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 :)
