{Karlton Bontrager}

Monday morning I stopped in at Mei’s Traditional Chinese Medical Center in north Dunedin – not too far from the motel I am staying. I talked with the acupuncturists and explained to them of Karlton’s accident and his present condition. They were quite certain they could help Karlton in his recovery and encouraged me to bring him by. So when I got to ISIS, I spoke with his doctors, and they said they had no objections, so I will set up an appointment and get him started.

Karlton walked with no physical assistance all the way to the physio room. He stood balanced and had to put his right foot up on a platform, bring it down, up and down, twelve times. It sounds easy, but it took a lot of concentration and hard work to remain balanced. He also had to stand on two separate balance scales that showed him if he was putting the same weight on each leg. Then he had to walk sideways – lifting his left leg – not just sliding it over. And on top of that, he had to stay on the line! Karlton had to keep rearranging his left foot (and sometimes his right, too) so they would be on the line. When he finally finished the “crab” walk, he had to walk backwards! He protested at first, but he was able to do that with relative ease.

Then the PT brought out the Swiss ball (huge exercise ball) and told him he had to walk while bouncing it in front of him. He said there was no way he could walk and bounce the ball at the same time and went into a long discourse, but the physio would not take a “no” for an answer. Finally he stood up and did as told with no trouble.

Next, he was told he had to walk and bounce the ball three times and pass the ball to the PT and she would do the same thing. Karlton had little trouble doing that, too. I think he just likes to argue and procrastinate … or is it that he doesn’t want to fail at a task and if he thinks he might not be able to do something well, he tries to get out of it.

Late in the afternoon, Karlton received a wonderful cranial-sacral treatment. He was so relaxed he fell asleep right away. Thank you, Helen, for all the great things you give him!