Fresh out of Rehab!

...And we're back! Megan came home from Spaulding on Thursday. Some of her friends came over to see her. Our cousin was getting married in New Jersey on Friday and Megan was supposed to be a bridesmaid. She has been talking about going to the wedding for weeks, and asking if she could go. We weren't sure if her doctor and therapists would think it would be a good idea, but they were all for it. That is why Megan got to leave Spaulding a day early. They spent most of Thursday getting ready because they had to leave at 5 a.m. on Friday to get to New Jersey in time. I was already there because I had to attend the Rehearsal Dinner.  Even though Megan couldn't be in the wedding my Aunt Sue was able to shorten her bridesmaids dress so she could wear it in her wheel chair. She looked beautiful!

We got to the church, and our family and friends were very glad to see Megan and how well she was doing. We were sitting a couple rows behind the bridesmaids, but when Casey and her fiancé, Mike went to say their vows I helped Megan walk up to the front pew so she could see better. She then stood through the rest of the ceremony.  As my cousin walked back down the isle, she stopped to give Megan a kiss. (Thank you to Mike's Mom who posted this on Facebook)

This is Megan with the Bridesmaids at church.

This is Megan with the Bridesmaids and Casey at the reception!

This is us with our cousins Casey (who got married) and Erica!

Those are all of the pictures we have for now, but hopefully there will be more to come! 

Now for the update on how Megan is functioning around the house. She is doing great for just coming home! She is now walking around the house with just her leg brace and no cane. We are only using the wheel chair for longer distances where Megan might get tired. The brace is helping out a lot because it is causing her to walk heel to toe. It is even causing her right arm to move a little bit as she walks. 

The visiting nurse came in today to evaluate Megan, and to see what services she'll need until she starts outpatient therapy. Her physical therapist starts tomorrow! Meanwhile, we have been doing some therapy of our own. Megan's not too happy about it, but she needs all the help she can get. My dad helped her with her PT exercises for her arm and leg. I helped her with speech. We used banana grams to re-learn the letters and their sounds. She did really well!

Before we quit for the day, we took Megan in the pool. It went really well. We had her walking across the pool, kicking a little bit, and we even did some arm exercises. We rested her arm on a float and had her try to pull her arm in towards her chest, and push out. We hope to get her in the pool a couple times a week. 

More to come tomorrow after her first in home therapy!

The last day at Spaulding for Inpatient Rehab!

Today was Megan's last day staying at Spaulding, and the inpatient portion of her recovery is over! They didn't give her an easy last day at all. She had an early start at 8 and went from there. I missed PT at 8, but I think they worked on getting equipment that we will need in the house (railings for shower, toilet, stairs, etc.) It is difficult to think of all the things she will need for help because we take so much for granted.

Speech was sort of fun today, we went to the speech office and her SLP pulled out a box of random objects. The SLP would show Megan an object (comb, hammer, book, cup, etc). Megan had to name the object. When she first arrived they did a similar examination and on average Megan was able to name about 20-30% of the objects. Today she consistently got 80% right. She needed some extra time, and a verbal cue here and there, but did very well. Next we went on a scavenger hunt of the hospital! Megan did very well, I think she surprised her SLP with her ability to talk to strangers when she needed help. The questions were
-What is the temperature outside?
-How much does a coffee cost?
-How many floors does the hospital have?
-What is the main hospital phone number?
-Where is the gift shop?
-Find something that costs less than $20?

Megan was able to ask for help when she needed it, and was able to form good sentences.

After speech, Megan had OT. She didn't do much therapy, it was more making accommodations for when she goes home. He also taught us how to do exercises with her arm to work on everyday.

Megan was supposed to go biking with her recreational therapist, Leah. I had to go home before she went out. I'll have to ask my dad how it went. Hopefully he took some pictures. I will update you on that if I get any details.

Tomorrow is the big day!!! Don't know what her plan is for the big day, I think she'll spend most of the day getting used to being home again. Getting used to going up the stairs, to the bathroom, around the first floor, etc.

The next few days are going to be busy, as we have a family wedding. I will be leaving tomorrow and won't be back until Saturday. I will probably not update the blog until then. I believe the home nurse will be coming on Sunday to start that therapy, so I will update you all on that once I know more.

Trip to the Aquarium. June 25th Part II

Spaulding has Recreational Therapy, which is the least serious of all of the therapies. It is closely related to OT. So, today Megan went on a community outing with her recreational therapist, her intern, a PT, and another patient. Of course I tagged along as Megan's person photographer :p. So, as I mentioned in the last post, mostly pictures!! Enjoy ;)

This is Megan walking down the boardwalk with her TR Leah. She walked for a long time towards the boat. I think that is one of the longer walks she has done so far. Look how flat that foot is, heal to toe and everything!!! 

