Hi Everyone,
Rehab Boot Camp is keeping our girl busy! She had 2 ½ hrs of PT/OT, Speech and Psych for a ½ hour each. We received a quick report today that PT and the nurses are beginning to see her trunk muscles beginning to contract. The nurses are moving her towards a single person transition. They move her to an upright position and bring her forward to sit on the side of the bed. Corey is not fully participating in this and is still very much in the “rag doll” stage but it’s encouraging that her core muscles are beginning to engage. As she develops her core, it will help PT move her from the tilt table to the mat and bolster for a more effective workout!
It was a busy night for Corey too. Shelly and her mother came to visit. Corey was wide awake and watched Shelly all night! We were chatting and sharing stories and Corey’s eyes were alert and she appeared to be paying attention to every detail.
When the girls left, Corey was getting tired. She held her gaze to her right all night, so I tried to get her attention to move her eyes and her head to her left. When we work on her repositioning and following commands, we call to her to follow our voice and ask her to turn her head to find us. We often touch her left side announcing, “Corey, I’m touching your left cheek. Turn your head to the left, honey and find me. Follow my voice”. As we repeat the command, VERY slowly, she works on moving her eyes and incrementally she moved her head. Tonight, my right hand cupped the left side of her face. When she turned completely to her left, she began to fall asleep. My hand was now pinned between the mattress and her head! I didn’t want to remove my hand and wake her up so I sat there holding her. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have moved my hand if you asked me to. What a pleasure it was to watch her sleep and look so peaceful. It was comforting to feel the warmth of her face in my hand. After a short while, I leaned on a pillow resting on her stomach to watch her sleep and sure enough I dozed off too! Holding her and resting with her was wonderful. It’s probably the best sleep I’ve had in a very long time regardless of the awkward position.
Happy dreams sweetie. Sleep well; tomorrow they will be playing revelry early! xoxo