{Karlton Bontrager}

When I arrived at ISIS on Thursday, Karlton was in the computer room emailing some friends. He wasn’t in a mood to do much of anything, which is just as well, as the previous day had been something of an eventful one.

He told me that in physiotherapy, he had worked on his left arm again, doing various exercises to strengthen the muscles and practice control.

After lunch, he wanted his sling back on (understandable to me, after having not worn it at all on Wednesday). He informed me that he had another physiotherapy session in the afternoon and that he was also to see the speech / language therapist at some time (she was going to find him later for the meeting).

The physio session was a teaching one–an instructor from the university had a number of students with her who were observing. I thought it was good for Karlton to have the perspectives of a number of different physios; she gave him some new exercises to do. She had him work on supporting his body more with his left leg by having him do squats with his weight on his left. She also had him walk up and down stairs, leading with the leg he usually followed with. Finally, he lay down and did exercises to strengthen his hamstrings, which he has difficulty controlling.

During the rest of the day, Karlton spent quite a long time trying to track down the phone numbers of various friends. Unfortunately, the speech therapist did not come to find him. Although he finds the meetings a waste of time, I would like to see her give him exercises to strengthen the muscles on the left side of his face. Karlton talks mainly from the right side of his mouth. He has shown me that he can smile evenly but usually chooses not to. I think it would be a good idea for him to work on making full use of his face muscles.

I was surprised to notice that it was hailing in the afternoon. By the time Karlton was eating dinner, it was snowing. He claims that he ate too quickly; he ended up with a stomach ache and had to lie back in his recliner for awhile before going to bed. He looked tired and went to bed a little early; maybe the excitement from the day before had drained him a bit.