Second year Day 277 - Monday September 16, 2013

There are just some things that are difficult with personal care for Bridgett, between her forgetting things, not being able to do certain things because of neck pain, and not being able to see clearly enough. For example, shaving her legs. She can now do it by herself, although she misses lots of spots and can't see that she's missed them. She also has trouble reaching to the back of her legs without twinging her neck. I am teaching her to feel with her hands to find the missed spots. This is tedious for her and I need to be with her to remind her to do it. For now, I follow up and help her with the backs of her legs. She wants to remember things but some times its just hard. For example, she is now showering by herself. I have been teaching her to read the bottle each time in order to get the right bottle for shampoo and body wash. It's impossible to always have the same bottle and I think it's not good for her to be cued in by the color or shape. So, she needs to have ingrained in her mind the habit to read each bottle before she uses it. This also applies to toothpaste, etc. One time she put the medicine for her skin (that was in a tube similar to toothpaste) on her toothbrush and I came in just in the nick of time and caught her before she brushed with it. Also, we try to always keep extra things put away so its easier for her not to get confused. And now she reads everything first before she uses it.  Also, she might get her clothes ready to put on after her shower, go into my bathroom (which is kind of big) and put her clothes down. Then she will shower and afterwards call to me that she doesn't have her clothes in the bathroom, because she can't remember where she put them. I try to have her always do things in the same order and always put things in the same places, but I sure that all of our travel kind of messes things up that way. She needs a routine where she combs her hair, puts on deodorant, etc in the same order and then that becomes a habit so that she doesn't forget deodorant or whatever.