A Good Day

Claire getting her nails done

Karlee spent the first part of the 28th with Claire at the hospital, having stayed the night with her from the 27th and I arrived at the hospital to take over and let Karlee get home for some much needed rest around 5pm. Karlee said that Claire had a very good day and worked super hard in her three therapy sessions.

Claire has been talking non-stop about getting out of the hospital and how much she wants to go to Chuck E Cheese when she's finally out. That being the case, we've developed a reward system using Chuck E Cheese tokens: For all the times that Claire follows directions from the PT or OT therapist, we award her a token for her to use when she gets out. It's only day one, but it seems to be working pretty well.

Karlee also told me that Dr. Kaplan (the doctor who oversees all of the patients in rehab) stopped by today and indicated that Claire may be in rehab for a matter of only weeks, not months. This is good and bad news, in that they discharge a patient from Rehab when the patient plateaus and no longer makes progress....but....Dr. Kaplan did make sure to mention how far Claire has come since the accident. She has learned quickly how to use her arms to help shift her body weight around and to manually move her legs into position to shift herself - something unheard of in the initial days here in rehab. She also seems to be progressing where feeling and sensation are concerned, in that she is reacting to touch stimulus in different areas and has begun voluntary bladder and bowel movements. There even have been instances where she has wiggled the toes on her left foot for us on command without stimulation. Small movements, but very big milestones indeed.

Today was an especially fun day for Claire as she had a group of girls from a local church come by to pay her a visit and have a girl party (see the picture above). The girls showed up around 7 and painted Claire's fingernails, colored pictures with Claire and even sang some Justin Bieber Christmas songs. Claire was elated to have them visit and soaked in all the attention. One of the girls even brought Claire a gift - a necklace & pendant with the words "blessed" stamped into it.

Needless to say, Claire was very happy.

She also does seem to be managing her pain very well. We are off the heavy pain meds and have moved to doses of ibuprofen instead. This way we can dull the pain but not knock her on her tail when she should be awake and working on her PT.

So far so good. Thanks again for keeping up with her progress & for all the messages in her guest book!