Saturday summary

Tuesday Linda tried the treadmill in physical therapy. Its slowest speed is 1 mph; not really suitable for therapy. Linda's fastest speed on the autoambulator had been 0.6 mph. Still, I'm glad we tried it. Linda had been pushing to get a treadmill at home (and I didn't really want one). We're thinking about a wingback chair instead now.

The pedals on the bike are working well. She's tried the bike a couple of times this week, and it gets easier each time. The most challenging part seems to be getting off now (i.e. getting her feet out of the pedals). I'm going to put a small step under the bike to make it easier to mount and dismount.

Thursday meant driving to Columbia for the autoambulator. Our appointment last week was canceled because they stripped a gearbox and it had to be repaired. This week they tried some supporting braces with Linda. They helped at first, but then hurt a lot when her tone increased.

Next week, we're going to try not taping Linda's feet at all--it makes her tense. As long as she can stay relaxed, she does fine. When she tenses, then the machine starts to trip off. The intent is to turn off the robotic legs when Linda gets to that point and just try to go (slowly) as long as she has endurance.

It was a bit frustrating, but the up side is that her maximum speed was better than the first time. I don't know how much better because I forgot to check. But I know I saw it over 0.6 mph and they increased it some yet after that.

We bought fabric for bedroom curtains while we were out of town. They'll probably be the least expensive in the house. The material we liked was $2/yard. I expect to have them finished some time in the next five years.

Classes are picking up for me. I already have lots of homework to do (i.e. grading, paperwork, etc.).