Friday--one month later

Good evening! I spent today with Jer, and saw a lot of improvements!! Some I was expecting (his sister let me in one them) and some I didn't know about! He is able to pick up his left leg and then put it back down without it "falling". That is a BIG improvement! Today, started a new series of "tests". He has agreed to be sort of a guinea pig for Spinal Motor conduction and Recovery After Human Spinal Cord Injury. The purpose of the testing is to help better understand the manner in which muscle strength and nervous system function recovers after spinal cord injury. When he is all hooked up, he looks like he's ready to send signals to outerspace!! They use Electromagnetic stimulation to see how different muscle groups respond. It was interesting to watch! All the time they are conducting the tests, they have Jer hooked up to a computer that is recording things and a bigger computer sort of thing that records others things. They didn't say much about what they saw, but I'm sure they have to take it back to their lab and analyse the recordings. I'm not sure how many times they do this, but according to the paperwork, it may be something that they will want him to participate in even after he is back home. Time will tell. There was another CAT scan again today to check the status of his back and the spinal fluid leak--they didn't give any results on that either! He did say that he hasn't had a headache, and headaches are a sign of a leak--so that is good news. His therapy at this point, is getting up and into the wheelchair a couple of times a day. He'd doing good at transfering from the bed to the chair and back with minimal help--this afternoon, it was one nurse and I. Next week is sure to bring about some changes once the stitches come out of the back, and they talk about getting him back on the rehab floor. His knee surgeon doesn't want to let him out of his care for a while yet, so we will start rehab back on 2N. Have a good weekend!
Carm