We walked from Spaulding to a ferry....it was SO hot. For those of us who had to push the wheel chair (me) it felt like we were going to melt. For those sitting in the wheel chair (Megan) we wondered why we were going so slow. haha only kidding Megan was very pleasant with the heat today it must not have been fun in that black wheel chair. This picture is on the ferry. We couldn't get outside with the wheel chair...it was very hard to maneuver. It was pretty hot and sticky inside, but very nice views. 

There's that smile! All ready to see the fishies. 

In the touch tank. Megan liked the sting rays. She had a little bit of trouble bending down into the tank. I don't think she realizes how strong her legs are, and is still a little bit uncertain of her abilities. 

Looking at the stingrays. I think I caught her mid bend. That is not how she usually stands! She has a better posture than that, not so much leaning to one side. 

View of the touch tank....soo awesome!

Had to do the classic sister pic. We are missing the skinny arm...That's our signature pose! We spent a lot of time by the penguins...they are so cute!

There ya go...more penguins. I think we went back 3 or 4 times to get another look. 

Candid! Two of the therapists, the other patient, and Megan looking at the big tank. I was surprised at the number of fish, and the different kind of fish that were in the tank. 

Not interested in getting her picture taken! Rehydrating after the hot day. 

After the penguins we went to see the seals outside. They were really cool. They were doing all kinds of flips and turns in the water. 

Never get a break on a field trip with Spaulding. They had Megan walking a lot in the aquarium because of that she had to be very aware of her surroundings. Kids were running around, and a couple times even fell right at her feet. It was a good learning exercise. Even when she was sitting down, they had her use her left arm and leg to move herself around. These are a couple stairs we found after we watched the seals. We can never pass up an opportunity to practice!

 On the ferry back to Spaulding. We were able to walk Megan out onto the front deck. There was a big step that was difficult for her to get her leg over, especially because she was starting to get tired. The breeze was great!

One last picture. Such a beautiful view from the ferry. It was a very good day for Megan. She didn't really say she enjoyed the aquarium, but I saw the constant smile on her face when we saw the different fish, the cute penguins, and the flipping seals. Who doesn't love the aquarium? I have to say though I was a lot more excited to go than Megan was. I begged her to let me tag along! 

They've loaded Megan up with therapies tomorrow for her last day. I believe she has 8, 9, 10, 11, 130-3, and a 3 therapy sessions. She will be exhausted once 4 o'clock roles around. They want to work her especially hard on her last day in inpatient therapy. 

Hopefully tomorrow is just as successful as today! 

June 25th Part I

I have a lot of pictures to post tonight, so it'll mostly be pictures describing Megan's eventful day today!!

Megan got her brace today!! We got it fitted this morning during PT. As you'll see below, we worked on walking with the brace on. You wouldn't believe the difference the brace makes. I mentioned last week that they skipped a step with Megan's brace. Usually the back is completely fixed, but they moved right to the hinge brace. This is a good sign, it shows that she has progressed enough to not need the fixed brace. 

This is a side view of the brace. It is open in the front. You can see the hinges on the ankle. If she was a step behind there would be no opening. This will hopefully help her with ankle movement as she continues to walk. It forces her to walk heal, toe rather than just flat footed. 

Too bad the Bruins weren't able to pull out a win last night, but we are still believers in Boston! This is the back of the brace. Again, you can see the hinge near the ankle that allows for movement.

This is Mom getting trained to walk with Megan. She was at home on break when I was trained with my dad last week. I have to say, it is a lot easier to walk with her now that she has the brace because before she was more at risk for rolling her ankle. Not to mention she has more strength as the days goes on, so she is gaining more control over her body. It was pretty scary sometimes walking with her without the bract. She wouldn't feel that her ankle was rolling, and therefore could have sprained it. She was fine, and hopefully the brace will get her ankle moving again soon.

 Here we are working on stairs!! I was amazed when her PT took us into the stairwell because just a couple days ago we were working on a model staircase that had a step that was only a few inches. This was an incredible change. As you can see, Megan is reaching over to the railing with her left hand because we only have a railing on the left side at home when she will walk up the stairs. They want to make her training as realistic as they can for the situation she will be going home to. Her PT trained my mom first and then me. I got to work with her after she had walked up and down about 3 times, so she was tired. I have to say I got my bicep workout in because I was holding her so tight. 

