December 31, 2005 - Early Morning

The last day of 2005! Yesterday was another good day with Amanda. It's another long one, so sit back. She was quite alert for Dacia at breakfast although she continues to have busy hands (she doesn't pull on the bandage near her throat quite so much anymore, but she is constantly reaching for her eye. You have to have quick reflexes to catch her hands.) She had a busy day of therapy before the holiday weekend. The biggest news of the day is that she traded in her moon boots (boots that she had to wear in bed to keep her muscles stretched out) for a walker! We were given lessons in the afternoon on how to help her walk with it. (Her balance is still pretty unsteady and you can't let her walk by herself yet). Since she pushed herself to a standing position yesterday and walked to the bathroom, she wants to be on the go with a lot of regularity. She wants to get out of bed, stand and walk with much more frequency. Other than worrying about her safety (because she is fearless with the walking), we love seeing her up and around.

She had 5 therapy sessions today. She did PT in the morning (she walked on the bars for a bit before she decided she was bored with that and wanted to walk around the room. So the therapist, Brenda and Amanda walked across the room (it's about 50 feet?) to the xmas tree and back again. They did some standing breaks and one sitting break at the tree. During a standing break, Mandy started swaying/dancing to a song that Brenda was singing to her and she was humming.

Her second session was group therapy. (They ask all the participants their names, why they're in rehab, how old they are, etc. It's primarily used to orient them to their surroundings and "regular" life again.) She normally falls asleep in group, but there was a short break beforehand, so Brenda wheeled her over to the hospital's Starbucks (there is a tunnel under the street) and picked up some coffee. She refused coffee or tea, but she took a few sips of Brenda's coffee as she was waiting for therapy. (Not sure how much she really enjoyed it since she doesn't like sweets and it was a caramel mocchiatto). Either the walking or the Starbucks helped keep her awake in group therapy. She was attentive but didn't feel like talking until they asked her what her husband's name was. She didn't come up with it, but she had some pretty involved untelligible, emphatic stories about him. LOL

She was pretty exhausted after group and took a very deep nap in her bed. (She needs anywhere from 1-2 naps a day.) She woke up for a visit with Rene. It took her a little while to recognize Rene but she did eventually pick up her name and ask her some questions about her life that showed us that she knew exactly who Rene was. We were able to give her "real" food for lunch. (Some kind friends of Kurt brought us Babe's chicken for dinner the night before. She had already eaten, but we saved some for her for lunch today). She seemed to enjoy the break from hospital food. April stopped by for a visit after lunch and both Rene and April had the opportunity to watch Amanda's afternoon PT session where she used a walker to walk around the room. (Her PT's sessions are the most amazing things to watch.) She loves to people watch in the busy areas, particularly in the PT room. At one point, as Brenda was walking with her, Amanda pointed out a group of some guys that were standing and working near the cushions. She said to Brenda,"See that group of guys? Gonna pick them up?" (cracking up both her therapist and Brenda). Brenda told her, "Not today mama, we got other things going on."

Afterwards we went to Speech therapy with Emily. Emily is a young 20's blonde that smiles a lot. Mandy really liked her. (She does much better for the therapists she likes. We know it's going to be a good session when she turns to us and says,"Oh, I love her." Or "Oh, she's cute!"). She was asked to identify objects in pictures, which she did well for a while (about 5 pictures) and then grew tired of it. She turned to Brenda on the 5th picture and said under her breath,"This is completely worthless". So Emily and Brenda explained to her that she had hurt her brain and all of these "silly" games were to help her brain heal and become stronger. Mandy took it all in, nodded and responded that is was to help "her mouth get stronger". Wahoo! She seemed to comprehend what we were saying and perked back up again when Emily switched her to reading words off of cards (Brenda told her that she tries to read words off of everything she sees, even condiment packages. Since the primary goal at this point is to increase her attention span, they'll switch tasks if they think they can get her to focus for longer.) She did very well with reading the words off the cards and only missed a few of them.

Then it was time for the dreaded OT session which she absolutely refused to participate in. It's at the end of the day when she's been working hard and we believe that she thinks it's silly (stacking blocks, pegs, writing, etc). We got her to do the arm cycle, but she wasn't having any of the other activities. You know you're in trouble when she leans back in her chair, folds her arms, purses her lips and gives you the hairy eyeball.

The most touching thing that happened (and we hope Kurt doesn't mind us sharing it) was when Kurt arrived late in the afternoon. He had spent the day looking at group homes for her and when he arrived back at Baylor he was pretty spent and exhausted. As he kneeled down to say hello to her, he had tears in his eyes. (These days can be overwhelming and we've still got a long way to go in front of us). As he was talking to her, she was taking in his emotional state and Brenda noted to Kurt,"She knows you're upset". Mandy looked directly at him and said, "Let's go". Brenda asked her,"You want to use your walker? And show him you can walk up here now?" Mandy responded,"Yeah, let's go." We believe that she was trying to cheer him up by showing him how well she was doing. She's not always getting the right words out and she gets tired fast, but there's an awful lot going on up there.

She was pretty spunky the rest of the night. When Brenda would tell her that they couldn't take her walker into a narrow space (i.e. the shower, behind the nurses station), Mandy would retort,"Oh yeah, let's go." and nod her head, with a little smirk on her face. When Brenda would shake her head no and explain why they couldn't do it, Mandy lifted her chin, raised her eyebrows and gave her the hairy eyeball, as if to say,"oh yeah? We'll just see about that -" until she made Brenda laugh and herself smile. Every day she takes another step back towards in the most amazing ways possible. Keep on keepin' on mama - you are rockin' our worlds.

PS We got internet in her room the day before yesterday! So we've been showing her the blog and the comments. Not sure how much she's comprehending, but we're assuming she's understanding it all until we hear otherwise. So keep leaving those comments! She's getting to read them herself now!