Good morning everyone,
I thought I’d join you for our morning cup of coffee.
It’s going to be a busy day and it’s going to get busier. Today is our weekly appointment with Dr. A in philly and then we drive out to Malvern. Not to Bryn Mawr but to a gym that has accepted Corey into their FIGHTING BACK program. This will be a weekly visit with a personal trainer that specializes in working with Stroke and TBI survivors. The program is located in a community gym, so Corey will be working out with “normal people”, as she says. She is very excited and I’m thrilled she will be getting one-on-one workouts. I’m also looking forward to learning new exercises for our ‘home’ program. This is a private pay program. We’ve applied for their scholarship and hope she will be approved for that as well.
Speaking of approval…the IRB has approved the written protocol changes and Corey can begin working at the GoBabyGo Cafe. Friday we will meet Devina at University of Delaware to repeat the evaluation. It will be Corey’s new baseline. At that time, we will chose the days she will participate in the study for the next 2 months.
To prepare for all of this, Corey has barely used the wheelchair this month. We are now walking in to every store, every appointment and throughout the house using her gait belt and cane. She is pushing herself to walk more, stand more and try to balance independently. She’s soooooooo close. Some days are better than others. Yesterday was a VERY wobbly day. I think the rain has a big part to play. She has had a #6-7 headache (scale from 1-10) for the last 3 days. It’s hard to tell but it could also be getting used to her new glasses. Somethings haven’t changed since she was young…for those of you with children, remember when they’d cry and after you checked all the usual ‘go-to’s’, there was still something bothering them but you couldn’t pinpoint it. Well, brain injury is just like that; there could be multiple causes for every ache and pain and the inconsistancy of Corey reporting it causes me to stay on alert as I wait and watch and wonder what she feels and how to help her.
The most consistant lesson this ‘new normal’ has taught us is to keep one foot in the realm of caution and the other in optimism. Our perspective directs both steps. Our action will decide what that direction will be…we choose to keep moving forward, xoxo