Friday

In the morning we went downtown as we needed a couple of bits to make a running repair on Daniel's wheelchair. While we were down there we had our first proper look at the Mississippi river which, although we are no where near the coast here, is still hundreds of metres across and quite a disappointing dirty brown colour.
We walked back to the hotel and stopped for refreshment - in the 95F heat a milkshake certainly never tasted better!
Our hospital visit was late in the afternoon and Daniel started with walking in his frame around the physio suite. He completed the loop without needing a rest, and that was twice the distance he could manage only two days ago!
Next he went on the Biodex machine for the first time, and for this Daniel sat in a special chair where he had one leg in a padded clamp, and he had to extend the leg out to the front and then curl it back beneath him. The machine is actually connected to a computer with a screen that showed the torque that he was exerting in each direction instantly on a graph. Daniel loved looking at the screen as he worked and really got quite competitive (don't know where that comes from) and at one point shouted out with excitement as the graph displayed his most powerful leg extension. The therapist said how pleased he was with Daniel's enthusiasm
Afterwards Daniel walked in his frame around the suite again without stopping, and surprisingly he was even stronger and had better footwork than at the beginning of the session!
To finish Daniel was back on the static bike for a number of flat out bursts and again his determination came through with another PB of 26 mph!
Over this week's five continuous days of therapy Daniel's strength has increased tremendously. Happy days!