April 30, 2006 - Late Evening

The picture is from Easter weekend. (Still making friends, the puppy belonged to people that happened to hike through the rock climbing area). Mandy has been working really hard in her therapies. Her most recent monthly update was on Friday and it was mostly good news. She continues to make progress on all fronts. Her cognition, speech, reading and daily living skills continue to improve, although her physical therapy still continues to be a challenge. Her foot continues to challenge her efforts on that front. She complains about the pain (sometimes loudly) quite a bit and it is swollen and red in the mornings. They are considering some alternative therapies at this point (acupuncture, botox injections to the muscle/tendon) and we're keeping out fingers crossed that we see a break-through on this front soon. We really believe that independent movement will help her congition even further. We don't have a "go-home" date at this point, but we're optimistic about her daily cognitive improvements.

And from Christine and her Thursday with Amanda, "Today was AMAZING!!!! That has been Amanda’s favorite word lately, and it describes her well:)

Her case worker and therapists are changing her schedule daily so she doesn’t see PT coming, in hopes that without time to prepare, she won't have time to psych herself out of it. Another change is that for a couple of weeks, no friends/family will join her for PT. This is a test to see if she does better without us to complain to. She was sad when I left the room, but mainly because she thought I would leave for the day. I promised I would wait in the lobby so she was cool with that. Sarah said she did well, having been reminded not to curse, etc. Throughout the day, each therapist reminded her of how PT is to help, not injure or intentionally hurt her. Repetition is good for people with TBI.

Kelly, Amanda’s speech therapist, walked us out to the car when we were ready to go to the doctor. As soon as the door closed, Mandy said, “She is so cute, but I’m glad she’s not going with us.” Of course, I asked why not. “Because now it’s just us”, she replied. Usually we have a nurse do the driving, but today I took her alone. We had great conversation in the car, with Mandy helping me find the next turn, etc. Dr. Gilliland looked at her left eye & found 2 more eyelashes growing in the wrong direction. Those came out easily & should give her some relief! Otherwise, her vision is 20/20, with the scarred area fading nicely!

I had a small gift today. It’s a small orange tabby cat with his paws curled so that he can hang from a flowerpot. I was thinking he could hang from the pot that the rosebush is in. She smiled so big when I handed her the cat, and told me over & over “I LOVE him! He is ____ cute! He’s a little Maurice! He is just so cute!” That cat got a million kisses. He hung from her shirt, from the cookbook she was reading, from anywhere in my car she could find to hang him. This was a gift that I thought would be very small & maybe go uncared about. She said he will be in her room so she can see him more! Too cute, & so “Amanda”. You just never know what will make her smile!

In Education Therapy, Keri asked Mandy if she would like to do some puzzles with words again, like yesterday. Her reply came with no hesitation & a HUGE smile, “Yes, I would. Can I really?” It was crossword puzzles, but with a list of words only, no questions. She just had to figure out how to fit the words correctly into the puzzle. If she got stuck, she would make up her own word that would fit in the space she needed to fill. When her therapist tried to help, Mandy got mad and told her to leave the _____ words alone. For the most part, she did these very well, and very quickly once she got rolling:)

Sorry to be so lengthy, but I just don’t want any of you to miss anything! Today was, by far, the best day I have spent with Amanda since her TBI. She giggled a few times, smiled A LOT, made so many “Mandy” comments & gestures, made everybody around her laugh, played UNO like a champ, made smart remarks to those who gave her the bad cards, looked adorable, & so on!!!!"