break while he pet Cowboy the singing poodle. He "walked" Sesame for a while which was good as the PT there that day had him try walking differently with his quad cane. And it turned out to be better for Roger and helped him a lot. Then he relaxed with another yellow lab. The volunteers were really nice and cared a lot about helping the patients. You can see a video of Roger playing fetch with Zeke below and more on YouTube and more pictures on Flickr.



We had lots of visitors this weekend from our Houston friends the McPherson family and our Austin friends the Farnies and Lana Joy & TJ. It was great to see them all and spend time with them. And it really made our weekend go by fast. Which is great because it got us to Monday faster. We are super excited as Roger will be discharged tomorrow sometime. The only appointments he has tomorrow is to practice getting in and out of my vehicle with one of the PT's. Then we'll be discharged at some point and we have a reservation for dinner to celebrate our anniversary at Feast. We are super excited to go there for dinner. We have been wanting to try them out for a while. Then we have appointments on Wednesday with Roger's neurosurgeon before we head back to Austin. We are both eager to get home and sleep! It's been hard for both of us to sleep well and rest here. But the show doesn't end then. We already have appointments on Friday in Austin for an OT and PT assessment so Roger can get started with OT and PT as soon as possible with no breaks plus the exercises they gave us last week to do three times a day. You can watch a video below of Roger walking today without a cane. It won't be long before he's back to "normal". ~ Holly

Busy Week

The time here at MD Anderson Cancer Center has been flying by this week. We have been so busy with PT, OT, group therapy, learning new stretches and exercises, getting paperwork to insurance companies and orders to rehabilitation centers, trying to stay rested, moving to a new room and getting relief from being in the hospital with little outings in a wheelchair around the hospital and outside. Time flies when you are having fun. Roger made it down to the big therapy gym in MD Anderson a couple times this week. He started walking with a cane alone Friday and he's super excited about it. You can watch a video of him walking with a cane for the first time below and click on this link to see more videos of him at MD Anderson.



We went over some home activities with the OT to remind ourselves how to get him in and out of the shower and bathtub, what assistive devices we may or may not need and all those other household things until he's able to do them safely and completely alone. He's doing more and more by himself as rehab suggested to help him get back to normal which will help his rehabilitation. We even got a date in Friday night by attending the Rotary House's T.G.I.F. movie night. It was so nice to get "out" and sit on a couch together beside each other. For two hours it felt like we weren't at a hospital. It was great. We have also been given the opportunity to talk to other patients and their families while we have been here and learn about them and their cancer stories encouraging them and they encouraging us in return. It's amazing to me how many people from all over the country we have talked to who had a surgery somewhere else then came to MD Anderson for their second surgery because their cancer returned in the same place or came back somewhere else. It seems the general consensus has been don't mess around and go to the specialists for whatever it is you are dealing with. And for all of these people that's been MD Anderson.

We both can't believe the weekend is here and Roger only has four more days until he's discharged from the hospital. We are both excited and eager to get back home and get started with outpatient therapy and rehabilitation in Austin. Roger is not only ready to regain all the movement he lost but get more mobility and strength to do things he hasn't been able to do for the past five years like cycling and maybe running again. I'm hoping we can throw some dance lessons in there also. :)

We are looking forward to animal assisted group therapy Saturday and friends visiting this weekend. We have to thank God for an amazing week. We have so much to be thankful for.

~ Holly

More PT Drill Sergeant

Roger is bound and determined to get out of here as soon as he can. Since he has decided to stay here at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) for a week and a half of therapy and rehab, he will get three hours a day of a combination of occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT) and group therapy. He only received a little bit of PT by the OT on Monday afternoon, but this morning he started early with OT. He's having breakfast then moving on to PT. Maybe he'll get in some group therapy this afternoon or more PT. Keith the OT that came to see him yesterday afternoon told him to stay out of bed as much as possible and do everything himself that he can and both will help him to get better sooner. Of course it's more work to sit up than lay down in a bed and he will be more tired but he wants to be tired and walking on his own without a walker so he can get home sooner. I have posted a few videos of Roger on YouTube so check out the one below and click on the link to see more.



I slept in late today as a result of hitting off on my alarm instead of snooze and me forgetting to turn on my back-up alarm (the hotel room alarm). Obviously I needed the sleep and the time to catch up on uploading pictures & video, blogging, entering receipts and keeping up with our finances with Quicken and my own personal hygiene as I have been staying in Roger's room all day and late every night helping him. But with him doing in-patient rehab and therapy we will have more of a schedule and I'll be able to get more done knowing what time everything is and not sitting around doing nothing while waiting for someone to show up. So today is catch up day for me. Yeah! ~Holly