This day was all about function and functional exercises. I took advantage of the good weather and treated on the deck. It is an optimal location as there are many places to hold on while walking. What I observed was that when my grandfather walked with the cane in his right hand and held on with his left hand, he was able to assume a normal gait pattern. This was not the case while walking with the cane in the left hand and hand rail on the right. Therefore, I had him walk holding on with the left and cane in the right walking forward, backward and side stepping.
I also had him perform his home exercises of hip abduction and extension having his back to the railing of the deck and holding on to his side and rear rather than forward so that he would not compensate with flexion.
I also incorporated another exercise that was recommended to me by a student in my class to reinforce pelvic motion in sitting and it is to perform seated pelvic clocks on a commode and drop a small object ( I choose cereal ) into the bucket. The benefit to doing this on a commodes is that you can obtain the appropriate seat height to maximize range of motion. I had him work on moving his pelvis into anterior rotation.
Finally, I decided to have him try walking with 2 canes. He walked better than I have seen him walk in years and he comment on how his walking felt normal. We practiced taking a few steps with the wheelchair behind him and called it a day.
