Baby Steps!

I saw and helped Alison stand up today!  When I arrived at 2 PM, I found out that she had refused PT and was not sitting in her chair. The staff decided to have her stand up to pivot into the chair. While that isn't exactly what happened, we did get Allison to stand (with a nurse and me supporting her) at the edge of the bed for five seconds. After that her knees began to hurt and she felt scared and so she sat back on the bed. She then spent maybe four hours today in the chair. Good news.

Like every time I see her,  we go over where she started after her heart attack , how MUCH progress she is making, and then discuss a vision to work toward.  It used to be "grow strong" but starting today it is "walk",

I did not post from my last visit on Fri Oct 18.  That was not a really great day for her. She recounted a number of recent memories that were not true ( like saying she stood up while in fact she had only sat on the side of the bed.  We also talked about her feeling afraid.  I tried to share that with the drugs and with her brain injury, she might feel that things were scarier than they really were.  That is not to say she is not feeling it, just that part of it might feel worse due to her confused state,

Today's visit was much better. She really is feeding herself vs having others do it.  Sometimes it is a bit messy, sometimes she finds it easier to use hands vs utensils.  I tell her to use the utensils so she can rebuild dexterity to use her phone.  She did focus a lot on chocolate and mentioned her favorite was Vogue bacon chocolate or dark chocolate bar.

I also talked to her about trying to become comfortable sleeping at night.  Nurses say she still cries out at night (and day).  I shared the recently discovered science behind how during sleep the brain repairs and cleanses itself.  So sleep is a good thing to look forward to.  With that , she fell peacefully to sleep!  Won't it be great for her if she could do this every time??

Sorry for typos.  Doing this off my cell phone screen.