On Sunday, Em and I had breakfast, she rode the bike-to-nowhere for 20 minutes, I worked on stretching/massaging her right arm/shoulder, we went to chapel services, and then went home for lunch and R&R. After eating and lounging on the couch for a few hours, we went to visit our neighbors Dave and Lisa and their two sons. Dave looks good and appears to be recovering from his surgery. He has a couple more weeks of recovery before he starts radiation.

Emily's voice was much stronger today and she was much more vocal. She had her usual round of therapies. Probably her biggest accomplishment of the day was "standing" on her knees completely unassisted for almost a minute. Since she can't try to stand unassisted on her feet until we get the ankle issue resolved, this is the closest we can get and gives her the sensation of tucking her buns, pulling back her shoulders and maintaining her balance. She did great.

This afternoon we went for our first swim. I learned a lot. It's very difficult for brain injury patients not to suck in under water - so the first "task" of the swim was to overcome that urge. Emily, as a long-time competitive swimmer, took to the water immediately and surprised her therapist with how naturally swimming came to her. The other thing I learned is the pool was cooler than normal - around 85 degrees vs. its usual 90+. Not a big deal for any of us, in fact it felt very nice to me. But brain injury patients have a really tough time controlling their body temperature and the muscle tightness (tone) in her right arm got significantly worse in the "cool" water. In any event, she enjoyed it and got out of her chair in an upright position for an hour, so it was worth it.

Tomorrow they'll put a cast on her right arm to give her tight muscles a prolonged stretch. On Thursday they'll do the same for her right ankle. Hopefully all of this will help her regain the use of her right limbs. Her leg is much recovered - she can almost always move it on command, but she still can't flex her right foot or consistently, purposefully move her right arm. The other thing I learned today is that the large muscles recover the quickest - that's why her leg is so much better than her arm. The smallest muscles will recover last, which means her right hand will be the last thing she'll be able to control.