Day 24 - Saturday January 7, 2012

So, I forgot to report Bridgett's second PT session yesterday:  she walked about 120 feet!  Today was a weekend day and the schedule was a little messed up.  They were late getting her morning meds and helping her get dressed.  Because of that they started her scheduled PT 30 minutes late and she only got 15 minutes.  She walked about 200 feet!  She was really moving along with a good rhythm but they couldn't go any further as they ran out of time.  She didn't want to quit--you could tell because she didn't want to sit down. The physical therapist said--this is atypical of a person at this level of consciousness--to walk so much.  Right now the actions that we see Bridgett are doing are from "muscle memory", things that she has done over and over and her muscles remember.  I think that since Bridgett runs so much, her legs have that really strong muscle memory, and additionally such strength!  Occupational therapy was next.  They worked on sitting up straight--helping her relax her shoulders.  Also, they held out plastic cones and asked her to take them and put them down (one at a time).  They are working on getting her to acknowledge the left side as there is neglect--the brain is not recognizing sight on the left side.  The speech therapist was 20 minutes late getting to Bridgett's room and Bridgett was just nodding off and wouldn't wake up.  Yes-even though she is not out of the coma yet, she still has sleep/wake cycles.  They told me today that she is at level three of the Rancho levels.  I think it will be good to have her move to a point where she either has the trach out or is not compelled to try to pull it out.  They put a "binder" over her mid-section to cover the peg so that she can't pull it out.  The pic line--she mostly doesn't pay too much attention to this.  However, it would be a bad one to pull out. It's just not normal to have all these tubes and she wants them out!  Regarding the trach--she is doing awesome and getting closer to having that removed.  She has the cuff pressure all the way down now.  She is only on 25%  and our air is 21% oxygen.  She goes without oxygen during rehab and does just fine.  Bridgett knows sign language as I said in another post. She is constantly "signing" with her left hand although she does lots of random letters and only some of signs that make sense--although people have told us that many times people babble first and then start to make sense later.  We have been playing Bridgett's familiar music on her ipod.  Tonight I was playing Josh Groban--You Raise Me Up--and she started mouthing the words!  That was special!  Also, this was funny--Jenn reminded us how great Bridgett is at texting.  She can text without looking--she can even text in her sleep.  Jenn said to give Bridgett her phone and see what she does.  Arrianne got her phone and got it ready to send a text to herself and then handed the phone to Bridgett.  Bridgett texted hi and sent it to Arrianne (you have to push send twice), closed the phone and set it down!  Arrianne answered the text back, saying I love you.  Bridgett took her phone and texted glodi (?).  Maybe she was saying good--who knows.  Anyway, very fun!  Also, today she was sitting up in the wheelchair and she looked so cute, crossing her legs.  I took her picture.  Then I said smile for the picture Bridgett and she gave me a big, wide mouth smile!  When Tyler came in the room and kissed her, she kissed him on the cheek.  Then she kissed him in the air several times!  She loves rubbing his beard and his bald head!  Thanks Jenn for the leg rubs for Bridgett today.  She really liked it!