July 24, 2006

Mandy had another busy week. Her third lumbar block went very well and her pain has been much improved all week. The family meeting is scheduled for this Thursday and we think we might have reason to believe that we'll be discussing a go-home date at the conference. It's probably a couple months away and she'll still be in daily therapy, but we're all pretty excited at the thought of Mandy being ready and able to sleep in her own bed every night!

The picture for this week is from Christine and her outing with Amanda last Thursday. Christine shares the following,"Extraordinary is the word of the day! She used this word a lot today! When Amanda (my 12 yr. old niece) & I arrived, we were greeted with, “You two girls look extraordinarily beautiful! It’s nice to see you!” Then she told my niece that she looks “full”. I think she meant that she looks grown up.

Each therapist asked Amanda not to cuss today, especially since I had my niece along. This seemed to make things worse! She joked throughout the day saying, “Oops! (giggling) I’m not supposed to cuss today!” Then to my niece, “You’re so f-ing cool!”

Once while she was picking her cuticles, my niece said she has the same habit. Mandy said to her, “You should have that habit because your name is Amanda.”

We played the “Ungame” during the hour of counseling. In this game, many intuitive questions are asked, such as “What would your fantasy day be?” Amanda said, “My fantasy day would be running around on the beach in a bikini amongst cute boys!”

After therapy, the three of us visited Arts Afire, where we painted our own pottery. This is something Mandy & I had planned to do together last Fall. She browsed for quite a while looking at the pieces, trying to decide which one she would paint. Finally, she said, “I don’t need anything. I’ll just watch you paint.” She refused to let me spend the money on her, so I asked her to paint something for me. Much like the scrap booking, this all came natural to her. She also had to “fix” mine, & my niece’s items, since we are not so talented! We chose to listen to KC & the Sunshine Band, which Amanda sang along to as she painted:)

At dinner out, Kurt was telling our waiter what he would like to eat. Amanda giggled & said, “You’re such a pig!” The sound of her laughing is so awesome!"