Hi Everyone
Toooo morrow,
Tomorrow
The casts come off ~ tomorrow
It’s only a day A way!
Hi Everyone,
Thank goodness the countdown is over. Other than the big unveiling, we have no idea what to expect as to whether we stay or go from Bryn Mawr. It might be a good time to send your guardian angels out on another flight run. (Depending on the outcome, I might be calling the flying monkeys!)
As for today, Corey was all over the page. It started last night. Seconds after my post she woke up and would not let me leave. She did not want to be alone. Despite what you think; single hospital beds with air pressure mattresses are not as comfortable as they look!
Corey’s day was packed. It started with a wheelchair eval. She is getting more mobility with her feet and hands. We are looking into having the wheels changed to accommodate her new mobility leading to greater independence. The frame will be lowered with different wheels so her feet will touch the ground. She will be able to maneuver the chair either with one hand or both feet peddling like a Fred Flintstone car. I think we’ll name her chair Pebbles.
She worked with Natalie twice for a step total of 280 feet. In OT she and Amanda tried an interesting activity. Amanda and Corey traced letters on each others back trying to guess what letter was traced. Then they had to create a word to match that letter. Amanda said Corey was spot on with her guesses. She also laughed out loud when Corey had to come up with a word for Q. Corey said, “The way to spell Corey wrong”.
We moved onto ST with Jessica. Jess has been working on enunciation among other speech techniques. Repeating single words can be monotonous so we are adding recipe ingredients into her repertoire. She loves talking about cooking! We also have been working with some new Apps on her IPad geared towards matching; incorporating category recognition, reasoning skills, pronunciation/enunciation and the most important ~ FUN!
I had a very long meeting with the Behavioral Therapist/Psychiatrist. He and I will meet again tomorrow morning before we leave to discuss a Behavior Management plan for Corey. She is displaying all the characteristics of the 4th Stage of the Ranchos scale. It’s not uncommon that this behavior presents itself now. She is becoming more cognitively aware of her environment and therefore acting out when what she sees doesn’t match what she is trying to understand in her mind. Disciplining her behavior and/or redirecting with logic won’t work due to her lack of reasoning skills. To use the phrase, “your mom will be back in an hour” won’t work because she has no concept of time. In addition, she has no short term memory. I have been trying to step out and return within minutes hoping to establish trust and pattern recognition. She has no memory of these repeated actions so each time I return it’s as if I have been away for days and she’s greeting me as if she is seeing me for the first time that day. During my absence (regardless if it is 5 minutes or an hour) she gets extremely upset calling out for me until I return (that’s a problem when it’s truly an hour or more respite time for me).
This is a new phase which our BT thinks we have just entered. My first thought to the words “just entered” was; oh boy, that’s not good. Put your seatbelt on folks, this roller coaster ride is going to be bumpy!
Well, sleeping beauty is finally asleep (I think); time for me to try to sneak out to get some rest myself. Happy dreams…I will be dreaming about the casts coming off!!!
Good night all, xoxo