January 1, 2006 - Mid-Morning

The first day of 2006! May all of our wishes and hopes be brought to fruition in the new year. (Should we call it the Year of Amanda?) We discuss the date with her first thing every morning. She doesn't generally have a sense of time, but she did say "Wow" when we told her it was officially 2006 and the first day of the new year.

She continues to progress forward. Because yesterday was a Saturday, she only had physical therapy. We went to the 2nd floor and she walked the entire length of the building (twice) with her walker (with breaks of course - she danced and sang with Brenda in her standing breaks. She hooked her fingers into Brenda's jean pockets and belt loops just like we all used to do at high school dances.) We sing to her as we walk as well and that seems to help motivate her. Her attention span also appears to be increasing. She spent at least 30 minutes looking and re-looking at the scrapbook of her first solo trip with Brenda. She pauses to read some of the words out loud (although we're not sure if she's comprehending the words she's saying). Teresa and Lauri visited with her yesterday and brought her a "Bad Cat" book (pictures of cats with captions). She looked through the entire book (spending about 20 minutes). As well, we were able to "play" cards. Taking turns with Brenda, she was successfully able to sort half of the deck into the correct suit - only missing one card! She spent about 20 minutes in the kitchen looking at the items in the drawers, getting tea (making faces about having Lipton hot tea) and having a generally good time. In the afternoon, she had her nails painted and she was able to pay attention and even assist by holding her hands in the air without asking and blowing on her nails to help them dry. Her attention span is much shorter when it comes to conversation and much of her conversation is still contextually misplaced and/or difficult to understand, but we're happy to see it expanding for activities. Although, with increased mobility comes increased responsibility on the part of everyone around her. She's very "impulsive" right now and and has little sense of her own safety. She'll take her hands of her walker and attempt to walk away from it, she'll grab items/jars to open and may try to taste, drink or eat things that might harm her, or the most frequent is that she'll try and stand from her wheelchair without proper support. Oh and, she's really, really fast when she decides to take an "impulsive" action. You have to be really alert to her every movement.

The best funny story from the yesterday has to involve OT. We took her for a roll out and about the building. It was pretty empty so there weren't a lot of people around for her to watch. She was great rolling through the PT room and seemed to enjoy watching the 1-2 people that were there working on their exercises. But as we turned the corner to roll through the COMPLETELY EMPTY OT room, she leaned back in her chair, pursed her lips, crossed her arms and gave us the evil eye. No matter how much we reassured her that we were just passing through and not there to do any OT work, she refused to respond to us until we got her out of there. We're going to have to talk to her rehab folks and see if we can get them to give her her OT therapy in another room since she has developed what appears to be a pure hatred for that room. LOL

Coming up this week, we're looking forward to the plans to get her into the pool to help work on her balance. As well, LaDonna is scheduled to make her Cyndi Lauper hair do a bit more up to date and we know the princess will appreciate looking pretty again. (When Brenda flipped open her laptop yesterday Mandy was able to see her reflection in the screen while the computer warmed up. She gazed at her self and said,"My hair is sooo short.") We'd like to thank everyone that continues to visit. We know that seeing familiar faces helps her in the healing process. And for those of you who haven't been able to visit yet or haven't visited as much as you like, don't feel bad. We know it's the holidays and a been a tough time to visit. We know everyone is thinking about her. Feel free to schedule time as you are able.

For a housekeeping item, does anyone have her Scotland scrapbook? We bring her in her scrapbooks to help her reconnect the dots. But we haven't been able to find the Scotland one and thought maybe someone might have borrowed it? If you have it, please contact Kurt.