July update

So much for once a week. The intent was there.

Kaci has been doing so well these last few weeks. She wears an ace bandage for one to two hours a day (as long as I remember to get it on her). I ended up tossing the cast out, it was too hard to keep on her and the ace bandage works just as well. She wears it at therapy once a week and works without it once a week. When she is wearing it you can just see her brain trying to retrain her arm. She can open and close righty on command, a huge improvement in the last year or so. She is also learning to control her placement of her arm and hand. She can point to an object in a book, her fingers are opened up, but she uses her whole hand rather than her finger at this point. She still has a long way to go, but the end of the road is not quite so far off anymore.



I had to help with pressing her fork into the hotdog, but otherwise she controlled all of her movements to get the fork over the plate and into her mouth.

The Last Day

Kaci woke up in a great mood and ready to work, but also ready to have her cast off. The very first thing she said when we walked in was "Kaci get cast off today." She was having a ball seeing farm animals behind the puzzle pieces, making the sounds and pointing to each of them. She didn't have to be bargained with or pushed very hard, but she kept asking for the cast to be taken off.



We are going to continue to use a cast at home for about to hours everyday. They decided to cut the cast off of her instead of trying to make a new one to send home with us. She wasn't bothered by the saw and was just curious about the noise it was making. The closer they got to getting it off the more she was trying to work herself out of it.



We celebrated her last day with a "birthday" cake and presents. She wanted the other patients kind of straggled in and she wanted them each to sing happy birthday to her.



At the end of the day we took a group picture.



Overall, I am pleased with her progress, except I think she could have been pushed harder. I know six hours is a long day, but if the girls would have know her ahead of time and what her abilities were, they could have gotten a lot more out of her. So, we go back to regular therapy tomorrow and I am anxious to see what Miss Mandy and Melissa have to say about her progress. I am going to try to post every week of so. Thanks to everyone who has been checking on her. We appreciate all your support and prayers.

In the Words of Grandpa

Day 9 started out with a ride in Grandpa's Jeep, "Grandpa's Jeep is gray." First stop was "Donalds" for some breakfast and OJ. Now we're awake and ready to get started. A surprise visit from Miss Heather, (Kaci's OT at the ESA) was awaiting our arrival and things went great from there. Kaci was in the mood to work and she never let up. No resistance to using "righty" whenever prompted and often with no prompting. Dr. Early removed her old cast (yea!) and got to play for 45 minutes without it. The second surprise visit was from Cisco (dog in training) and we got to play fetch with him. Time for a new cast (nooooo!!) and it took two tries, but with some distractions by "humpty dumpty" the second try was successful. After ice cream (yes, before lunch) we got to go outside and run and play hide and seek with Cisco and roll down the hill (and then pick grass out of Kaci's hair). On the way in we spilled the bubble stuff by the elevator and Grandpa got to clean it up before someone slipped and fell.



Back inside we put together a puzzle in record time and while Grandpa fished, Kaci too all the fish off the hook. We made it all 6 hours and it was a very good day.



With promises to see JoJo (grandpa's dog, not Grandma JoJo) and Mamma Mia, we headed to Grandpa's house. Grandpa rolled down the windows and Kaci loved the wind in her face. We made it almost to Midland before exhaustion set in and Kaci slept all the way to Grandpa's even after picking up Nicholas. At home Grandpa put a piece of chocolate on the table and without thought she picked it up with "righty."

Eight Down...

This morning started off much worse than yesterday. I thought we might have to leave VERY early today, but after 45 minutes or so, she calmed down and was ready to work. After that she had one of her best days so far. She is really starting to understand games, so they found Don't Break the Ice and she was intrigued by the hammer. She grabbed right onto it and started hammering away. She didn't have quite enough power, but she had fun pounding on the blocks.



After lunch we went outside again and she wanted to play in the grass, she was running and rolling down the little hills. She started to get tired and wanted to go back inside, but she continued to do well. She pulled pegs out of a board and put them in a bucket, knocked cones over, pulled things off the wall, and lots of other little activities.



At the end of the day she went back outside with all of her friends and planted some sunflower seeds in her pot. It's a little hard to see, but she is pouring water onto her seeds all by herself. She carried the cup from the table, bent down, tipped the cup and poured the water all on her own, twice. I was very happy with her work today. Hopefully tomorrow she will do just as well.

The day started out pretty rough. Kaci did not want to do anything this morning but eat. She wanted "wunch" or "nak" all day long. We finally got her to finish putting the pieces in a puzzle and did very well once she focused.



Kaci was pretty anxious to go outside, so she got to climb around the amplitheter and she performed for mommy on the stage.



One of the professors brought her dog in for Kaci to play with today. She is training him to be an assistance dog, and Kaci really enjoyed "helping" to train him.



She finished the day painting a flower pot. She really enjoyed it, and tomorrow she gets to plant seeds in it. She has a tendency to pay attention to what everyone else is doing, but she really focused on painting.

Overall it was a long day today. She didn't want to cooperate and when she started to in the afternoon, the girls kind of lost their ambition, so it didn't seem to be as productive. Hopefully tomorrow will be much better.