June 5th

I apologize for not updating the blog yesterday. I took the day off and didn't go in to rehab. Today was a good day for Megan. She had speech and PT in the morning. In speech today Megan's therapy gave her flashcards and asked her for the words. Megan had difficulty with this, but for the most part was able to say the word with a little bit of help. She got 'dog' right away, but when asked to identify an 'onion' she couldn't. Next was opposites. Megan did really well with this, and got all but one right. For example, black and _____? (white), salt and ______? (pepper), etc. She was not able to get mother and _____? (father). Megan's SLP then asked her a couple more questions. We noticed that questions with more than one part are difficult for Megan. She has to think about the first part, and then apply the second part to the first part. At PT, Megan worked on standing up. They want her to hold her right hand, lean forward, and then stand straight up, rather than using her left hand to push up all of her weight. They are working with her to not favor her left side because it is stronger at the moment.

Megan got back from therapy and thought she was free for the day to take a nap. Before she could get back into bed, her OT therapist came walking in. Her therapy wasn't on her schedule, but she had to head out for one more session. At OT she worked on her right arm a lot. They were checking the motor responses in her arm to see if she could move it. They gave her a chance to think about moving her arm, and if when she couldn't they would move it for her. OT has been focused more on her arm, but also getting back in to everyday tasks. They have been working on showering, getting in and out of bed, getting into the wheel chair, and getting to the bathroom, etc.

Later on in the night we were talking with Megan and trying to get her to move her right arm. Before today, we could just see a little bit of movement in the wrist. Tonight she was able to slide her arm across the pillow. It was so exciting! It is hard to tell if she was actually telling herself to move her arm, or if it was a bit of a spasm from all of the movement from her therapy. None the less, she was moving her arm a great deal more than she has been.

As we have said before, Megan's speech has improved daily. She is putting together sentences, asking a few questions, and saying more words. She still needs a bit of a clue with some words, but once you say the first letter she can often times get the word. We worked with her during dinner to get the names of the fork, knife, and spoon. We asked her all throughout dinner, sometimes she got them, and other times she said the wrong name. Probably an hour or two after dinner I was about to leave and she grabbed my hand. She put three fingers up and said "Fork, knife, and ___?" but couldn't get spoon. I told her to try one more time and she was able to say all three "fork, knife, and spoon." It was so exciting for her to be able to remember those words. It just takes her a little while to work through it in her mind. One of the things her SLP told us is to keep working Megan outside of her therapy. Ask her what different words are, what pictures are, etc.

Megan has a very long day tomorrow full of therapy! She is pretty much going from 930-4 with a little break for lunch! I'm sure she will be exhausted. Tomorrow will be full of improvements and I can't wait to share them with you!