Rehab Diaries--Thursday, June 7th
Tomorrow we complete our four weeks of Rehab at Children's, and continue at home with Rehab Without Walls, hopefully beginning again on Monday. So what is Annie doing now that she wasn't doing a month ago?
1. Independently push herself up from a lying position, sit, and lay back down.
2. Ride a tricycle with help.
3. Yell, cry, and generally create a fuss. This is a great thing--showing emotion. She wasn't doing this a month ago. Having a flat expression is a drag. Screaming and yelling is good--at least this week it is.
4. SMILE! This afternoon she smiled a big smile for the FIRST TIME IN MONTHS!!!
5. Tolerate her teeth being brushed WITH toothpaste without blowing her groceries.
6. Taste a variety of foods--on good days. She's not yet consistent with her taste tolerance..
7. Sleep through the night without the help of medicine. She has come off of 4 different medicines in the last month.
She also hasn't had any obvious seizure activity the last three days--a huge praise. The new medicine has helped her focus and have more attention. I think it's also made her more drowsy, so please pray that the side effects go away and the good effects are permanent. She's also alot more verbal, which is so encouraging to us all--especially when her vocalizations are in response to something we say. Annie is in there--we just need to keep praying that God help her to make the words with her mouth. The whole motor planning and executing needs the Lord's healing touch.
Anyway--that's how things are going. Bill's with her tonight and then tomorrow we'll come home. It's been a good month, but a month of ups and downs--not unlike the past 5 months. Dealing with this has been the most difficult thing of our lives, and there are days when we sit in a puddle and cry. Let me tell you--I don't write in this blog when I'm blue, which probably qualifies me as being at least a hypocrite. I vacillate from missing the old Annie to bonding with the new Annie at least 5 times a day. I miss the way things used to be. But our new reality has a cute snuggle bug in it who likes to yell and scream and smile, so I'm good with it today. I just felt like I had to get that out there in case you ever thought of putting us up on a pedestal--we're crawling through this with God's help and His answers to your prayers.
Jean
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" Galatians 2:20-21