The past few weeks have been busy. To make a long story short, we have been planning on the past month not being covered by insurance. If it’s not, the scholarship will be applied. Insurance gets billed for the previous month on the 5th of August; so we’ll know towards the end of August what they covered and if there’s anything left for us to use.

I’m trying to trust the Lord in all of this. It’s very hard. Frankie benefits so much from getting out of the house and the relationships he’s built with his therapists. He’s been having one session of each therapy per week which equals 3 sessions which we try to stretch out to two days a week. I’ve seen a definite slowing of progress and a few steps back. It’s hard not to be discouraged. We’ve been working on strategies to help Frankie not be lazy and resistant to home work outs. It’s a lot of trial and error.

We also started psychology during the past few weeks. The psychologist has some ideas on how to help us, but again it’s a lot of trial and error. There is also a lot of nuance to figure out whether it’s brain injury, mood, or apathetic behavior that is affecting Frankie. Frankie is responding well to his psychologist, which is no surprise in my experience with Hope Network. Insurance coverage is different for psychology so we’ll see what they cover. She suspects that it is not mood related which would mean we have to figure out the right combination of strict routine. We are also trying to set up a home gym to help differentiate between therapy time and home time. I’ll have to be creative.

It’s very odd to see Frankie be lazy and to choose not to be active. He used to procrastinate with the best of them; but if there was something he needed to do to get better he would do it. I struggle with not being hurt that he is holding himself back from being able to be with D and I again. There is so much speculation that comes with figuring out why Frankie is resorting to this behavior. I have to go with my gut a lot of times. I trust that the Lord provides the support I need to trust that gut instinct.

We also have had pool physical therapy. Insurance covered three sessions to train me. Frankie has enjoyed being in the water. He was able to go in the pool at Mary Free Bed both times we were there. The benefit of being in the pool is to help relax the tone in his left arm and leg so he can move them better and it’s helps me facilitate movement better. It also takes gravity out of the equation which means we can push the weight bearing on his left leg without harm to his ankle. The downside to gravity being taken out is that Frankie has to focus a ton harder on the awareness in his leg. His leg tends to float up and away from his body. I need to explore our YMCA to see if we can use their therapy pool. It’s a ton of work for us, but Frankie does enjoy it and it’s a safe environment to push his left leg and balance. It’s also an activity that he enjoyed before any of his brain injuries. He wants to swim so badly so hopefully we can use that as motivation to work harder on getting stronger and doing his exercises.

Our last week of therapy starts this coming week. I’ll be busy trying to piece together our home gym and gather the things we’ll need for our home program. We will also start trialing a schedule to hopeful kick Frankie into gear. I would appreciate all the prayers I can get as we begin this next step in our journey.