oof ouch owie my bones

Posted On July 18, 2019

Tate chose today’s title. No capitalization. No punctuation.

Tate is working very hard at his occupational and physical therapy appointments, and he is constantly sore all over. He keeps saying, “Oof ouch owie my bones.” He is putting a lot of effort into getting better!

The occupational therapists have a game similar to Rock Band or Guitar Hero Tate has been playing. It’s really cool. A glove with sensors in the fingertips is connected to a game console, and Tate has to touch the correct finger to his thumb as the notes appear in a certain spot on the screen.

Tate has often said that occupational therapy wears him out more than physical therapy. His appointments are an hour long, and they keep him busy the whole time.

In this activity, the therapist buried 5 little erasers and 2 marbles in a bucket of rice. Tate’s objective was to find all of them with one hand, holding onto the items he found while searching for the rest.

Every occupational therapy appointment ends with 8 minutes on the hand bike, 4 minutes forward and 4 minutes backward. A few times they have set the resistance too high, and Tate was really struggling to turn it at all after about 20 seconds. Fortunately, they are very quick to make adjustments.

For physical therapy, Tate has been working with Lindsay lately. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and will be going to Duke University to pursue a master’s degree in physical therapy in the fall. She and Tate talk about calculus and other brainy subjects while she works him out. It’s very funny to watch.

Tate is pretty wiped out after his therapy appointments yesterday, and has spent most of today traveling by wheelchair. In his own words, he “may have overdone it.” The good thing is that he is just very sore, not injured. I don’t think he’s supposed to be worked so hard he can barely move the next two days. I know their goal is to get him out of his wheelchair, but sometimes recovering from therapy puts him back in it. As with all things regarding his treatment, we are still trying to find the right balance.

Duane said we should be helping Tate with his stretches on days he doesn’t have therapy appointments, so that has become part of our daily routine. I massage and stretch his fingers and hands first. Then we stretch his hamstrings. Thank goodness Tate is very gentle with me when I make a mistake. I am so afraid to hurt him, and then it seems like that is exactly what I do sometimes without meaning to.

Next week Tate has an appointment at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital clinic to check his counts and clear him for treatment on Tuesday. If all goes well, he will have a spinal tap and chemo on Thursday.