Day 51 - Area 51

We're moving into alien territory with recovery, but Daniel always seems to be able to do what we ask even when it's something new and unfamiliar. He's a really amazing guy! 💝 For today's awesomeness Daniel ate all of his breakfast using silverware in his hands (with some assistance). He is slowly overcoming the tightness in his joints and with each bite this will become easier and invoke less pain. I think some days are easier than other days or it may be that the timing of an activity occurs when his pain meds are "just right".

While on a walk today Daniel stopped and looked at a therapy dog who stopped by the ICU burn clinic. We see these dogs roam through every so often.

The dogs can go most anywhere without cleaning up, sterilizing or wearing a gown. I'm not sure what a therapy dog would look like wearing a gown, gloves and maybe safety glasses.  Maybe like this, *grin*? 

 

Daniel's speech therapists stopped by while he was eating lunch in a chair. They observed his eating and swallowing and cleared him to eat anything! That's one more big step for Daniel on the long road to recovery. He's enjoying GF pretzels now as a reward. These are motivating enough that he will eat them without assistance.

Get in me' belly, pretzels!

They are highly motivating!

When Dan is sitting in a chair it requires more work just to remain at rest. His heart rate goes up and he's having to hold his body up straighter. So we've been doing the actual feeding so he can focus on eating. He seems more willing to feed himself when he's in his bed for now. Eventually we'll fade this, but for now he's doing fine and eating most of his food - at least when Dawn feeds him. Maybe not so good for me. This task requires patience and I'm not as patient as some people. 👩 Who knew, right?