Hi Everyone,
Corey’s level of awareness is expanding. This is positive and encouraging but incredibly challenging to cope with on a daily basis. She fights me all day as her level of anxiety escalates with each transition in her schedule. Today I pleaded with her not to give up. Her response, “too late, I already gave in”!
Needless to say that was an unacceptable answer and hard to argue when your talking to someone that has short term memory loss. Corey wants an end date. When will we stop going to Bryn Mawr? When will she be better? When can she be normal again? These are outstanding questions which prove she is gaining better insight and continuing to emerge but contributes to her frustration because there are no concrete answers.
The cheerleader came out of me. I told Corey that as of today we won’t look at the “how long” or “when will” questions. We will begin to change our perspective and tone to “what are we doing that’s positive right now”?
Corey was not in agreement! Every time Negative Nancy invited me to her pity party, I came back with “funny, that doesn’t sound positive to me” And I would ask her to reword her complaint. We volleyed back and forth for the hour ride to Bryn Mawr. I wasn’t sure this was working until finally Corey emphatically shouted, “MOM! stop being Positive Polly and let Nancy win”! She got it…she understood what we needed to do to turn the conversation around…she also just wanted me to allow her to throw her own pity party! I gave her 5 more minutes to complain and then told her to suck it up because it was time to go in and get to work…she wasn’t happy but we got through both her sessions.
Elaine is very pleased with the decreased tone in Corey’s left arm as well as the increased range of motion. We will continue with our exercises at home but add work on the matte. Elaine wants Corey to lay on her right side to work her left arm. The horizontal position will relieve the gravitational pull and aide in developing the shoulder strength we are working towards.
We used the double platform walker again in PT. Corey did an excellent job for her second try. She does not walk independently with the walker. We stand behind her guiding the walker as we also hold her hips for stability. We need several more trials (so we dont swerve side to side) but Natalie was so pleased she’s going to ask Bryn Mawr if we could have a loaner to try at home. This will not only help my shoulder and back, but we hope it will escalate Corey’s muscle development in her legs for independent walking as well.
Corey I know you are really frustrated especially because no one can answer your questions of how much longer? I also know that going to Bryn Mawr is long and tiring. It just flat out stinks! But this is the part you have to push through because what’s down the road is going to be great! Two years ago no one would have predicted you would be walking. In fact, they probably placed bets against you. You were dealt a crappy hand but you are playing the cards and will win the jackpot! Stay in the game honey. I just know you have a few Ace’s left to play, xoxo