Hi Everyone,

We hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend. Rest assured Corey did not sit around taking it easy.

She continues to develop her speech and swallowing. One of our goals is to remove her feeding tube. At the moment, she is handling nectar liquids quite well. More importantly, she is eating 3 meals a day and maintaining her calorie quota. We were told today that Corey can discontinue her nightly formula feeding. This is a big step forward for her. This does not mean the feeding tube will be removed right away. We still need the tube for medications and keeping her hydrated; however, our next goal is to work on her ability to swallow thin liquids as well as ingesting her medication with food.

Friday Corey broke through her first 100 feet just before her cast change. Saturday she was non-weight bearing to allow the new cast to cure. It was not a day off; she had two sessions OT/ST. The therapy team is surprised and very excited about the changes they are seeing in Corey. Keep in mind the staff at Bryn Mawr see their patients for a limited period of time. It is not common that they get to see their patient’s progress post in-patient stay. It is extremely rare that they see a low level patient return. Many of the nurses and therapists that worked closely with Corey a year ago have commented that she is one of those special patients that validate their choice to work at an acute rehab center.

Brian is one of those nurses. He met Corey on Day 1 and was her primary day nurse for our first 7 months. He has worked on the low level wing at Bryn Mawr for 23 years. Today he witnessed a walking miracle…Miss Corey. Despite the definition, miracles don’t just happen. Sometimes they take a lot of hard work.

Corey did not want to participate in therapy. When she gets obstinate we get creative! We started out challenging her to a game of Connect Four (as she stood for 5 minutes at a table ~ trick #1). Next it was time to walk with Jen. She did not want to walk and let us know how strongly she felt about that. Jen played on Corey’s competitive spirit asking Corey to help her beat Natalie’s 115’ and Lauren’s 136’ from Sunday. Corey was tentative until she saw Brian. He was off this weekend and hadn’t seen her walk yet.

Brian is 6’2 and a big guy. He was her target…a moving target (trick #2). Every step Corey took, Brian took a step backward. 140’ later, Corey broke a new record, Jen’s session beat Natalie and Lauren’s and Brian’s prize ~ not only watching Corey walk to him but at the finish line she reached out to give him a big hug. As he congratulated her she looked up at him and said, “Thank You”. This big bear of a guy fought to reply, “No, Thank You”!

Corey some people would say not giving up is a miracle. Others would say finding the inner strength to overcome challenges is a miracle. It’s a word that I believe is often over used. By definition it’s ‘a person or thing that is a marvelous example of something’. You continue to be an inspiring example to me. Thank you for always reminding me to keep working towards our goal. The finish line may keep moving but one step at a time, we’ll get there. You are our marvelous example of courage, motivation and tenacity! xoxo