Friday June 5th, 2009: Stand up and poop

Big doin's today- Will stood again in the standing frame AND he pooped by himself. My folks and I got to hang out during PT and watch Will use the standing frame again. This time he did better since his PT was there to regulate how fast he stood himself up. He still dropped his blood pressure, but wasn't too symptomatic. This is good. During this time, Blair showed me how to break down his chair to get it into a car and I got to practice putting it back together. I love the quick release wheels! The big event was around lunchtime when I came back to his room he was actually in the bathroom sitting on the commode. His tech came out to tell me that he was pooping all by himself. This is a big deal. Will, however, was not giving himself any credit and kept saying he was "cheating." Explain to me how you "cheat" when you have to take a crap!? He claims he had to use his abs and it was gravity that was helping him. Last time I checked, other people use the same method. He was frustrated though because he could not "finish the job" and the tech refused to do any digital stim on him AKA "bowel program." So all we had to hear about this evening was the "turtle head" that he was dealing with every time he did a weight shift in the chair (and that is every 30 minutes!) ANYWAY....we all had a nice home cooked dinner out in the garden tonight. I got checked off this afternoon by nursing to do his IC's so he can have a "push pass" now. Hopefully that will the first and last time I will have to do that for him. We are planing to go across the street tomorrow night for dinner at TGI Friday's.