Thursday, March 12, 2009- 9th day at Craig

Another day of progress and Healing for Christy at Craig!

8am brought a dental appointment!  Christy had a dentist scheduled to come and see her teeth! He said every thing was good! Smile for that!

Occupational therapy was scheduled for 8:30.  They worked on getting Christy to dress herself. It was hard at first because Chrsity was tired, but progress was made. The big emphasis was to bridge her body so she could pull up her pants over her booty!  Although Chrsity's left arm is stronger, and she can't help but want to use it more, Christy was initiating with the right arm.  Christy is working the right arm more and more (her weak arm) and getting it back a little more each day! yay!

Dr. Shraa, psychology, came to visit next.  He did some memory games with Chris.  He would name off a bunch of things... hat, shirt, peaches, hammer, drill... etc and Christy had to repeat back as many as she could remember.  Out of 11-12 words, Christy would remember about 4-5 words.  They repeated this game about four times.  Then he started to show a bunch of everyday items to Chris.  First was a stapler.  Christy could recognize the color, but not what it was.  The next thing was a paperweight,  which was too difficult for Christy to get.  Finally he

pulled out a book and she knew it was a "book!" yay!

Melea from speech had a bag full of things.  Melea would pull things out of the bag and Chris would touch them and try to look at them and name them.  Christy had the objects about a foot away from her face.  When Melea pulled out a flower, Christy got the color first.  She felt the flower and then knew it was a "flower!"  When the toothbrush came out of the bag, Christy felt it and with some help got that it was a toothbrush, too!  That continued with more items in the bag of tricks.

Next, Melea had a paper and wrote letters on the paper & showed it to Chris.  Christy could see the paper, but not the letters.  Then Melea decided that she would put the letters together and write words on the paper.  Chris could recognize the words now that all the letters were together!  Melea explained that as an adult you don't really read words, you recognize them.  When we are in kindergarten, we look at each of the letters.  It's so interesting how the brain works.  Melea wrote her name and wrote Christy's name on the paper and asked Chris which one was which.  Melea went over the letters that spelled the name.  Christy got each name correctly!  And Melea doesn't spell her name like we know it (Malia), so Christy really got it!  

After writing on the paper, Melea got color cards.  She tested Christy on each color, and she got them all right! 

Christy was practicing how to bend her tongue around to say the hard letters.  Melea coached Chris on where to put her tongue to enunciate more.  Christy is moving her tongue way better now than ever!! It's so amazing how she picks up more and more each day! Love it!

Physical therapy tested more sensation today with the pin for "sharp" and the rounded area for "not sharp".  They were questioning the sensation in a few areas still, but it turned out that everything was ok! Sensation is intact!

PT made Christy try to sit up on her own (picture to the right).  This means that she had to pus her own legs off the mat and push up with her left arm (stronger arm) to get into a sitting position.  Once Chris was up she had to stretch side to side, and hold herself up with each arm on both sides.  That means she had to work that right arm to hold herself up during the right lean.  She's getting stronger and stronger each day!!!!

Christy did really well dunking the little purple basket ball into the

 hoop!  The therapist asked her to grab the ball from her, and Chris snatched it right up!  Then they told Christy to dunk it in the hoop, and she went right for it and slam dunked it!  That's the picture on the left!  After the basketball game, they had some color cones that Christy stacked up.  Physical therapy checked Donald off on transfers today.  He has to get cleared from OT next.  Last, Dr. Ripley has to clear him, and then Don and Christy can cruise at the apartment together, and get out of the hospital.  This way Chris can enjoy Don's home cooking and feel more normal again! yay!  This could be as soon as the weekend!

The last thing they did in the PT session was stretching out Chris by putting her in a standing frame which is similar to the standing frame that Queens used but way more advanced.  This standing frame has a chair, Chrsity was belted into the chair, and PT techs used a hydraulic pump to lift Christy into a standing position.  When they started pumping, the back rest would push Chrsity up and the chair would relax down until eventually Chris would be in a perfect standing position.  Although they had this machine, they didn't want to force her all the way up the first time, but she came very close.  

We all see what hard work you're doing, Chris!  We're all behind you, rooting you on as your biggest fans! We can't wait to hear what you'll be up to tomorrow!  We miss you so much, and every day you are working so hard and pushing yourself so you can come back home ASAP! Thank you Don for supporting and loving Christy.  You are in our daily thoughts and prayers! Love you!