Donna's focus for the last month has been on improving 3 primary things, her speech, her right arm usage and her walking. We quickly got sorted out to be at therapy near the house early this month and have some exceptional therapists. So let me update you on these three main areas.
Speech
Donna wants to talk naturally (we don't use the word "normal" as it invokes a lecture from our speech therapists). Much of this month has been spent focusing on improved articulation and while Donna doesn't really like the provided strategies (slower with syllable emphasis), it has helped. With the exception of a few consonant strings, her speech is now becoming very comprehensible by all. The next steps we are working on are to impact her prosody (breathing, rate/rhythm, stress and intonation). For an analytic person like Donna the improvement methods are way too imprecise and require considerable patience. She works hard and we talk a lot to get in lots of practice (Hard to imagine Donna practicing talking right?).
Use of her right arm
Donna's big shift from righty to lefty was hard as she was initially recovering. Tremors on her left side and considerable improvement on her right side now, have even Donna confident that her right hand will play a dominant future role and she may very well become righty all over again. She'll be able to smack me with both arms equally efficiently. The right arm improvement has been slow but steady and exercises from her therapist (combined with the actual therapy) have made quite a difference. Compared to where she started, it is nothing short of miraculous. She dreads the exercises but knows it really is amazing. Every day she uses the right for more things (habits change slow). On John's birthday recently, I handed her a pen to try and write something simple and she decided to do it righty. I was skeptical as this hadn't been tried but she proceeded to write the most awesome cursive "Love Mom". God is great and miracles do happen. We have a long way to go before we call the right arm "fully functional" but optimism abounds and patience is the name of the game.
Walking
Walking has been very hard and a bit elusive but it will probably be the key to the most significant change in Donna's abilities and independence. Donna faces two big challenges here; balance and exhaustion. The exhaustion just comes from muscles that have gotten too little work for too long. This issue is very fixable but it starts with slow and steady exercise and the pace is slow. Core muscles essentially have to restrengthen a long way. It has been exciting as Donna's hard work has been paying off. We are seeing the signs of improved strength but she gets tired quickly and this can often call an abrupt end to a short walking session. Balance is the really hard issue. We know from scans that the area of the brain that controls balance was one of Donna's impacted areas and she has struggled to regain it. After a very focused effort this month, we are starting to see some real balance improvements. These still have a long way to go but we are optimistic. Lots of slave-driving going on in the walking area as I challenge Donna to put the wheelchair away whenever we are home but the fatigue can be very limiting. Donna is a great sport (far more than anyone can expect) and works hard. Currently she walks with a walker with assistance to support her balance. This will be an important ongoing work area and we hope to report more progress.
I've been away from work all month and the hard work of home and caring keeps me extraordinarily busy. I feel I am making a difference for Donna and I'll stay till I feel that isn't so or we find help that keeps it at that pace. Everything takes a backseat to Donna's recovery. Being there everyday, I'm lucky to see the small improvements. It is great to be able to explain what I see to Donna and help her see the differences.
Donna has meticulously read every card and letter sent over the last 7 months. As therapy (that slavedriver again) she opened, removed the card and replaced everyone. This took almost 2 weeks in her limited rest (:-)) time. After about 3-4 days, I started to ask her what she thought and she said it was unbelievable. Finally she understands the outpouring of everyone's love. She thanks you all.
Onward into February, more hard work and more of our routine. We are told Donna's therapy will start to include an aquatic component. Should be fun. I'll post an update first of March for those too far away to see for yourself.
Come visit, we are fully living our lives and visits help us break from routine and give Donna feedback on her progress. I've also included a few of my favorite pictures from this month.
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| Donna one Sunday after Church. No brace, two normal shoes. Leaning for balance but sweet to see |
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| Leaning and only did part but awesome, good food coming |
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| Email typing. She gets email, but types very slow for replies |
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