I just want to clarify for some of you who may be curious, Megan still cannot walk on her own. The therapists are giving her support less and less. When they walk with her, it has gone from two hands firmly on the waist, to maybe a hand on the shoulder and close to the waist, but not touching. She is gaining more balance, so hopefully she'll be able to walk without someone holding her soon. When we walk with her, however, we have to hold her tightly around the waist just because we are not used to her movements and we don't want any accidents. 

This is Megan's team! Her Dr. is in the white coat. From left to right, her PT, OT, Speech, and then her case worker. We had sort of a farewell meeting today. Each therapist went through and kind of told us their thoughts on her progress and what we can do with Megan at home. It was very informative and kind of sad because we will not be working with these therapists anymore. There are therapists that Megan will start seeing next week for out-patient therapy. 

Overall everything is continuing to improve on a daily basis, her speech more noticeably than anything else. She is now able to get a couple sentences out at a time. It is very surprising, but truly amazing to hear her work through her thoughts and finally get out what she wants to say. 

Tomorrow is Megan's last day of inpatient therapy, and then she is headed home Thursday morning! She couldn't be more excited! The nerves are setting in, this is a whole new chapter in this experience. Now we will be on our own for a lot longer than we have been so far. It will be quite an adjustment. We will see what next week brings!

June 23rd

First I would like to thank everyone who attended the pub crawl for Megan yesterday! From what I heard, it was a huge success. Megan was going to stop by, but her therapy schedule changed at the very last second. We got a picture from one of Megan's friend!

Today was Megan's day off, and it was a busy one. We took her into the North End to walk around and get lunch. I'm sure most of you experienced the heat today, and we were no exception. It is harder than you would think to maneuver a wheel chair through the bumpy streets in the North End. I got quite the work out!!

We walked around for a little while and met up with my Mom's cousin's daughter (mine and Megan's 3rd cousin) Colleen. She lives in the North End and is studying to get her PhD in Physical Therapy. It was great to meet up with her! We got sandwiches at one of the cafes. We were going to sit by the fountains, but it was just too hot. We walked back to the Paul Revere Mall and sat in the nice shade. It was a nice break from the sun. I just wanted to go there to see Paul Revere wearing a Bruin's Jersey! Still gotta believe that the B's will make the come back!

Supporting the B's. 

Alex and I in front of Paul Revere 

After lunch, Colleen had to leave us, but we headed over to Mike's Pastry! For those of you who don't know, Mikes Pastry sells the best cannolis in the North End. Usually the line is out the door, but we lucked out. There was a parade for a Saint going on outside and took the attention of most of the people around. We snuck into Mike's and got our cannolis. I have never seen it that empty before...we beat the rush coming in after the parade. 

The best cannolies! 

We headed right next door to get some gelato at Caffe Vittoria. It was so good! After that we were about ready to head back. It was still very hot, and Megan was getting tired. We headed back to Spaulding, and that was our day out on the town! These are some of the pictures we took!

 This is us with our 3rd cousin Colleen before lunch.

The fam minus Chris, who is on a mission trip to Mississippi. 

The fam with Alex.

More updates on Megan's therapies tomorrow!

June 21st

Megan had another full day of therapy. In speech, Megan got to work with Bananagrams. She had to name the letter that she was picking up because she has had difficulty with that so far. She was then given two letters, an A and a P.  She then had to add letters in front to make different words (ex: map, sap, tap, rap, nap, etc.). After that Megan actually asked to work on picture cards. She wanted to do the fruits and vegetables. My mom said she did pretty well with these (I wasn't there this morning). She had  an easier time with the fruits than she did with the veggies. We can see subtle changes in her speech on a daily basis, and she is doing better with all of the exercises she is doing.

I got there in the middle of PT, but we got to get in on the action again today. Her therapist taught us how to support Megan while she is walking, so that we can walk with her instead of needing a therapist or a nurse. I was pretty nervous at first, but Megan was able to tell me that I wasn't holding her tight enough and exactly where she needed more support. I got cleared, and so did my dad. So we can take her walking up and down the hallway throughout the day, so that she gets used to walking around more. She also worked on walking up a couple of stairs. There were about 4 of 5 stairs that Megan went up and down with her therapist there to support her right leg. She had an easier time going down the stairs than she did when she went up. It is difficult for her to push off her leg. They didn't do much work with the stairs because she worked a lot of walking with us helping her and was getting tired. Her PT has been working with her on taking off the wrap on her foot, and she is able to walk so much better than just a couple days ago. We noticed that her right leg starts to drag, or catch on the ground when she starts to get tired.

