Biking and walking with a robot

Suchitra is doing great.  She is actually ahead of schedule in her rehabilitation.  This week she has been getting to move in several new ways.  You already saw the stander, which she is able to use 3 times a day for 30 minutes each time.  She still has to use the wheelchair and the prone cart as well.  The stander and prone cart are most important because they are stretching out her hip flexor muscles.  Even though her muscles are no longer spastic, they are still tight as a result of all that time they spent being spastic.

In physical therapy she has been able to ride a bike!  It's foot-powered, and the therapist can walk behind and push as well.  She is working up to doing more of the work herself.  On Tuesday I walked along with them as they went outside and around the whole hospital complex.  Here she is on the bike with her physical therapist Amy:

On Wednesday she started walking on an absolutely incredible machine called the Lokomat.  It is a combination treadmill, pulley system and robot that helps retrain her brain to walk with an appropriate gait.  First she has to get hooked into a harness that is sort of like a rock-climbing harness, with straps and pads, and then she is suspended from more straps over the treadmill:

Then she gets hooked into the robot, which hugs onto her legs and actually moves her legs for her.  The robot can do more or less of the work depending on how the therapist sets it up:

Now she is connected into the robot:

Here is a video of her walking in the robot.  I am so sorry that it's sideways - there must be a way but I cannot figure out  for the life of me how to rotate it so that you can see it vertically. Anyone with more tech skills than me know how to do it? On the video, the therapist is explaining the safety features to me while at the same time playing catch with a beach ball with Suchitra.  The blue screens up in the right corner are showing how much work she is doing relative to how much the robot is doing.  The pulley is on the left and goes up and down to mimic a normal gait.  Isn't this amazing?  This machine is made in Switzerland.

She's definitely not ready to walk without the Lokomat yet.  Today Amy was having her practice using a transfer board to get from her wheelchair in and out of bed and on and off the toilet.  By the time we get home, she probably won't need the transfer board, but it will help her get a little more independent while in the hospital.  Amy had her try a stand-pivot onto the wheelchair, but her legs are still pretty weak to accomplish that on her own yet.

We're looking forward to the weekend because my good friend from law school, Heba, is coming to visit!  We plan to escape the hospital for a little while and have some fun!

Thank you all so much for reading, sending cards and treats, and continuing to support us through our hospital stay.  Only a little over two weeks to go.