Thursday, April 30, 2009

27 days and counting until Christy can come home.  Sorry, no pictures again tonight because Christy pretty much spent the entire day resting as there was an incident last night.  Christy suffered a seizure last night, but she is doing just fine today and is feeling pretty good considering.

Early this morning, Christy needed to go to the restroom and woke Donald up to assist her.  So, he assisted as she walked over to the restroom.  As she was done using the restroom, Donald was helping her get her clothes back on and asked if she was alright.  Christy responded with "I'm OK."  Donald then began to instruct her on what to do to get back in to bed.  Christy again responded "I'm OK."  Donald told Christy that he was not asking her if she was ok, he was telling her what she needed to do.  Christy again responded "I'm OK."

Donald realized that Christy was acting a little loopy, but he thought maybe she was just drowsy because it was so early in the morning.  So, Donald and Christy walked back over to the bed and climbed back in to go back to sleep.  Donald noticed that Christy was not going back to sleep.  Donald asked Christy again if everything was OK and she responded with another "I'm OK."  Donald asked why she was not going back to sleep and she continued to respond with "I'm OK."  At this point, Donald became very worried as her disorientation was not normal for where she is in her rehab.  So, Donald called the Nurse in to take a look at her.

The nurse that came in took her vitals and started asking Christy questions.  She too noticed that Christy was very disoriented.  The nurse decided that she needed to call Dr. Ripley to ask him what may be going on.  Another nurse that was in the room was massaging Christy's head and noticed some seizure tendencies.  Christy's arm went straight up in the air and then stiffened at her side.  Almost immediately those movements, the nurse noticed that Christy was not breathing, her lip was turning blue and called a "code."  The nurse quickly pulled this cord and it sends some sort of message to every emergency person necessary.  Within seconds, the room was filled with Nurses tending to Christy attempting to diagnose what was occurring.  During this time, Donald also noticed her lip turning blue and her eyes rolled in the back of her head.  The Craig staff thought she may have been having the seizure, so they took her for a CT scan immediately and found no evidence of new damage/injury to her brain.  At this point, Christy was still a little out of it, but was a lot more with it than prior.  She was exhausted which is common after a seizure.

Come to find out, the Craig staff decided to take Christy off of her Seizure meds a couple of days ago because they did not think it was necessary due to the fact the she never showed any signs of a seizure during her stay with them.  They tested her brain activity following discontinuing the seizure meds and she showed no signs of irregular brain activity.  They scheduled another test a few days later which happened to be tomorrow, but Christy had the seizure this morning letting them know that they have to get her back on the meds as soon as possible.

Christy did not have any sort of rehab today because she was so tired from the seizure.  Donald actually decided to hold her out just for today and she will be back to work first thing tomorrow morning.

What a scary night for Christy and Donald.  Poor Donald said that it was one of the most scared situations he had ever been in.  With the grace of God, Christy is back on track after the incident and should be fine with the medication and monitoring of its effectiveness.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Christy and Donald had kind of a mellow day today.  By the way, the cord that hooks Don's camera to the computer is MIA, so no pictures tonight.  He spent a long time looking for it... I'm sure it will pop up somewhere tomorrow.

Today's big event was Christy's steroid shot in her shoulder.  Dr. Ripley injected the steroid medication into the shoulder around 10am.  Christy was immediately able to raise her arm up over her head when she could only raise it up parallel to her shoulder.  That was the first big thing we saw.  While Dr. Ripley was injecting her shoulder, he was able to fully see the deformity of Christy's right shoulder blade.  When Dr. Balazzi was filling in, Don and the Doc reviewed the old x-rays of her shoulder blade taken from the front of her body.  Dr. Balazzi thought that as far as he could see from the x-ray they had, everything looked OK.  Dr. Ripley thought that it was worth while to get an x-ray specifically to look at the fractured right scapula (shoulder blade) to double check that everything is OK.  Don can't help but wonder if the pins & needles could possibly be caused from the fractured shoulder blade pressing on the wrong place-- a nerve, maybe.  It healed the way it did because there isn't any cast to put on the shoulder blade.  Christy never wore a sling, she was in bed and still asleep for most of the healing.

Christy did a ton of stretching with Physical therapy today.  OT worked on dressing.  Amy is here in Casey's place still.  

