Day 113 - Thursday April 5, 2012

Therapy went well today.  Bridgett was a little distracted in speech therapy, but remembered what she was supposed to be pushing the buzzer for during the two minute tape, so that was an improvement.  LeAnn tried to get her to do some remembering about past holidays with the family.  Bridgett was unable to remember anything about our traditions etc.  Then LeAnn did some describing of words and Bridgett did awesome.  Next she read short paragraphs and asked questions afterwards.  Bridgett remembered most of the points of the paragraphs.  So, I think this indicates that her short term memory is improving.  Things like remembering text words is not part of long term memory.  I forget what they call it but it is remembering things that you do repetitively.  She has obviously done well at that and I'm sure most people do.  Of course, most TBI patients also remember long term memory.  But, we will just recreate that for her I guess.  When you are told stories long enough you begin to believe they actually happened, or you remember the incident described from the description, not from the memory.  Physical therapy went pretty good.  We talked about Bridgett's hypersensitivity and Shane said it could be hormonally related and it is that time of the month.  Actually she has had this happen like three times and I think it has always coincided so we learn something new every day.  This also helps us to see that it will pass shortly.  It is pretty miserable for Bridgett--literally everything hurts.  Every part of her body is signalling pain and sensitivity.  She keeps asking--why does everything hurt.  Since her short term memory is still building she can't remember what I last answered so she is wondering all of the time. First Bridgett walked on the treadmill.  Afterwards Shane worked on loosening her neck and shoulders as they were really hurting.  Next we went on a walk through the hospital and Shane had her try to remember the way back.  She did remember that he told her to take only left turns, so talking it through she said she needed to take right turns even though she thought she needed to walk left.  She corrected and we made it back after the discussion at the first turn.  I think her brain was set on left turns even though logic told her that she needed right turns.    In the evening I went the the Utah Valley TBI/Stroke support group that meets once a month.  Jenn went last week with Bree.  It was very informative and I realized that compared to the issues they were discussing Bridgett's language is doing awesome for this short after the accident.  She has very little trouble finding the correct words.  Of course, when it comes to expressing feelings etc we don't really do that much, so that could be different--defining more abstract things.  I feel at this point the memory is the issue.  I talked to one of the moderators (Carol) afterwards and she said that the stuff that occupational therapists do helps with long term memory. Carol is a speech therapist professor at BYU.  She of course is very knowledgeable and it was great to be able to talk to her.  I think all of the therapists do a lot of the same stuff just in a different way.   Anyway, right now Bridgett isn't getting much occupational therapy--hers is aimed at the low vision angle.  The low vision problem is the most important thing for her right now, but the occupational therapy would be great.  It's too bad that we can't do both, but the low vision clinic is considered occupational therapy.  It will all work out I'm sure--we just need patience.  Dr. Speed tells us that the largest strides are in the first year.  At the support group they said the first six months are the most critical, but the whole first year is important.  We are coming up on the four month mark (April 14) and so we are thinking about these things in relation to what our plan in for the future.  Oh, another neat thing is that Carol said that she could email me a lot of resources if I wanted them.  I said you bet I do!  She also will send me the name of a counselor that counsels families.  She said this woman watched her sister get hit by a car and thrown and land on her head.  As an adult she had so many issues following.  She definitely understands the issues that we face as family of the victim.  I will be anxious to talk with her as well.  I am very glad I went to the meeting and will plan to go every month, either here or in Montana.  The group is for TBI/stroke survivors and their caregivers.