Monday, March 16, 2009- 13th day at Craig

Monday is back to therapy!! This morning Dr. Shraa came into do some more visual testing.  He had a lot of different cards & puzzle-type things to look at.  There was one that Christy had trouble with.  It was something like this picture to the left full of colored dots (from what I gather) except it said "24" instead of "page 5".  When reading this one site it mentioned that this was testing for color blindness.  Dr. Shraa is continually trying to put together some sort of picture of what Christy really sees!  Remember, Christy is having ongoing evaluations of her status for the future meeting!  The meeting is where the ongoing evaluations will be broken down to explain what we'll be working on during Christy's stay at Craig. Dr. Shraa is very appreciative of Christy's good spirits, and cooperative, sweet, attitude.  It's refreshing for him to work with our Christy. 

Speech therapist melea had two sessions with Christy today.  She is still working with writing words down on paper and showing them to Christy to read.  Christy is able to break down the words with two or three letters to just letters.  For example, the paper says "dog", Christy can go D.... O..... G.... Oh! "Dog".  Reading the letters separately, one at a time, on the paper are too hard to recognize still.  Melea also asks questions for Christy's memory on a daily basis.  Questions like "What day is it?  Where are you?  How long have you been here? How old are you?  Do you remember your accident?  Christy remembered the entire story of the accident today.  Don wasn't sure if she knew the sequence of events because he's been telling her, or because she actually remembered it.  Either way it great that she remembered on her own.  Christy did get emotional while telling the story, though.  She was saying that she was calling for someone to help her & cried a little.  I think it is good to talk about the accident and get out any sadness & come to terms with what happened, but it's not easy to hear that Christy is sad while talking about it.  

Christy's speech is getting better every day- clearer & clearer.  She moves her jaw more up and down in a controlled fashion.  It looks more coordinated than some of her previous side to side jaw action.  Melea took a tongue depressor and  had Christy push against it to test tongue strength.  Christy had good strength when she pushed right.  She felt weaker with she tried to push left with her tongue.  Melea left Christy & Don with some tongue depressors to work Christy's tongue when she wasn't around.  Donald said that they would just do some major french kissing for exercise instead! hee hee!  Donald was brainstorming about what other things, in case they got tired of french kissing,  Chrsity could do.  He asked if lollipops would be good.  Malea said "YES" and she pulled some out from her pocket!  Good thinking Don!

Chris & Don headed for the gym next.  they had a session in the standing frame with Dan.  Today, they didn't have to stand Christy as slowly.  They used to pump her once, then have to rest because of the pain in her legs.  Now they could pump faster and she wasn't uncomfortable! yay!!  The session was cut short because the x-ray technician came by to take a chest x-ray of Christy.  She had been doing her morning routine with the Chest Tube still in.  This was the x-ray that would determine if the chest tube could come out.  

PT & OT continued to work with Christy on more stretching and moving around.  They felt that she was making progress in her movements and stretching out more! yay!  

Lunch came next and Christy was able to eat 100% of her meal- that's awesome!  It is wonderful to see Christy eating and having a bigger appetite!  She drank all her milk shake & enjoyed the yummy ribs that they had cooked up!

Christy was cut short on OT in the afternoon session because Dr. Ripley and the Nurse Practitioner came in to take the Chest Tube out!  Don saw the whole thing!  He saw where it was going in, and he saw them pull it out of her!  Christy is still Soar on her left side (where the chest tube was), so she wasn't able to move & use that hand as much (that's her strong hand). After the tube was out, Christy continued OT!  Not being as comfortable using the left hand encouraged her to start using the right arm more!   OT's exercise was supposed to be the light board that we did before.  This is the one with the buttons that change location every time you push them.  It was too uncomfortable with the incisional pain, so they did an alternate method.   The OT picked up a green & pink paddle.  She asked Christy to touch the paddle each time she moved it around.  Casey (OT) would move the paddle again after Christy hit it.  Christy used the right hand to go for the paddle much more during this exercise! That arm needs to work out!

Don has access to use the "staff" gym downstairs.  He "joins" the gym by paying a membership fee.  This will allow him to exercise- do some running and lifting to keep his stress levels & Blood Pressure under control.  This hospital really thinks of everything!  They are marvelous! 

The Doctor who was communicating with Queens to bring her over introduced himself to Don today.  A different doctor than Dr. Ripley.  He has ties to Hawaii-- if I remember correctly, he used to live there.  Thank goodness for him!

Another day in the books!  Good Work today Christy!  Hope you have a restful sleep for another productive day tomorrow!!