Hi Everyone,
Miss Corey knows how to show off when she needs to! After a full day of therapy, we had our second follow up appointment with Dr. Long at Bryn Mawr Rehab. He was happy to see us but never expected so much progress in just one month!
Corey began by extending her arm to shake his hand and then said “Hi”. Keep in mind, last month Dr. Long was impressed that she began to learn sign language. Corey then added her vocalization repertoire of home, how, who, and mom. She tried several times to speak her responses to his questions. She’s not formulating words yet but the vocalization spoke volumes!
She also chose to use the dry erase board to communicate with Dr. Long. She demonstrated writing her name and birthday. Dr. Long wanted to see if she could draw as well. He drew a circle, triangle and square. She looked at him as if to say, ‘that’s all you’ve got? She copied perfectly. Then he challenged her with a harder picture. He drew a boxed cross. Corey looked at it for a minute and then drew 4 squares for each arm of the cross. Each square slightly overlapped each other at the corners. Dr. Long was stunned. It was a high level strategic move on her part!
Dr. Long dictated Cat, Apple and Book. He asked Corey to write each word and try to remember them. He would ask her about each word in a few minutes. He went on to ask her what color her shirt was. She was wearing the T-dye shirt from her Care for Corey Concert; it’s blue. She hesitated in her response due to her visual field limitations. We don’t think she can see from her chin down. I added that it was the same color as her dry erase pen. She instantly wrote Blue. When Dr. Long revisited the “short term memory” words, Corey could not remember the 3 words he asked her to remember. She was frustrated and just wrote NO. Other than that, she blew him away. He was surprised and impressed with her written, vocal and cognitive advances.
He is very pleased to hear about the U of D therapy and signed off on their request to begin casting her ankles. We just have to be diligent to watch for skin breakdown. He is requesting more information about the exact procedure for the vestibular testing. We are concerned that the procedure will cause extreme dizziness leading to nausea and possible vomiting. That could lead to aspiration. Vertigo is tough enough but the risk may be too high for the testing piece. We also discussed her extreme migraines. He has agreed to try switching out the Tegretol with Topamax (the migraine medicine she was on prior to the accident; it’s also a seizure medicine.) We are a little nervous about this because anytime you play with the seizure mix you risk the chance of break through seizures. Her migraines are so severe; we feel we must at least try.
In the next month she will need a CAT scan, blood work and a consult with the orthopedist for nerve blocks. We also discussed her IEP for school. Dr. Long agrees that Corey needs therapy but does not feel Corey is ready to go back to the classroom setting just yet. Her IEP meeting is on the 24th and we will discuss home therapy/schooling.
Corey I love what Mrs. Miller wrote to us this morning;
“When you come to the edge of all the light you have known and are about to step out into the darkness, FAITH is knowing one of two things will happen…There will be something to stand on or you will be taught how to fly.”
Since you were a toddler you have never been afraid to try anything. You were always the one that would take the leap first whether there was something to stand on or not! I used to kid that you had no fear…of gravity or consequence. Keep stepping out Corey; You teach me how to fly daily! xoxo