I missed OT, so I am not sure what went on in that today.

Megan had a nice afternoon and evening visiting with friends. We brought Megan her t-shirt...red looks pretty good on her!! :) Here are some of the pictures from today. (some of these are already on Facebook. so sorry for the repeats.

This is my dad helping Megan walk. They emphasized having our hands on her hips with more pressure on her right side. We are on her weaker side to provide as much support as we can. 

This is Megan working on the stairs with her PT. What you can't see here is that there are two other sides to this with different numbers of stairs with different heights. Megan is working on the smallest height, but did pretty well with them. 

Here she is, Megan herself, in her MeganSTRONG t-shirt. 

The cutest. Daddy, daughter pic.

Sissy's for life <3

Me, Megan, and Alex!

That's all for today. Will have another update in a day or two. Thanks in advance for those of you who will be attending the pub crawl tomorrow! Your support is very much appreciated. 

June 20th

As most of you know, and I'm sure I have mentioned before, Megan likes to be done up and always looking her best. So, in light of that, I was talking to my dad last night and he put Megan on the phone. She asked if I was coming in today and that she needed me to do her hair. She liked the way I straightened for her hair the other day (my mom's straightening wasn't up to par :p...that's the only reason why she asks me to come visit her! haha kidding. I love being able to help her straighten her hair, or put on her eye liner and mascara, so that she has a little bit of normal while she is away from home.

Speaking of home...6 days. She will be heading home from Spaulding next week! She couldn't be more excited. All she say said today was, "7 days..that's all I'm thinking about right now!" We can't wait for her to come home. Next week will pose its own set of challenges, but we will take it as it comes. Someone will be coming to our house (some sort of therapist) to help us adjust to having her home, and help Megan become comfortable with getting around the house. She will then go to Spaulding three times a week for outpatient therapy.

As some of you have seen on Facebook, we are selling MeganSTRONG t-shirts. Half of the profits will go to National Stroke Association (NSA), or Brigham and Women's/Spaulding Rehab. As with the bracelets, we didn't realize how many people are supporting Megan. We have gone through most of them, but the remaining T-shirts will be on sale at the Pub Crawl in South Boston that Megan's friend is organizing on Saturday. Depending on the number of people who were not able to get a shirt we will decide if we need to order more. It is tough to figure out because we need exact numbers to figure out if it would be worth getting another order. We will be in touch once we discuss whether it will be an option to get more shirts. Thank you for those that have shown your support thus far. It means so much to hear from all of you, even if we are not able to get back to you please know that we truly appreciate it! Until next time, keep Megan in your thoughts and prayers. <3

June 18th

Hello everyone! Today was another good day for Megan. As I have done the past couple days, I put up a bunch of pictures for you to see of Megan. This first one is my personal favorite thus far. 

 This is Megan pictured supporting La Salle University....much better look than the Bentley gear she is constantly wearing! ;)

This is Megan and her PT doing some exercises while waiting to get her braced fitted. They were working on staying in a mini squat and swaying from side to side. The therapist braced Megan's right leg as she put all her weight on it. I have to say I have seen over the past couple days how much stronger Megan's leg has become. I have been taking a day off from going in to rehab here and there, and when I come back she has made so much progress. 

 As I mentioned above, Megan got fitted for a brace this morning. They are skipping the completely fixed brace that wouldn't allow movement in the ankle and are moving straight to the hinged brace. Her physical therapist said that this was very good. So, that white material around her leg started out as a wrap that he wrapped around like an ace bandage. It hardened quickly into a mold and he cut it off once it was completely hardened. The man came back after he took the mold with patterns that Megan could have on her brace. She flipped through and went right to the Bruins logo. Not surprising at all, but Megan still loves her Bruins. The brace should be in next week. They are hoping that the brace will help Megan as she continues to get strength back in her right leg. This will allow her to walk with us, and her nurses rather than just walking twice a day during her therapies. They want her to get away from relying on the wheel chair, and begin to walk on her own.

 Sorry this picture is a little blurry, but I just wanted to show you all how hands on the Spaulding staff is for families. I got to get in on some of Megan's occupational therapy. Today, her goal was to move her right arm. I believe in this exercise she was supposed to push her hand out towards me. It was really cool because I could feel her muscles contract and move rather than just guess if her OT was just moving her arm to stretch her out. She moved her arm a lot today with these types of exercises. Small movements, but she was able to do them multiple times which she had struggled with last week. We even saw very slight movements in the wrist and fingers. Every little bit counts! We all have to keep that in mind.

