1 Year!!!

Hey everyone! 

It is crazy how fast a year can go by, and how much can change in that year. A year ago today, Megan had her stroke. We cannot believe how far she has come; her progress has truly been remarkable! Her therapies are slowing down, but she still has them a couple times a week (mostly still speech). 

We are up in Maine staying at our house up here. We will be boating and lounging in the sun (hopefully the rain will stay away!!). We are trying to get Megan out on the tube! That will certainly be an adventure.

Our AMAZING friend Caleigh LaBossiere helped us put together a video documenting Megan's progress over the past year. It is such an amazing video and we could not have done it without Cal's help. Please take a look at it! Here is the link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiUF4Cl2AuQ

(If the link does not work for some reason, search #MeganStrong Megan's 1 Year Video into Google.)

We are looking forward to the progress Megan will make in the future. We wanted to thank all of our friends and family for the continued support this past year. You all have helped to make a difficult year a little easier! Thanks and stay #MeganStrong!! 

8 Months

Hello Everyone!!

It's been a while! Megan just passed her 8 month mark and is doing very well. There is so much to update on, I'll try to share as much as I can!

First off, Megan's walking has gotten a lot better over the past couple months! She has a smaller brace that looks more like an ankle brace for those of you who have seen one. It helps to pull her foot up so she walks heal to toe.

Megan has also been going to acupuncture at Spaulding which has been quite helpful. I have to be honest I was kind of skeptical, but it starting helping from the very first session. Each time she goes in she tells the person what she wants to focus on and they put the needles in her head according to what she chooses. It has helped a lot with her walking, as well as her arm.

Megan is still going to therapy at Spaulding multiple times a week, but it is slowing down. She goes to speech the most. As I have said before the therapy for her arm and leg are now working on smaller improvements. These improvements are the most important, but they are also very slow!!! This is very frustrating and hard for Megan. She has her good days and her bad days. The bad days bring about questions like 'will I ever get better' 'is this as good as it's going to get' 'am I ever going to be able to move my hand' etc. We continue to push her, and her work ethic is still something I haven't seen before. It still amazes me.

Megan also started working part time at Bella Sante. She is helping out with some things there, but gets nervous talking to customers. I believe I mentioned that Megan has Aphasia as a result of of the stroke. Aphasia makes it difficult for Megan to get her words out and she sometimes she just can't think of the word. This makes talking to people she doesn't know pretty difficult. She is still working at it, and spends time in speech therapy practicing reading numbers. She also practices what she might have to say at work, just to make things a little easier.

Megan has also been taking a form of transportation called 'The Ride.' It picks her up a couple minutes from our house and drops her off anywhere she needs to go. She has taken it to and from work, to friends houses, etc. It has really been helpful because it allows Megan to be a lot more independent, but also it allows my Mom to have some time to herself. She doesn't have to drive into Spaulding every time Megan has therapy. Now Megan can be on her own for the whole day. She'll take the ride into therapy, and get herself checked in and ready for therapy, and then the ride picks her up to go home.

For Christmas Megan got a very special present from our Aunt Sue. As some of you know, we made MeganStrong t-shirts this summer.  Aunt Sue had a picture taken with the shirt in every state! Some of the people were friends, family, friends of friends, and even complete strangers that wanted to help out. It was truly amazing to see how people responded to Megan's story. A lot of them sent back nice notes wishing Megan well in her recovery. It was an amazing project that Aunt Sue completed. This is a picture of the final project!

Sorry the pictures are so small!!!

