There's Within My Heart A Melody

     With the winter blast slowing businesses and schools, I am sure the blog searchers have been disappointed.  Time for an update:  Lance has had a good week, making progress each day.  The steps are small and the journey is long, but we have many wonderful people to meet as we move along;  I feel Lance likes that.  The severe wound on his left leg is healing and it appears that a skin graft is not going to be needed.  This is amazing and I continue to hope that he is healing on the inside the way this wound and the incision areas are healing on the outside, which we can easily observe. 
     A new set of x-rays was taken to measure healing of the surgical sites; the orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Murray, cleared him for full weight bearing on all areas except left leg.  The pelvis needs a few more weeks to be ready; we had been advised at UK that 3 months would be considered a typical wait, so we are still ahead of schedule with that area.  This release allowed the therapists to do more and they were anxious to do so.    
     In physical therapy, Danielle placed him on a tilt table and brought him up to 40 degrees(right leg  down only) with no problem on Wednesday.  Thursday's schedule included a ride on an FES bike.  With this therapy, his wheelchair is positioned and locked in front of the device.  His feet (in tennis shoes) are strapped to the pedals, then electrodes adhered to the skin over the appropriate muscles.  The muscles are stimulated with electric impulses and as they fire the pedaling begins.  The pedals are also motor operated, therefore can continue to rotate, even if patient muscle strength is not adequate.  What do you think Lance did?  After a 2 minute trial with total motor activation, they changed resistance and he participated in the pedaling for the next 18 minutes.  At the half-way point, the staff asked me to encourage him, as he showed fatigue.  I told him to pretend he was climbling Big Hiney(cute name, eh!).  This is an actual place between Maysville and Dover - a challenging 1 mile incline that Lance had pedaled with Kirby Wright, Chris Mcglone, Randy Lucas, and me.  Of course he kept up with us, on that climb, even though he was riding a hybrid  while we were riding road bicycles. 
     The occupational therapist, Allison, concentrates on his upper body.  She was pleased with his tooth brushing attempts, snapping his fingers, and giving a wave to nurses at the nurses station as they yelled and waved at him. Her major therapy challenge right now is the high degree of tonicity in his muscles.  Multiple treatment modalities are planned to decrease this tone over the next week.  One will be botox injections.  This med has multiple applications.  If there is some left over, I may use in some dental syringes to deal with these wrinkles that have appeared on my face - out of nowhere and for no good reason.
     The speech therapist, Heather, works in many ways that I had not realized.  She is involved with hearing, vision, and generalized awareness, as well as speech.  Today she and Lance listened to music on his Ipod while he had a large control that connected to it with large buttons.  She is also the team member that will help with his eating this week, as more opportunities to eat something solid are on schedule.  He has not pronounced any words yet; we all anxiously await.  Gena has been able to get him to generate some sounds as she talks him through deep breathing exercises.  Also yesterday after their daily Bible reading  Lance and Gena were listening to music from the Passion conference.  During one song, she said, "Let's praise God by raising our hands!"  His right hand raised from the rest on the wheelchair as the song played!!!!!!! 
     The big event for me to occurred today.  I played a couple of songs on the guitar (actually my entire repertoire).   Then  I positioned the guitar so that it he could get his right hand on the strumming area of the strings.  (His right hand and arm, with his limited mobility, does not at this time wrap around the guitar body in the customary way.)  Then we waited........his finger moved and the string sounded.  He moved the fingers again and noise could be heard more clearly.  He continued moving his fingers and making sounds but that is not what made Gena and me cry.  It was his countenance - as the look of joy spread across his  face - that caused our weeping.  He continued to move his fingers for a few minutes; it was the most beautiful music I've ever heard him play........all because of what I could tell it was doing in his heart. 
     What have I learned?  I will continue to appreciate beautifully coordinated music which is played flawlessly, but will know that the heart may be playing a masterpiece - even if the pitch or tune is imperfect.      
     My advice to those with whom I worship:  "Don't sit behind me and expect me to keep my hands in my pocket.  It's time to praise God for who He is, what He has done, and for what He wants to do in each of our lives!"
-John