Day 23 - Friday January 6, 2012

Wow!  What a busy day here at rehab.  I'm so very glad we got her right into rehab.  Already so many things have happened.  They came first from from occupational therapy and boy is Rebecca awesome!  She said we want Bridgett to be getting back to regular life, so we want her in regular clothes.  Luckily we brought clothes, although at the time we wondered how she would be able to wear them.  Anyway, the gal came in and had a helper.  She told Bridgett that she wanted her to get dressed.  She got the shirt over her head (difficult with the collar) and then told Bridgett to put her arms in.  She directed Bridgett's arms into the holes and Bridgett pushed her arms through.  Then after both arms were in Bridgett started pulling the shirt down by herself without being asked.  Next she told Bridgett to lift her legs.  Bridgett did not do that so she lifted her legs and put her legs into her shorts.  She told Bridgett to pull her shorts on and put her hands at the waistband.  Bridgett started pulling her shorts on.  She needed help to get them over her hips, as she was sitting, but it was exciting!  It looks so good having her wearing clothes, instead of a hospital gown.  PT came in next and tried to get her walking.  She was very tired from moving to a different place so she only walked to the door of her room.  They put her in a wheelchair.  She wasn't too comfortable because she is very tall and the back was too short.  They took her to the therapy gym and transferred her to a platform.  Then they got a different back for her wheelchair and got it all adjusted just for her.  They keep it just outside her door now and it has her name on it, so it's always ready for her.  Down in the gym they worked out her legs and arms.  Then occupational therapy worked on her posture sitting and stretching out her shoulders. Rebecca brought her back to the room and wheeled her up to the sink.  She told Bridgett that she was going to wash her face.  Take this washcloth and get it wet.  She helped Bridgett do this and squeezed it out.  Take this washcloth and wash your face--and Bridgett did it!  Good!  Now get this washcloth and wash your hands.  Bridgett did that as well.  Now give me the washcloth.  Bridgett did not want to hand it over, but Rebecca nicely convinced her!  Then speech therapy came in and said we are going to work on seeing if she can swallow.  They put blue dye on some ice chips.  They had her put the chips in her mouth and felt for her swallowing.  She did.  They did this three times and then they monitored to see if  there was any blue dye in the trach tube--no all clear.  They said we will watch the trach pad for the rest of the day to see if there is any blue dye and there wasn't.  After that they tried holding a finger over the trach tube to see if she could make any sound and she did!  They asked her to count with them and she tried and we actually heard her say six!  Then they tried to get her to sing a song--you are my sunshine and when the got to the right words she said love.  She made other sounds as well, just hard to know for sure what she was saying.  By the end of the day she was tired out and so were we!