The Daily Hailey

Brady has been incredibly active in his rehabilitation, clobbering every obstacle that has been placed in front of him. He has walked smoother and smoother. Used a walker and crutches. Learned the ropes of using a wheelchair. He’s learned balance and strength in terms of swaying and side stepping, which might sound small to us walking folk, but we have NO IDEA the difference between walking forward and walking side to side. It is NOT the same. Brady has excelled, and had made strides that even his very optimistic rehab team knew were a stretch.

Brady’s student PT was finished on Friday. He had told Brady a while back that he was hoping to get Brady on forearm crutches on his last day. The big finish for his stretch at City Hospital. Except, they did that much earlier this week. Tuesday, I believe. So, on Friday, there was a new plan. Stairs!

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that stairs are kind of challenge for people with limited mobility. If you didn’t already know our house was a modified bi-level, now you see why its pretty important that Brady be able to climb stairs. Yes, we will get a lift up to the main level of our house. But there are other staircases, and those are important, too. They lead to the basement, as well as up to our master bedroom. We cannot swing the cost of three stair lifts. So, it was time to try.

First, Brady and his therapist went between the parallel bars, and Brady used them while he stepped up on a shorty little stepper stool. It was a very specific series of movements. Good leg first. Step up. Right leg next. Don’t lift with your hip. Use the muscle on the side of your butt, and your thigh. Then lock that knee. Boom! He’s up. Down was similar, but in reverse. Right leg first. Lock the knee. Follow with the strong leg. Brady would step up, and then over it, and his therapist would drag it back out in front of him for another step. After two completed lengths of the parallel bars, we moved to the real deal.

And as you can probably predict by now, he crushed them. He went up and down this practice staircase twice, I believe. He even practiced it once on his bum, scooting up and down that way. And it worked!! Once Brady was done with stairs for the day, they worked a bit more on getting up into his chair from the floor, which is a decent effort, but he can safely, confidently make it happen. All of that together opens SO MANY DOORS!!!

This means we can throw out our plan to move our children around and move our master bedroom down onto the main level. Rather, we can install a second railing in that stairwell and he can get up there with a study railing on each side! He will let down SO much nicer in his own room! Same story with the basement stairs. We will get funding for a lift onto our main floor, as its our longest staircase, and way too wide to use two railings at once. We have options now. Realistic ones. Options that make it seem like some things can be normal again.

I am SO proud of Brady!!!