Hi Everyone,

If you’re looking for a good investment, you might want to turn to Hallmark. Thank you to all those that have sent cards to Corey; she received more cards today and yesterday than she typically does on her birthday! She loved each one of them and can’t wait to go to the mailbox tomorrow.

She had a productive day at the gym. Coach Ted and Natalie are now fighting over who gets to work with Corey. Ted won today. Corey and Ted walked farther than she’s walked since we joined the Out Patient Gym. He is very pleased with her progress. Her upper body control is improving as well as her ability to transfer weight as she steps forward. He is “feeling” her gain strength throughout her body and is using less of his body to support her as she walks. After 40-50 feet she begins to fatigue and leans a bit but once he gives her a verbal queue to adjust her stance, she rights herself and continues.

Coach Kate and I worked extensively on strategies to help Corey with her disorientation. We have a “memory album” that contains 8 x 11 photographs of each of our family members as well as her girlfriends from school. We use this daily as a memory tool. It’s been a tremendous help to our nurses as they get to know Corey and develop a report with her. The familiarity with our family members and a few family stories has been essential in their ability to distract/reorient her.

Part of Corey’s disorientation is with Time. What day, month or year is it? One strategy for working on identifying Time is the use of a calendar. This has been ineffective because Corey has not regained her ability to read yet. In addition, the view of a full month is too much information for Corey; it over stimulates her. I talked with Kate about combining the Memory Album with a Calendar.

Instead of a full month’s view, what if we had a rectangular poster board that is 7” x 24”; divided into 7 spaces to depict a week’s view. We will laminate the month, day, date and year to Velcro along the top of the rectangle. We then will take Photographs of the Bryn Mawr coaches and our School Team. The pictures will be laminated as well. We can place the pictures on the days of the week to help Corey identify not only the day but who she will be seeing on that day. Kate thought it was a great idea. Now we just need to set up our photo shoot and we’re ready to try our new memory tool ~ Keep your fingers crossed.

Corey being creative is being open to possibilities that are beyond the obvious. It’s also having the courage to do things differently than the way they’ve always been done. I remember you having a conversation with me about this. You were doing a household task when I contradicted the method you were using. You emphatically told me that there is more than one way to get the task done and still acquire the same result. You were right!

Being creative gives you the ability to solve multiple problems with a single course of action. Creativity refuses to accept limits. This is definitely a word we could use to identify your personality! You refuse to accept limits; because of that you are moving beyond every challenge you face. Keep it up kiddo, xoxo