Hi Everyone,

Corey has had a busy few days. In addition to her therapy, she decided to do a little baking this week instead of cooking. Yesterday she made chocolate cupcakes for Valentines Day for her cooking therapy. By the time they were cooked, she was too tired to decorate them. No worries, every great bakery chef knows, you need to let your creation cool before you can decorate. After a good night sleep (for both of us) Corey and I finished decorating the cupcakes this morning. She helped me spread the vanilla icing, sprinkle the pink sugar (most of the sprinkles covered the cupcakes) and topped them with a Hershey’s Kiss and an Oreo to represent kisses and hugs.

We are documenting all Corey’s therapy including pictures of her culinary creations. I placed the cupcakes on the kitchen table and as soon as she saw me pick up the camera, she reached across to the tray, picked up a cupcake and literally posed for the picture posted tonight! I laughed out loud. Once I snapped the picture she placed the cupcake back in the tray but not before she used her pointer finger to swipe some of the icing off the top of the cupcake. In one fluid motion it was then in her mouth for a taste test. She loved it. She then asked to wash it down with some milk. Corey is not drinking liquids yet so the next best thing to milk was vanilla ice cream. What a great way to start Valentines Day; icing and ice cream for breakfast!

After breakfast Diane arrived for Corey’s morning speech session. Today the ladies worked on conversational phrases. Corey did such a great job, Diane put the workbooks down and the ladies continued with freestyle conversation. Diane would ask a question and Corey worked on responding with a full sentence rather than the usual Yes/No or one word answer. Corey continued to initiate questions as well. What a joy it is to watch Corey interact with another person.

We had a follow up visit with Dr. Brown at 1pm. We haven’t seen her in 6 weeks. Dr. B came into the exam room, sat on her wheeling stool and looked at Corey with a big smile. She stated, “Corey you look beautiful today in pink. It’s so good to see you”. Corey smiled and said, “Yeah, thank you…you too”. Dr. Brown rolled backwards and literally screamed out loud! She screamed so loud that the nurse came running into the room to make sure we were all well. I jumped, Corey was laughing and Dr. Brown was shocked calling out to the nurses to come in and hear Corey speak. She was so amazed to hear Corey interact with her. Her voice was strong and clear. Dr. Brown wanted to cancel the rest of her patient appointments and spend the afternoon talking with Corey!

We had one more stop to have blood work and then it was home for afternoon therapies.
Corey was exhausted by the time we arrived home and prepared for PT with Jen. Despite her fatigue, Jen was able to work with Corey in her bedroom. They brought the walker from the living room to Corey’s room to practice weight bearing, weight shifting and standing. I’m excited to tell you Corey stood at the side of her bed holding onto the walker for 8 minutes. That’s a new record. The standing frame is definitely helping Corey develop the muscle strength needed to stand with her walker. She was supposed to have a session with Alice for OT but unfortunately, she was past the point of no return and couldn’t participate. We had to cancel the session. It is clear that even one trip out of the house for a few hours is still too much for her.

Corey, you had a great day. Did you know that last year on Valentines Day you were working out in the gym at Bryn Mawr Rehab using the foot cycle. It was the front half of a bicycle. They wheeled your chair up to the foot cycle, tied your feet to the pedals and the machine did most of the work for you. You also were working on moving your right hand. Your right hand couldn’t open. The therapist had to manipulate your arm to reach for the bean bag. You then would try to move the bean bag with your clenched fist. We didn’t care how far you moved the bag, we were looking for any little motion that you initiated. Did I happen to mention that you did this with your chin to your chest because you couldn’t hold your head up independently yet. Today you not only made cupcakes, you held conversations. Nothing short of amazing…

Happy Valentines Day Corey, we love you so much xoxo