 And finally, Daddy with his girls. Gotta love it! I am so lucky to have such an amazing family. So strong, and will always stick together no matter what is thrown at us. I cannot wait to see what the coming days have in store for us! MeganSTRONG <3

June 16th and 17th

Hello everyone. I wrote on Saturday that we were able to take Megan out for a couple hours to go to Christopher's lacrosse game. We were planning on doing that same thing yesterday, but we know better than anyone that things don't always happen according to plan. It turns out that there was a road race and a parade around Spaulding. I was trying to get in with my dad to pick up Megan and my mom. We turned on to Chelsea Rd right before Spaulding, and the road was blocked off. We turned around and tried to get to a place where we could pull over. We talked to my mom and realized that we wouldn't be able go get to get Megan to the car and get to the game in time...what a bummer!

I ended up going to Chris' game with my dad, while my mom and Megan walked around the streets of Charlestown. They walked to Dunkin...of course! (The Wiggins family clearly runs on Dunkin ;)) They also got to watch the parade. I have to say that wasn't exactly Megan's idea of her day out of rehab, but she got a lot of fresh air, which was nice. I went back to rehab after Chris' game, which they won! We walked in to an exhausted Megan. I guess I was a little tired too....
                                                    

A very comfy bed! What you can't see here is my parents both fell asleep as well! We were all wiped. 

Today Megan got to go in the pool for OT and recreational therapy. She wasn't very excited about this, but once she got in it seemed like she had a good time.

 Doing exercised to put pressure on that right leg.

 Taking some steps, with just a little bit of help. This is her OT therapist helping her.

Look at her! No hands!!

The pool has hand rails and a ledge around the pool, so that she could grab on or take a break if she needed to. 

Will update tomorrow on her normal batch of therapies!

Megan escapes from rehab!

....not really, but kind of. Megan was able to leave rehab for a little while today to go to Christopher's lacrosse game. It was a beautiful day and we even go to surprise Chris. The doctor's at rehab said that it would be good for Megan to get out before she leaves to go home on the 28th. They don't want that to be the first time she leaves. Yesterday in therapy we worked on getting Megan in and out of her wheelchair, and to and from the car without the help of any therapists so that we could do it when she left rehab. This was a success, we didn't have any trouble with transitions today from the car to the wheel chair or vice versa. Here are a couple pictures!!

Siblings :) Gotta love 'em

Megan's still soakin up the sun! 

They didn't know I was snapping this precious pic haha. The cutest trio.

Surprise! What a beautiful day for a lax game. 

Megan had OT this morning, but get this, her therapist straightened her hair for her!! What treatment. Everyone was so excited for Megan to be able to go out for a little while. That was all anybody said, nurses, therapists, etc whenever they came to see Megan. We were only out for about 3 hours, but Megan was exhausted when she got back. She took a quick nap before speech. 

She had speech, and did very well today. We started out with picture cards of items that aren't common everyday words. She did food and animals. So, it wasn't like your common apple, orange, dog, cat. It was like kiwi, burritos, beaver, and giraffe. She did pretty well with this. She needed the first sound of some of the words, but then she got them right away. There was a string of 3 or 4 cards where she got them without any help and she just laughed to herself. She was very proud! Next the therapist wanted to test to see if she was able to tell if words were spelled wrong. There were two columns and one word was spelled right and the other was incorrect. (ex. se and see, geg and egg). Megan flew through that! Her therapist was surprised. Next, Megan did an activity that was a lot harder than anything she had done with reading. She was given a direction and there were 4 words underneath and she had to pick the right word. (ex underline the fruit when given apple, car, tree, basket) They were all questions similar to that. She need a little bit more help with this, but she was able to get them all at one point. Finally, the SLP asked Megan a bunch of yes/no questions. Megan only got 1 wrong out of 12 compared to only 70% correct when they asked her yes/no questions in the ICU. When Megan first began speaking the yes/no questions were really a guessing game. Some times she would understand and other times she would just guess. I have to say I am still surprised with how much she is speaking when I am with her. It is great to see her try to work through her struggle to find a word, and then figure it out completely on her own. She is learning to give herself time to find the word, and in time getting more confidence in herself. 

Megan is still allowed to leave tomorrow, so we'll have to see what is in store for tomorrow. I believe she will be going to another one of Christopher's lacrosse game, but we'll see what else she's up for. As some of you who have come to see her know, Megan gets out of rehab in "seventeen minus four days according to Megan, or 13 days. She could not be more excited. She can't wait to retake her spot by the side of the pool sitting out in the sun for hours! We all can't wait for her to come home! That's all for now!