Christy is still experiencing nausea, most likely from the increase in medication for motor control.  They are giving her anti-nausea medication, but it doesn't always work.  Christy was throwing up tonight while I was skyping with Donald.  I felt so bad for her.  Don and Chris are going to bring up the continual nausea medication with Dr. Ripley.  The bummer part is that the medication seemed to be working for Christy to help with motor control and with her tongue movements.

Tuesday, April 24, 2009

Today was an awesome day full of wonderful therapy!! Physical therapy was intense with all of its exercises and stretches.  Chrsity did a bunch of new exercises with the ball to

 strengthen her core and legs!  This picture on the left shows Cathi and Carly with Christy at PT.  Jody is there in the right hand lower corner, too!  Christy is working on stretching here, and the girls are helping out!  

The picture on the right is Chrsity doing a bridge exercise holding a ball between her legs!! Wow!!  Christy is using her core, her hamstrings and gluteus (butt) muscles to lift her body and keep her legs together!! Impressive, Christy!  Christy is getting stronger and stronger every day!   Sit up core exercises were part of the regime today as well.  You see Christy with the ball in her hands doing a sit up!!! Wow!! Strengthening the core muscles will help with her balance while walking and sitting up, etc!

More work was done in PT with walking with the shopping cart (you've seen pictures of that before).  Christy did something new and worked on walking up and down stairs with PT today!  Christy has an easy time going up the stairs, but had a more difficult time going down.  I know its easier for me to go up than down.  Especially when I'm carrying something and my vision is obstructed. With Christy's weakened vision, it is a little more scary stepping down the stairs, not sure if the footing will be perfect.  She did wonderfully with this new exercise!

Donald put the feet rests back on Christy's wheelchair to encourage Chrsity to move herself in her chair with her hands.  This will help strengthen her upper body and arms, especially her right side.

Speech went smoothly. More work on tongue strengthening.  

Chrsity's regular OT therapist was out today.  She's away.  Christy had a new therapist Jannine.  During one of the OT sessions, they went down to therapeutic recreation.  This is the same place that Christy painted at before.  There were about 4 therapist there at the session and a couple other patients.  The task at hand was to make "fruit pizzas".  They had sugar cookies that they spread cream cheese on.  There were other patients who could cut up the toppings: kiwis, strawberries, blueberries, etc.  Christy had to put the different fruits on the cookie for them to eat!  She had to work on vision, hand-eye coordination, color recognition, motor movements, etc. during this exercise.  Christy and Don had fund doing this project!

Chrsity had started a project with ceramics earlier during her stay.  She had chosen which ceramic she wanted to do, so she had it while the kids were here.  Christy picked a ceramic NEMO!  Today she got to paint it. 

Christy had standing frame with Dan today, as well!! Christy did very well with standing up strait!

Christy and Don talked to Dr. Ripley today about getting some steroid shots in her shoulder.  The steroid shots will help ease her pain and help gain more range of motion.  If Christy doesn't get the shots the work she needs to do to rehab the shoulder will be very difficult and uncomfortable.  Originally, Christy didn't want to have to get poked with the needle, so she wasn't interested in the steroid shots.  Today Christy agreed to try them out.  She'll get relief and be able to do more in therapy.   She gets her first shot tomorrow at 10:00am.  

 Christy is still working on eating enough calories to maintain her baseline weight and to get the PEG tube out forever! Christy has been receiving an ensure shake in the morning to supplement her breakfast.  The Ensure has vitamins and minerals, calories, etc. for Chrsity's optimal healing.  Christy gets an AM Ensure because she's not really a breakfast eater.  They decided that they are going to try and give as little as possible through the PEG to wean her off PEG use now.  Christy will be taking all of her pills by mouth now.  This will get us closer to getting out the PEG.  The set back is the nausea from the medication to control her motor movements.  Christy barfed up her dinner tonight.  She just gets sick as a side effect of the medication.  junk.

Until tomorrow!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Christy started her day with OT getting dressed. Christy has been working on getting dressed in the morning since she's been at Craig.  It's an activity of daily living.  And the OT want to make sure Chris is an independent as possible when she leaves.  Christy's getting closer to dressing herself  independently every day!  

