{Karlton Bontrager}

I met Karlton at Dunedin Public Hospital on Tuesday morning for an eye appointment. He had both his vision and his eye muscles checked. Although his focusing appears to be stable (i.e. no change since the last check), his muscles (or eye alignment? I didn’t quite catch it) have changed. Until everything has stabilized, we won’t know if he’ll need eye surgery. It might be up to another year before they’ll be able to determine this.

Returning to ISIS, Karlton told me that he’d done shoulder exercises for physical therapy. After lunch, he went to ride on the exercise bike.

After that, we had a meeting with one of the physical therapists and the occupational therapist. They wanted to give Karlton a little more motivation to take care of himself. Together, they formulated a list of short-term goals for Karlton. In about two weeks’ time, we’ll meet again and assess his progress. Karlton is so eager to go home, and his work toward these goals will help determine when he is discharged.

Some of those goals for Kalrton are to be at his physical therapy sessions on time (he apparently was often quite late for them last week), to dress himself properly (he usually refuses to put his left arm through the sleeves of his long-sleeved shirts, preferring to let his arm hang at his side), and to be able to prepare snacks and drinks for himself. Although Karlton told me that he didn’t like the meeting at all, I think his work on those goals will be constructive. It was also interesting for me to hear the things that Karlton is capable of doing alone. He often asks me for assistance with many of those things.

Additionally, we were told that he will have more occupational therapy checks throughout the day. He received a new schedule for the coming weeks, and it appears pretty full on week days. I hope that this will keep him more occupied, though I’m sure Karlton will still complain of boredom.

After a meeting with the speech therapist (which, of course, Karlton believed to be unhelpful), it was dinner time. ISIS has admitted a number of new patients in the past two days, and Karlton talked with a few of them while he ate.

I was intent on having Karlton do things for himself that evening. So when he wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made, I accompanied him to the kitchen but had him make it himself. Similarly, I had him remove his own shoes and clothes when he got ready for bed. Once I leave New Zealand (as well as once he’s discharged), he will need to do all of these things on his own. Although he’s feeling lazy about doing them now, I’m intent on having him get used to doing things himself.