We had our meeting with the team this morning and found out we are getting out of here on Tuesday. It is so exciting to know that we will again get to be in our own home after over two months in the hospital.
Her Neurologist came by and showed Katy the MRI and CTs that she had when she first got here and the follow up CTs so she can see the extent of the injuries. She showed her the injury to her corpus collosum which is deep inside the brain and connects the two sides as well as controls her motor skills. She also showed her the inside of the injury to her right side and explained more about the injury to the frontal lobe which is the processor to what is stored in the brain. She explained how, as amazing as it is to have all the memory stored without a great loss, it must be processed and that is where we still need to heal, along with the motor skills. She also explained that the nerve in her right arm was most likely destroyed and not just damaged and so she will probably have to work around it and learned how to use her muscles while not feeling the use of it. She writes just fine, it's just when she tries to throw something, she can't judge the throw so it doesn't go far.
She also is going to have to add stimulation from the outside slowly. The way they explained it was that the brain normally knows how to organize your focus on what you are doing as well as giving little focus to what is around you. With the damage, every stimuli that is around is getting equal attention and it confuses her processing. We have to heal that area with continuing rest at home as well as keeping her surroundings more quiet and not going anywhere that a lot of stuff is going on. They said to try introducing a trip to the store when we only need a couple of things or going out to eat at a quiet place at first and build up slowly. Sunday we get to go to Taco Bell and the zoo in Marshfield to try another outing. When she gets away from the area she's been used to since she's been here, it gets exhausting for her in a short time.
We will be meeting with UWEC shortly to discuss what we can do this semester online and hopefully return to campus for the second semester. I have to say, with the different campuses that we worked with, UWEC has been the most helpful and accessible of any of them.
Katy has started a blog to put things in her own words. She's been starting a new blog each day so we're going to get those together so she has one blog page with different posts. I'll continue to keep mine updated with her medical progress and include her own words from her blog. Here is hers from today:
Oh my gosh, I am way too excited. Apparently I am being discharged Tuesday afternoon!! That is the fourteenth and only five days away! I can't wait to be home again! I miss everyone so much!! Especially my family, all my friends, and my wonderful boyfriend Ben! It is so nice that everyone's come to visit, and a special thank you to Ben and Paige for being here so much, we well as Austin and his mom who come once a week. I know Ben does too, and Paige was here for a few days in the beginning - which I am so thankful for. I don't remember it because of my mini case of amnesia.
I also want to thank my mom for all the support. She has been here so much for me. She actually saw the doctors shaking their heads when they saw my MRI or CT and she still stayed so positive for me. She said she wanted to cry but she knew I was too strong-willed NOT to recover.
It's probably going to be a while before I can leave the house. I'm going to try to see if I can work at Subway again, hopefully by easing into being with a lot of people at once. My Wal-Mart trip made me pretty exhausted, but that trip even makes Mom pretty tired.
Also, I am talking to Austin's mom about Austin. He is pretty upset because I found out something and now he thinks I'm upset with him. I just want to state on here that is NOT true. If you think about it, if I hadn't gotten in that car or drove myself, then I wouldn't have been in that accident, meaning that I wouldn't have said that [quite embarrassing] thing to Austin and been so upset with him because I thought he was telling everyone. I mean, technically you have to blame me too because I could have drove I'm sure - I'm not even scared of driving at night like I used to. I probably should have worn my seat belt (I usually do) too. But living in the past doesn't help anything at all. I just don't want him to feel bad, I mean, it was my fault too.
It's so weird not taking naps anymore. I used to be a late sleeper, but now I go to sleep at like 9, wake up around 7:30, and not need naps throughout the day. I wish nap times were at the right time then - like 4ish in the afternoon. Otherwise I don't get good sleep during my therapies.
beautiul job
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