Christy had Physical therapy today that concentrated on Stretching, Walking with the shopping cart, and doing the "long lap" that's around 200 feet in distance!!  Christy is building her endurance up!

Christy had speech today and did lollipop exercises with her tongue to strengthen it.  We're aiming for clear speech and effective chewing. Chrsity was able to lick her lips today which shows good muscle strength and control of taht tongue!!  Every day is something new! 

During Christy's pool therapy she worked with hand weights.  Punching them in the water, against the water's resistance!  Christy was using her right (weaker) arm really well, too!!

During Christy's second session of OT, they did

 kitchen work.  Christy was in a kitchen they use at Craig that simulates a regular home's kitchen.  They focus on using her vision to locate things she needs to take care of herself.  If she is going to eat some fruit, they make her open the cabinet and get out the can of fruit (read the label) and pretend to prepare it for herself.  They guide her to choose the things she'll need to eat it... can opener, fork, bowl, etc.  It's practice for when they go home and Christy is taking care of herself.

Christy also enjoyed  her Monday massage by a professional masseuse!  What a fabulous treat for her and her body!  She gets to relax and enjoy the pampering and massaging on her muscles that worked hard in therapy all day.  She also gets to relax and listen to music and let off any stress she's got!

You deserve it Christy!! Love you!xoxo

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Hello Everyone!  Sorry we missed you yesterday.  It was a day of rest.  Christy and Don just cruised all day long.  Hanging out and relaxing!

Today, we have two new members of the family visiting Christy.  Cathi (Christy's sister) and her daughter Carly are visiting from Washington State!  Cathi also came to Hawaii see Christy while she was in the ICU at Queens in January. Boy what a difference Christy's made in her recovery since then!  Cathi and Carly are visiting until Tuesday.

I had the pleasure of Skyping with the gang today while they were enjoying Donald's yummy Beef Stew.  Christy was being a comedian and was pretending to barf when he asked her how good it tasted!!  That was funny!  Craig's family apartment is such a great place just to kick back and be normal.  They give you a kitchen and a couch, a dinning table, two TVs, it's GREAT! It makes it easy to hang out, talking story, enjoying family... on a Sunday afternoon.  If everyone was stuck in the hospital this whole time.... it would be too clinical.  Craig looks after the person as a whole and that's great.

During our Skype session, the computer was set on a table across the room.  In my view (from the computer camera) was the dining table where everyone was enjoying beef stew.  I said hello to everyone and chatted with Cathi and Don.  I had the pleasure of watching Christy stand up and walk over to the computer with no assistance!!!! It was amazing.  It made my heart happy to see Christy walking!!!  Christy's gait is still somewhat unsteady, so Donald makes sure he is right there next to her in case she needs some help rebalancing or some stabilization but Christy was doing it all on her own!!  So wonderful!! That made my day!  I can't wait till Christy comes home again!

Tomorrow is back to therapy.  We are on the last month of rehab.  Christy will probably be coming home the last week of may. xoxox

  

Friday, April 24, 2009

In today's Physical therapy session Christy did some walking!  She's walking here with the shopping cart and using it as support.  Someone else was using the regular walker that you've seen in previous posts.  Christy is getting stronger and stronger every day.  

Christy also stood at the ballerina bars today-- not strapped in.  She can stand with her legs so strait now.  And she can stand and straiten in just three seconds!! Look how perfectly strait she's got her legs! That's so much faster and

 straighter than before!  It's wonderful.  Those extra sessions at the standing frame with Dan are paying off! Go Chris!

All of Christy's therapist are happy and impressed by her hard work and progress.  Maela saw Christy three times today!  This is a picture of Christy at Speech therapy looking at  her mouth when she pronounciates.  Malea was doing an exercise with her that allows her to say the whole 

alphabet and say each letter's sound.  Fore example.  Christy has to say... "A", "ahh", "B", "buh", "C", "kuh", "D", "duh"... and so on.  They are also working on slapping the leg with each syllable of the word to pronounciate it better.  This exercise is working well.  Malea commented that Christy is doing so much better with her tongue this week.  I can't help but think that it is because she is 

on the higher dose of Carbadopa-Levodopa (that Parkinson's drug we talked about previously).   Don is noticing that when Christy talks on the phone, she doesn't have to hand the phone over to him so he can talk and explain.  Christy's speech is much clearer and talking on the phone is less of a challenge!  Chris is still working on her chewing!   Malea printed out some tongue exercises for Don to work on with Chris on their free time or on the weekends while not in classes.  

