On Tuesday night, my Aunt Kaysi and Uncle Wayne came to visit Bob and I at Magee. They brought cheesesteaks from Jim’s Steaks and spent some time with us on the sixth floor and touring the building. It was a great visit where Bob was chatty and engaging.
He also interrupted with any random thought that popped into his head, but that’s the brain injury.
He has a hard time dividing his attention between listening and talking, so he has difficulty waiting for his “turn” to speak and holding his thought in while listening to others. I need to be a little more understanding of this, but instead, I just get aggravated and shut down. I can only take being interrupted so many times. It’s worse than being in a seventh grade classroom. I am really thinking of one particular student who liked to interject any chance that he got this year. 🙄
On Wednesday, Bob went on his community outing. His PT, Ranit, and recreation therapist, Tracy, went with us.
Bob was able to pick anywhere (within reason) that he wanted to go. He picked Wawa. Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks were also within walking distance. I could have gone for an iced tea. Maybe even a nice jewelry store to pick me out something shiny for all my hard work over the last three months.
Nope. Wawa. A place I can drive to anytime I want. He used his walker the whole way and we didn’t bring the wheelchair as a “just in case”. He didn’t even stop to rest along the way. Bob even requested to walk through a park because he wanted to see how he would do on grass. We have more of that at home than concrete. It was three blocks there and three blocks back. About 0.6 mile round trip. He was standing for about an hour. It was a huge accomplishment.
And we grabbed a bunch of different “healthier” options to try for lunch. All pretty tasty.
He’s getting there…one walking trip at a time.