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.

July 13th

First off, I would like to apologize for the lack of posting. I started work this week and have been running around like crazy. Now to the most important stuff, hows Megan?

She's doing well. She continues to improve her speech everyday. We went out to dinner for my Dad's birthday today and she ordered her food without a problem. She was talking to the waiter and asked for what she needed. She could not have done this a week ago. She is getting better at asking for what she needs. She still has difficulty with pronouns. She gets I and you and me confused the most. 

Megan started going back to Spaulding for outpatient therapy last week. She will now go there 3 times a week. From what she told me it has been going well. She is always exhausted when she gets home. Right back to the couch she goes!

I believe I wrote this in my last post, but Megan is quite bored while at home. Thank goodness there were a couple new episodes of Criminal Minds on tonight. As long as she was entertained...I won't be sleeping for a couple days. Needless to say they were pretty scary.

The most frustrating thing for Megan at the moment is wanting to be independent. She is tired of asking everybody for help and telling someone she needs to go somewhere before she is allowed to walk. I understand her frustration, but at the same time it is still scary because she isn't 100% stable in her walking. She is getting better, but every once in a while we have a miss step. She has gone out on a couple outings with her friends without any of us and she has had a lot of fun. It's scary for us because we can't monitor her all the time, but this is what we were hoping would happen. She will get to a point where she won't need anybody to watch over her, just like she was before. 

That is all for now! Hopefully new updates to come. As some of you know Megan doesn't always like her picture taken. I have been trying to take new pictures of her, but she isn't as excited as I am. I'll work on it to give you guys an update on how great she's looking!!

July 7th

So, I've been thinking over the past couple days about the blog and how I should be writing posts everyday. I end up thinking about this at 1130 or later in my bed when I know it isn't going to happen that night. I realized that the reason I am having a hard time is because there isn't much to update. This I have decided, is a good thing. When all of this first happened I had so much to say that often times I couldn't write everything. I had to state the basic details to get the information out, and leave the little details to myself. As Megan is beginning to take part in a more normal lifestyle there aren't as many things to report. The new things I report will be small things, but some of the most important improvements she will have.

For example, the arm video. (I hope that actually worked!!) Most people would think, well she moved her arm...cool. For us, it is a truly amazing sight. The other day in PT, Megan was able to move her ankle up and down. She hasn't been able to do that so far. I told one of her friends that she could wiggle it a couple times, and before I knew it I was corrected. "I actually did it ten times! Not just a couple."  Well I stand corrected. Megan moved her ankle up and down 10 times!!

I have to say this experience was a little scary. I was in the kitchen with my mom and dad. Megan was with her PT in the other room. We heard a little scream and we all ran in the other room. All I kept thinking was, what now? I don't think we can handle anything else. We walked in to Megan moving her ankle. Although a slight movement, it was something...something so amazing.

We continue to work with Megan everyday on therapies around the house. We have taken her in the pool and have really been working on her walking. We also take her floating around the pool with a raft under her arms and legs. Megan complains while we are in there, but once we get her floating she realizes that she doesn't have to do any work. Who wouldn't want to have someone pull them around the pool while they lounge back with rafts to keep them afloat? I mean, I know I would. Needless to say we work her hard while she is in there and towards the end have to give her a little break.

I believe that is it for now. Our hardest thing right now is to keep Megan occupied. She has seen about every Law and Order SVU and Criminal Minds there is. We turn it on and within 30 seconds we hear "Ugh I've already seen this one too." We are looking into finding a new show or hobby to keep her occupied in the coming days. Megan starts her out patient therapy at Spaulding on Thursday so she won't be sitting around as much, which will be great for her! Hoping to update in the next coming days. Thanks for your continued support.

4th of July!!

Hello everyone! Happy 4th of July!! Megan has had a couple of days of in home therapy. They have gone really well. She has had Speech, OT, and PT. They will come again next week, but Megan will head to Spaulding on Thursday to begin outpatient therapy. All of her in home therapies went well. They all commented on how much improvement she has made since her discharge reports when she left Spaulding. I am just amazed at how her speech is improving daily, how much she can get around on her own, and even more her arm!!!!

We witnessed a truly amazing sight last night....Megan lifted her RIGHT arm. For those of you who don't know, they thought that Megan might not ever be able to move her arm. And if she was able to move it at all, it would only be slight movements. We have seen her progress over the past couple weeks, and have been working with her every day while she has been home, but this we didn't expect. I think I watched this video 3 or 4 times before I completely processed what happened! I put it on my Facebook because it won't work on the blog.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201358168573146
(Hopefully this works)

That is all for now...just wanted to share with you this amazing news!! Hope everyone has a fun, relaxing, and safe 4th of July!!