Morning Update – Dec. 13

Meg is not and never has been a morning person. It’s funny because earlier on during her recovery, she’d be awake at 5 or 6 am and struggle to go back to sleep. Yesterday she slept till 10am and today she didn’t want to wake up at 8am at all. She had PT at 9:30 and she also really hates being rushed in the morning, so I started working to gently wake her at 8.

First I switched her music from relaxing sleepy time music to more upbeat music. Then I kept working to get her to wake. Finally I started turning the lights a little brighter. It was slow and took like 20 minutes, but she made it.

Then we got her to the bathroom to go potty and get dressed, let her eat some breakfast, brush her hair, take her meds, and finally brush her teeth. Now this is something I’d probably do in 30 minutes. Sunday morning I have a shower in addition to all of that and still have time to scroll Facebook and Twitter before rolling out the door in 60 minutes from when my alarm goes off. Meg moves slowly and methodically in the morning. No rushing. So it took all of 90 minutes without getting a shower to work through everything, but we rolled into PT 2 whole minutes early.

During PT they measured a bunch of things since it was 30 days since her admission. It was actually a bit over but with the weekend this was her evaluation.

Across the board she is doing phenomenally better. They measure her strength and mobility on a scale of 0-5. It’s a measurement of range of motion and ability to resist force. For example 3+ on her hip means she has full range of motion at the hip and can resist gravity. 4- would mean she can resist but not break resistance applied by the therapist but does not have full range of motion.

She was 0-3- for all her measurements when she came here 30 days ago. Now she is 3-5+- on all the measurements. She still has limited range in her toes and ankle, but has shown great improvement in the last few days.

Meg sent the therapist to come get Susan and I to show off a new skill she mastered today. She couldn’t do it last time they tried, so she was really proud of herself.

When we got there Meg was laying on her stomach on the “mat.” I put that in quotes because it’s an adjustable height table. They use it to practice transfers, but it’s also pretty large so Meg will transfer to it and use it to practice a lot of other skills and get tummy time. After the therapist was ready and got in a position to help if Meg needed it, Megan pushed up onto her hands and knee. It actually took her a couple of tries. I think her dress got tangled on her the first time and threw her off. The second time she pushed right into it and held “table pose” for over a minute. It was impressive to see her able to do this. I’ve said all along that it’s like watching her develop from an infant again but in fast forward. This will open up some additional mobility options for her but also allows her to strengthen her arms and build endurance so that she can progress to crutch mobility.

Prayer needs:

• Weight gain
• Foot pain
• General recovery

Talitha cumi, keep getting stronger!