By Marc Kind — 6 hours ago Today started for me racing through the morning rush hour traffic on both Route 42 and 676 in NJ and then navigating my way through Philadelphia morning rush. I wanted to get to the hospital to see Staceys first therapy session which is her OT. Stacey was up, clothed and in her chair. As I approached her room I saw her sitting watching her TV. She has not had any interest in watching TV ever since the stroke due to blurred and double vision. I turned and said, good morning and asked her in amazement, Are you watching TV?. She nodded yes and then reached for her letter chart. I grabbed it and she began to spell C, O, M, P and I asked, computer? and she shook her head yes. Then I asked her again in amazement, Do you want your laptop?. She again nodded yes. Then she went to the letter chart and began to spell something again and pointed to the letters D, O, W, N and then she stared at me as to say, well?. I guessed, downtown? and she shook her head yes and then it came to me and I exclaimed, You want to watch Downtown Abbey! and she shook her head yes and then raised two fingers and I guessed again, season two?. I guessed correctly again both to our delight. She was getting to watch a show that she never had time to watch and I was seeing and giving her something she could enjoy. Her OT therapy consisted of mostly an eye exam and test, all of the same charts we would be tested on in an eye exam. She is seeing well despite the deficits she is dealing with but she does need some therapy to get her eye muscles and nerves working better. Perhaps she may need new glasses to help after the optometrist examines her more thoroughly. Next was speech therapy. She and her therapist worked on waking-up her vocal cords and she was able to mimic tones immediately today. She is unable to make certain tones that use her tongue, teeth and lips to work together like an Ohhhhhh sound and many others although she made other tones and sounds for 45 minutes! Most patients usually only last 10 min. After the session her therapist asked Stacey if she wanted to let her know anything and in typical Stacey fashion she sounded out a faint, thank you. She is unbelievable...Stacey also was given tiny, little ice chips to work on manipulating her tongue, lips and chewing motion. Equally important was her ability to swallow this tiny amount of liquid. The concern is the liquid going down her trachea, aspiration and the potential for pneumonia, again. She not only did it but she did it without coughing. Her therapist said many patients cough a bit. She drooled a bit but no cough. Ill take drool over coughing any day! Tonight she was going to get her first full shower. When Stacey heard this she slowly pointed to her hair and the nurses said, Dont worry baby, were going to wash your hair and get it all. Were going to fix you up good!
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 10:07:45 +0000
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