Brain Tumor Recovery Progress Report

I'm just past three weeks since my brain surgeries and I continue to improve in all areas. Since I am on short term leave from work, this blog has been a good outlet for me to stay busy.

Homemade torture device

Occupational Therapy: I didn't have occupational therapy this week. Though, at home, I continue to work with the Thera-Putty on strengthening my right hand. It's difficult to explain but I have to think about what movements I want to do. Do this: lay your dominant hand flat on a table with your fingers and thumbs together. Now "walk" each finger out starting with your thumb, then the fingers. I need to concentrate on moving each finger on my dominant right hand. It's very discouraging the amount of thought and energy I need to expend to do this simple process.Think about which finger I need to move, then engage, then focus on lifting it up, engage, move it, etc. See video below.

I've noticed my strength and accuracy getting a little better, I have touch typing back (with errors) but I still have a long way to go. I've also asked my father-in-law to build me my own torture device. I'm happy to report that I no longer drag the nut backwards.

Speech Therapy: Don't my speech therapists look nice - well once we get into what my youngest son calls "1st grade worksheets" (he's in 2nd grade) my therapists become...not so nice.  Just kidding, they are so nice. They are always smiling and always encouraging me but, I still can't stand the work. It's the most challenging of my therapies for sure. More worksheets completed and more homework assigned. Recently, they've started an exercise where they give me 4 words and I have to use them in a sentence and then at the end, recall the original 4 words. A week ago, I wasn't able to retain three words.  As the brain swelling goes down and since I've tapered off of the pain medication, I've noticed an improvement.

My Speech Therapists

Notice the clean face shave - I can finally handle a razor (with two hands) however, it took me quite a long time



Physical Therapy: I had physical therapy today as well. It's amazing how far I've come! I've gone from walking around our house in terrible pain to recently running a mile! The only thing is my head still hurts if I lean forward and I still have a right side droop. If I can get my core muscles back to normal and fix my lean I should be back on track. I'm anxious to get back to running and hiking to stay fit and keep my mind off of all of the other issues that I am dealing with. Including the new wrench in the puzzle, fatigue caused by radiation.

Finger strengthening exercises with "Putty"

State of Mind: I'm still struggling. The surgery and recovery process has been extremely difficult on my mind, no pun intended, and body. Radiation begins soon and I'm really worried about the side effects, mostly fatigue and memory concerns. I know I'm fortunate for someone in my position and have come through five surgeries "relatively OK" but, it doesn't always feel like that... Feeling defeated.

"Thoughts, feelings and most of the typing by Josh, organization and editing by Fay"