Wednesday, March 25, 2009

You guys are in for a real treat tonight as I am going to take a stab at explaining some of the medical stuff that Gabby does such a good job of explaining. Bear with me, I will do the best I can with the explanation, but I have Donald-itis. It's a male condition to where we can sum up an epic event or story in very few words. Just kidding, well, sort of.

Anyhow, Christy had a pretty full day as it got started with a standard cardiology test. It was to scan the function of her heart, more specifically the movement of the valves and the heart itself. According to Don, it was routine test that unofficially looked good according to the cardiologist performing the exam. It was unofficial because the cardiologist has to thoroughly review the scans once they are done ensuring nothing is going on that is not caught at the first glance. The cardiology exam did cause Christy to miss her OT this morning, but Chris and Don did not seem to worried about it.

After the exam, they worked with Melea on her speech therapy. They said that her tongue seems to be healing from the bite and her swallowing is getting a lot better. She should be back to eating as she was before the bite within the next day or two. It will also allow her progress in the clarity of her speech.  Next, Christy spent some time in the rocking chair working on her vision. Neither Gabby or I are very sure on how this helps with her vision, but that is what we were told. Unfortunately, Christy is only able to tolerate around 15 minutes before he begins to get nauseous. They are working towards getting her to be able to be on the rocking chair for a half hour. Not sure what the significance of the half hour is either.

Finally, rounding out the morning of events, Christy did spend some time in physical therapy. In viewing the pictures, you'll see that she spent time on the bike, standing frame and the Swiss ball. She pedaled for 15 minutes and did very well according to Donald on the bi

ke. Not sure how long she was in the standing frame, but I do recall Donald mentioning that she was in the complete upright position. I cannot remember what he called it, but she is pretty much straight up, with frame support of course. Her time spent on the Swiss ball was progressive as well. She was supporting herself for the most part. The Swiss ball works at strengthening the core muscles of your body. 

                          

Once they strengthen her core, they can begin to work on the extremities of her posture. It is a common practice in weight training as everything starts with the core (abs, obliques, lower back, etc.) muscles.  By the way, you can really tell who Dylan takes after when looking at the swiss ball pic.

As you can see, it was a pretty full morning. I am sure they took a break to eat and rest before moving on to the af

ternoon tests. Christy went to see a rehab optometrist this afternoon that focuses on helping to correct problems with people's vision. Through the tests, Amy (Occupational Therapist) said that three things stood out. First, they found some issues with her visual field which is basically our entire view. Like Dr. Ripley stated in the conference call on Monday, they think that Christy has some holes in her vision. Imagine Swiss cheese here and think about how spotty your vision would be if you were looking through Swiss cheese. The technical talk is that she has cortical visual impairment that is caused by the damage that she received in/on her occipital lobe. The occipital lobe is a region in the back of your brain, right above the neck that controls and maintains vision. The Doc's are not sure if it is going to get better, but they are going to attack it with exercises just like they have everything else. The second thing noticed during the visit to the vision clinic was that her vision becomes vertically misaligned when she is required to look up. She experiences double vision and becomes nauseous. They are treating it with a new pair of glasses that have a light prism on them that are supposed to help. The only feeling I can think of is how you feel when you have drank too much and you try to look up. People fail the field sobriety test on this one all the time and I am not speaking from first hand experience. Third, Christy continues to have problems moving her eyes when they are planned movements. The second and third findings are not new and they are going to continue to work on them.

Quite a day, but as you can see in the pics, Christy was working hard and seemed in very good spirits. Donald also received the laptop that he ordered. If any of you know about Skype, you can video conference with them. Just got to www.skype.com and download the free program. The video conference is also free as it is transmitted over the Internet. You would have to call them first to tell them to set up.

Keep the prayers and energy coming. It is working!

PS- Gabby added some pictures to last night's post. Check em out! Also, if you want t-shirts, send your orders to gouveia44@hotmail.com. They are taking orders until April 1st (Gabby's &  our sister Cathi's birthday).

PEACE OUT!