Finally, the most important part about this update....This past Thursday Megan gave a speech for the Young Professionals group at Spaulding. First of all, she did absolutely amazing!! Second of all, 8 months ago she was not able to talk and now she gave a speech in front of over 100 people. It was amazing. I wish I could have gone, but of course I'm stuck at school. It seems I miss all the cool stuff, but I got to see a video of it. This is the link from YouTube of the speech. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KYpko-ACGQ&app=desktop

The fact that Megan was able to do this and share her story was amazing. it put into perspective, for me at least, how far she has come in the past 8 months. It also reminded me of how hard it was those first few weeks and months when we didn't know what the prognosis was going to be. Megan has surpassed many expectations, and I have no doubt that she will continue to do so in the coming weeks and months. I can't wait to see what her recovery will entail. Hopefully I can continue to update the blog every once in a while. Until next time..stay MeganStrong :)

3 Months

Hello everyone! It has been a while. I thought someone at home was going to take this over,  but I am back updating you from Philly this time. I have gotten some notes from my mom about the latest news with Megan's progress. 3 months ago Megan had her stroke.

This is Megan today on her 3 months out. She was headed out to lunch with her friend. She looks beautiful!!

It is still surreal that my sister has a massive stroke. I look at pictures the weekend before this all happened and that seems like a different lifetime. I know Megan will continue to recover and get better each day, but it is just so strange to think about how we got here.

Since Megan came home from rehab she has been trying to do as many things independently as she can. She is now straightening her hair on her own (one handed), which is so great. We had to do it for her before, and we got a "um, that's not right" or a "can you do that again?" all with love of course :p So now she can do that on her own as well as shower and dress independently. This is so huge! Nobody wants to have people monitor everyday activities that we all take for granted. This gives her so much more space than she had before, and it is just one step to get her to do more things by herself.

Building off of being more independent, Megan's SLP has been working with her on writing scripts to store in her phone. These scripts will help her if she is in public and doing things on her own. She can read off of her phone rather than holding a piece of paper with the script written down...this way it draws less attention if she gets stuck on what she needs to say. For example she might write a script to run errands, or order her coffee from Dunkin...I am a little bitter because I tried to get Megan to order her coffee from Dunkin when I was home and she wouldn't! Just when I leave she turns around and orders her coffee without me!!

Megan has also been working out a lot at the gym. She is able to walk on the treadmill, and do some leg exercises on the machines. They also go a stim at home now that Megan uses everyday on her arm and leg. The stim sends electrical currents to the area of her body. They are hoping that will help with movement.

Megan has been to a couple doctors appts since our last updates, and some pretty important ones at that! First she saw her doctor at Spaulding. She said Megan's progess has been extraordinary!

The next appointment was the big one. Megan went back to Brigham and Women's to see her Neurologist. Megan hasn't been back there since June 2nd. They still cannot find any reason for the stroke. All genetic tests came back negative, blood work was normal, all blood vessels were good. They are calling her stroke the "perfect storm." A perfect mixture of bad things had to occur all at one moment to cause her stroke. They hesitate to say that birth control was the cause, but that was her only risk factor that they can see thus far. My parents were able to see the scans of Megan's brain and said the stroke was massive. They could see the patchy areas of the brain that were damaged, and those that were spared. They think that the patchiness of the stroke may explain why she's progressing so quickly.  It allows more pathways for the brain to heal around the damaged parts.

Megan's neurologist said that Megan has had the most dramatic change in a patient that he's seen. He was amazed that she was speaking so well and her right arm movement was remarkable for just 3 months out. I have to say I have heard such a difference in Megan's speech being away at school for less than a month. She sounds so much more fluid and doesn't stumble as much. She does occasionally, but instead of giving up she works through it and tries to figure out what she wants to say. Megan goes back to see the Neurologist in 6 months.

Megan has been eager to go back to work part time. Both her neurologist and doctor from Spaulding have said that would be fine, but don't want her to go back to work too soon. She has made so much progress, but she still does stumble on words. They don't want her to go back too soon and get discouraged due to stumbling on words.

I think that is all for now! We had a lot to update you on! The most important thing is that Megan continues to amaze us and improve daily. I'm sort of getting a taste of what it is like to not have all the information being away at school and it's tough. I was so used to seeing Megan all day every day and seeing her improve. I now get my updates through my mom and dad and by talking to Megan on the phone. It's hard to be away, but I am so glad that I am able to talk to Megan on the phone to hear how she thinks everything is going. I think she still has a ways to go, and she still has a lot to relearn, but her progress has truly been amazing! I cannot wait to see what comes next. Until then, thanks for staying involved in Megan's recovery! MeganSTRONG<3

National Stroke Association Website!

