Nervous, positive, humbled, ready, needy -these are the words that come to mind during my first week of physical, speech and occupational therapy. The outpatient program at TIRR Memorial Hermann is called “challenge” and after one week I know it is aptly named. We first worked on goals and then started the actual work. It has been several years since I participated in organized therapy and realize that you can never have enough. Goals were jointly identified for physical and speech therapy.
For physical therapy:
· Improve walking speed
· Improve gait endurance
· Be able to transfer from floor to standing in the event of a fall.
For speech therapy:
· improve attention to left visual field using therapies
· Use memory strategies to improve recall
· Reduce rate of speech; increase volume
I attend four times per week and generally 3-6 hours each time.
After my first month, I will report back. I’m now wondering why I ever stopped therapy. It is probably because I thought I had progressed to where I no longer needed therapy; clearly this is not the case. Bring on the “challenge.”