Dr. Shraa worked with Christy today.  Christy's memory is still getting better! He did some memory games like saying a whole bunch of words... 20, I think.  Christy has to name back as many as possible.  She was getting about 5 words, all right, repeated back to Dr. Shraa.  Then

 they would sit back and talk story a little.  After talking for a while, he asked Christy if she remembered any of the words they talked about earlier.  Christy remembered about 4 words again! yay! Pretty impressive!

Occupational therapy did something new today!  They started

 Christy on this machine that has three pillars in the shape of a triangle.  I have a couple pictures here to help with figuring out what this "game" looks like.  Christy has to hit the lighted area with whatever "weapon" she has.   They just worked one of the three pillars today.  Christy had a little bit of a hard time to begin with, but by the end she was hitting like a champ!  She got to LEVEL 5 which is great! Christy has to search for the light on a three-dimensional object and coordinate her tool to hit the right spot to move the light.  It's like a huge light board with different planes.  It's probably stress relieving, too! It makes me think about that game they use to have at Fun Factory where you whack the alligators that come out of their caves.... anyway...

Family services has been so incredibly helpful and "on it" at Craig.  Melissa makes sure she addresses problems with the insurance right away so Don doesn't have to worry about it.  Don will go in front of Craig's Board of Directors to discuss Christy's care and his satisfaction with the Hospital.  They do this with family's at Craig about once every year and a half.  

Keep the prayers going... they work every day at Craig.  Christy is making a wonderful recovery and we're so happy.  XOXOX

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Christy is taking her pills well by mouth!!!  This was one of the challenges to overcome to get closer to getting the PEG out.  Christy was having some bad experiences with bad tastes in her mouth with the pills as well.  

They are concerned that Christy may be loosing a little too much weight, though.  Chrsity is being weighed weekly but is loosing weight.  She was up around her normal weight pre-accident, but is now having trouble keeping it on.  Christy eats pretty good for the most part, but has days where she doesn't eat as well.  Christy is also burning up a lot of calories during therapies.  She is walking and doing aquatic therapies all day long.  

They are also checking some blood work to make sure her electrolytes and other labs are optimal.  

Christy is doing an exercise with speech that is helping her pronunciation.  She slaps her knee with each syllable of the word to slow her down and enunciate more.  It's working, so 

that's great. Her speech is getting better and we're hoping that when she comes home she'll have all of her medications just right for optimal speech and coordination of muscle movements.  Dr. Ripley is working on it.  

There was a mini-meeting for an update today with Doctor Ripley & gang.  They gave an idea of where Christy is now and how things are progressing.  Dr. Ripley talked about her medications again. He's always thinking of the best way to tweak her meds to get her in an ideal position to fight the coordination control problems she's having. 

Christy had an eye Doctor visit today.  Christy was trying on some frames for her glasses.  Christy is going to be wearing glasses now.  Donald had to work with the eye glass worker girls to pick a cute pair out for Chris.  Christy can't see perfectly, so it is kinda hard for her to choose frames independently.  Christy's vision seems to be improving daily.  The doctor asks Chris to follow his finger as one of the vision tests.  Originally, she would follow his finger but loose track of it in the middle, then catch up again.  Today, Christy was tracking his finger perfectly!!!  

Christy is impressing us with progress constantly!  Christy couldn't hardly stretch out her leg when she left Queens to go to Craig.  She was contracted.  Now, if Christy had her knee(s) bent up towards her body and asked her to straiten her leg(s)... she could put it down right away and strait out!!  That's so awesome.  All Christy's hard work is really paying off.

Christy, Donald, Alan, Luis, Luis' roommate & Joe and Gloria all went to dinner tonight

 at Olive Garden.  Don's favorite.  It's so fun to go places we don't have here in Hawaii while on the mainland! It's so awesome that Christy can go

 out to dinner off campus with the gang!!  

Christy is progressing every day and so much of her strength comes from the love and prayers sent to her on a daily basis.  So, Thank you for loving and following every day!