Great news! The MeganSTRONG bracelets are now on the National Stroke Association website! The National Stroke Association contacted the Mmofra Trom Bead Project and wanted to help to share Megan's story. This is the link:

http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=shopproducts

Everything else is going pretty well with Megan! Her arm and leg are continuing to improve slowly. No huge updates for now. Hopefully I will update again soon.

 I leave for school next week, so someone here will have to take over the ropes. I just wanted to thank you all for reading the blog over the past two months. I hope it has helped keep everyone in the loop. We cannot thank you enough for your support through this whole situation. It's been fun, until someone else in the fam takes over...stay MeganSTRONG :)

July 28th

On a quick note, Megan wiggled her toes today! She has not been able to wiggle her toes at all before today. She is also getting more movement in her ankle. It is coming slowly, but she can move it more than she could last week! We are still seeing improvements, which is the most important thing!

She can also lift her arm more. It is truly amazing to see her lift her arm, but she doesn't think it's a big deal at all. We didn't think she would be able to ever move it. She still doesn't have movement in her fingers, but hopefully that will come. She can't really use her arm yet, but there is movement when she tries to lift it. Hopefully in the coming weeks she will be able to move her fingers, but we will have to wait and see.

Just thought I'd give you the latest update! Not much else going on tonight.

2 Months

Hi everyone! Two months ago today Megan had her stroke. It doesn't seem real that we were in the Neurology ICU at Brigham & Women's at square one not understanding what really happened. I can't say that we have much more understanding now, but we are in a much better place. Megan has improved greatly, but we have to keep in perspective how much further she has to go. Megan is continuing to improve everyday and continues to work hard. I thought I would show you all a picture of Megan from her first days in the ICU and one today marking her two month date.

 Here we had the nose tube and a central line. She had little speech at this point, mostly just nodding yes or no. We came to find that she sometimes just guessed which answer was appropriate, rather than actually understanding. She also had no movement in her right arm, and was not walking.

This is Megan today! She looks great. She is speaking a lot better, full sentences here and there. There is movement in her right arm. It doesn't take every once of her strength to move it. She can control her breathing and hold up her arm at the same time. She even moved her hand yesterday. They said her arm would come back closer to her body at first and work it's way out. Her shoulder will come first, followed by her upper arm, lower arm, wrist, hand, and finally fingers. Slowly but surely she will continue to get it back. Megan is also walking on her own with the brace. She is getting a little bit more freedom as she moves around the house, but she still gets the occasional 'where are you going?' but we are definitely more comfortable with her moving around. 

That is all for now! I just wanted to thank all of you for your continued support through this difficult time. Your prayers and love have helped so much in Megan's recovery. We can only hope that her recovery still improves from here! 

New Shipment of Bracelets!

Hi everyone! Good news. I just got a message from the people at Mmofra Trom and they said that they just got a large shipment of beads from Ghana. The MeganSTRONG bracelets are back on the website. I'm not sure exactly how many they have, so order quick! Here is the link in case you have lost it.

http://www.mmofratrombeadproject.com/collections/cause-collection/products/meganstrong

New update on Megan! She is going to Spaulding 3 times a week for therapy. She was told that she no longer has to ask us to go somewhere. She can go up the stairs, to the bathroom, out somewhere, by herself. This is a huge deal. She has been getting so annoyed with us when we ask her what she is doing every time she gets up from the couch. This will be good to get back to the normal routine of doing things on her own.

Megan has also been working on speech and her leg and arm. I have really been trying to get her to ask for what she wants. She sometimes forgets the word she's asking for, or gets it wrong. She realizes when she says the wrong word, but often gets frustrated and gives up before she works through it. Sometimes she is patient while I make her get it, but hopefully it'll help her out in the long run.

I believe that is all for now! More to come later.