Day 30 - July 10, 2012 Learning to Swallow and More Movement

Katy has had a couple of very restless days. We are trying to put her on a rehab schedule throughout the day but she has a hard time sleeping at night and rolls around. It's really hard to change the schedule of a "night person." Katy was used to working until 1:00 am then staying up, taking a nap and going to school in the morning in Wausau. We just want to make sure she stays as calm and restful as possible when she can so her brain can continue to heal and connect.

She has been agitated and worried about something the last couple of days and repeating that she was afraid to be in trouble. When I asked for what, she replied, "This." To me that meant either she was worried about not showing up for work (she had asked me to drive her to work), or that she was afraid of the expenses of the hospitalization. Besides her worries, she mostly repeats what she hears and says things over and over for a while. She seems to remember people which is so, so great. 

Last evening, she told me she had to explain something to me and said she had a giraffe tattoo. She kept saying she had to explain. I told her that I did indeed know about it now and that all that was important was for her to get better and know that I love her, no matter what…and that she's not in trouble for anything. "Besides," I said, "it's a cute giraffe." It took a while but she finally let that go. If anybody decides to get a tattoo, please, please make sure your parents know. When she had to get an MRI when she got here, I told them there was no tattoo. If it had been made with certain inks, it could have burned her badly.

She has been asking for a drink of water since she could whisper but they want to make sure she can swallow. We tested yesterday morning and she took the first spoonful okay but the second and third made her cough. Hopefully this morning she'll do better and she can work her way off the feeding tube. The cap leaks a lot and is a lot of trouble for the nurses. It's supposed to stay on for 6 weeks before she gets a different one but I'm hoping she starts improving enough that she doesn't even need it soon.

She gets daily visits from Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech and Cognitive Therapy and Music Therapy. OT works on making sure her left arm is able to stretch out and that is starting to improve. Her left leg is working just fine now and she can roll to her right and her left, all the way over. PT works with helping her learn to stand and walk again. She's been standing up for 10 seconds and in the standing machine for 10 minutes. It wipes her out. ST works on her swallowing, eating, memory and speech. Right now, we are working on the speech and swallowing. MT comes around once a day and plays really nice guitar music for her. It's very relaxing. We've stopped Respiratory Therapy once again and keep an ear to her lungs. She will only get it as needed. It really bothered her.