Monday, April 6, 2009

April 6, 2009- part II


Got some pictures from Don & more info on Christy as we skyped today!  It's fun being able to see who you're talking to and for them to be able to see you!  I even got to have a conversation with Karen, Christy's nurse while we were on skype.  

So in the basement of the East wing at Craig, they have a car-- this black civic--, airline seats, a standard tub and a regular bed.  They have therapies here to get back to everyday activities safely.  Donald gets an opportunity to move Christy in and out of a car, and they go over things like how to deal with the curb during 
transfers.  I love this picture of Christy rockin' out in the car!    

They started Christy on some new medication on Sunday, and she was able to tolerate being in the chair longer and had less nausea!  Dr. Ripley is doing an amazing job at fine tuning the medications to give Christy the best regime possible.  It's a lot of trial and error because although they know what the medications do, they don't know which of the side effects will come up or how each individual person will react exactly.  They started another medication today called Strattera.   They feel that it may help make her coordination better.  Help her eating and movement of the tongue.  They give it for adult ADHD (attention deficit disorder).  Maybe it helps to focus the thinking & planning of movements that Christy is having a hard time with because of her brain injury.  The coordination improvement was already noticed tonight during Dr. Ripley's assessment! Yay!

Christy's on her way to getting her PEG out!  The last step to getting her PEG out is to take all of her pills well & eat enough calories on her own.  She's gone 5 days without having any tube feeding!  They've been counting her calories to make sure she's getting enough nutrition.  Christy had a junk lunch so she didn't eat so well.  Lucky thing Dinner was better- they had turkey legs!!  Don said they were delicious.  My dad loves those things, too!  They sell them at Disneyland & theme parks... digression, sorry.....

Dr. Ripley also had an outside massage therapist come in and see Christy, so she had her first massage!  Sounds like Chris will be getting massages here and there now.  

I'll be back tomorrow!

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