Angela's Blog

WOW, another semi-restful night.   By that I mean, Angela slept about 4 hours quietly, calmly, and soundly....upon awakening she was not coming out of a horrible dream, she was just waking up.   She would then sit up, slide off onto the floor, switch ends of the bed, try a different position or some other quiet variation of looking for a comfortable spot before falling back to sleep for an hour or so.   Must admit....my favorite hour was the one where she asked me to curl up with her and cuddle.   Warms a mother's heart! ! !

She walked down the PT hall today.   Just used that one-armed walker, got her safety belt around her waist and with the help of only one PT person launched herself down the hall.   Sat for a few minutes.   Launched herself back up the hall.   Needs a bit of smoothing out but hey, she is picking up her feet, planting them firmly on the ground, bending her left knee (when reminded) and headed pell mell in her direction.   

This also marks the first time the three therapies were held back to back and almost made up a full three-hours of therapy which is a must-have to be able to move her to Harborview.   Now, we want to see it happen with a lot less complaining on her part and a bit more residual stamina upon completion.   We are clearly on the way.

As Josh noted, Amgen people visited yesterday and brought wonderful posters with wonderful notes.   You simply cannot know how much this bolstered Angela and us.   To find out that some of the stuff we did not get and were wondering where it came from really has a place in Angela's life  (LIVCA) was very comforting -- to Angela that someone FINALLY got it and equally as comforting to Josh and I that she wasn't off her rocker.  Occupational Therapy is very much looking forward to "the box" to use for fine motor skill development and Speech Therapy is anxious to have her explain more terms and processes that are connected with her work.   Ang got very engaged in the conversation today explaining the Amgen part of Brad's letter to the ST guy.   Thanks, Amgen! ! !

If you are coming to visit, please expect to have some tears sometime during your conversation.   The tears are being triggered right now (which we herald as a huge step forward) and it might be during prayer, if you tell her she is beautiful and/or if the sun is shining or not.   Please know to allow her to have whatever feeling she is having.  In other words, please don't tell her that her feeling is wrong.   Please do feel free to help her process...you might ask her why she feels that way or ask her if she has verified her feeling with anyone (for example - she was crying because she is a big disappointment to me.  I asked her if she had checked that out with me and she could acknowledge that she had not.   After a bit, she did ask me and we could talk about it)  or just ask her if she wants a hug.   

Thanks everyone.... oh, one final thing....  Angela's brother and sister-in-law with brand new baby (my grandson) will be in town for one week starting October 12.   Does anyone have infant car seat, portable crib, other acoutrements that could be borrowed for that week????   If you can get them to Angela, we can get them to Aunt Marian's where the little one will stay and then back to you via Angela on Monday the 19th.    

Thanking you in advance....

Teresa