After this weekend I am pleasantly surprised, yet again, at Natalie's remarkable progress. Of all that I witnessed, I noticed the largest improvements in feeding and walking. I will elaborate on each:
Nataliie has been off the 7PM to 7AM nightly tube-feeding since Wednesday, January, 24 and has had to rely solely on her own oral consumption for nutrition. Not only is she taking all of her food orally but her medicine as well. Watching Nat eat was amazing because although she was able to feed herself last time I visited she did not have much of an appetite. The same cannot be said for this trip. Natalie has developed a bit of a sweet tooth since the last time I saw her late December. While I was there I think she must've eaten at least five brownies (which she made earlier in the week with her therapist)! I was so happy to see that she was able to recognize when she was hungry and actually eat most of the items on her meal tray.
On top of Nat's improved self feeding she was also walking a lot better (and faster)! This was wonderful to watch because I was not aware that she was no longer using her walker (Becca says she told me but I beg to differ). Natalie is now able to walk with one person supporting her right side. She has a tendency to slouch to the left but I noticed an improvement in her posture by her walk with Al on Sunday. This Sunday was a very relaxed day. Tina brought Nat to a nearby church in the morning and then Tina, Nat, Al, Becca, and I went out for lunch at Panera. The family has no problems transporting Natalie - though the wheelchair can sometimes be a pain (it wouldn't fit in the Mustang's trunk). When we all returned to the facility we pretty much hung out for the rest of the day. Later on Sunday we all took Nat for a walk in the hallway. Al held her right side lightly and she was off. It was very surprising to see how fast she was able to move and like I said earlier her posture had improved greatly from the day before. She must have walked for about ten minutes without stopping for a break. Al asked her at one point if she wanted to sit in her wheelchair for a minute but she was having nothing of it!
All in all this was a wonderful weekend and I'm glad I was able to witness more of her miraculous recovery. As for the family's stay at Sunnyview - I, personally, believe they will be home by the end of February but I will update the blog as soon as a date is mentioned and confirmed.
Thank you all for reading and keeping up to date on Natalie's recovery! More positive news to follow...
Monday, January 29, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
A brief update
First, let me apologize for the lack of updates. I will do my best to post at least once a week.
Second, this will be a brief post as I will be visiting Natalie this weekend and can then leave a detailed account of her progress.
Natalie's progress has slowed a bit from the past few weaks due to a stomach virus that prevented her body from receiving any nutrition. She is now over the virus and is able to continue to move forward with her rehab. Therapists have been working hard with Natalie mainly concentrating on her posture and balance. The family is now able to take her away from the hospital more frequently. Recently they took a lunch trip to Panera and today they visited the apartment for some food and games.
I will be visiting the family this weekend for a few days and should be back by Monday to update the blog. I will try to be as detailed as possible because I'm sure this post does not answer all of your questions. Please feel free to leave questions in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them next Monday when I update the blog.
Second, this will be a brief post as I will be visiting Natalie this weekend and can then leave a detailed account of her progress.
Natalie's progress has slowed a bit from the past few weaks due to a stomach virus that prevented her body from receiving any nutrition. She is now over the virus and is able to continue to move forward with her rehab. Therapists have been working hard with Natalie mainly concentrating on her posture and balance. The family is now able to take her away from the hospital more frequently. Recently they took a lunch trip to Panera and today they visited the apartment for some food and games.
I will be visiting the family this weekend for a few days and should be back by Monday to update the blog. I will try to be as detailed as possible because I'm sure this post does not answer all of your questions. Please feel free to leave questions in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them next Monday when I update the blog.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year!
First off, I'd like to wish each and every one of you a happy and healthy 2007.
Secondly, I feel it has been a while since I've posted on Natalie's progress and I know today is the perfect day to recollect my personal experiences with her this past week.
Rebecca and I drove up to Schenectady on Christmas morning - the greatest time to drive, I believe we got there in about 2 1/2 hours. We drove directly to the Foulger's apartment where we met the family - Marc, Tina, Kyle, Al, and Natalie. We spent about 7 hours there before Becca and I left and the rest of the pack brought Nat back to Sunnyview.
While at the apartment we played games (the present game, hungry hungry hippos, battle of the sexes, charades, etc.), enjoyed a delicious meal compliments of Marc, and watched The Grinch.
I couldn't help but notice how much more expressive Nat seemed from the last time I visited. She was laughing a whole lot and telling jokes of her own. I was also very pleased to see that she is getting a little bit of her attitude back! When someone would ask her to do something she didn't want to she'd let them know - For example, Becca would say, "How about you eat some carrots?" - and Nat replied with, "How about, no!" This may have happened about 10 times while I was visiting and it cracked everyone up each time she said it.
Along with her increased expressions Nat is also feeding herself wonderfully. She holds water bottles to take drinks from straws or directly from the bottle. She can use spoons and forks and is very understanding, even when she doesn't feel hungry, that she must eat to get stronger faster. During her meals the family tries to get Nat to eat as much as possible because they all (including Natalie) want to have her feeding tube removed. Currently she is only receiving tube feeds at night.
The other improvement that I observed is Natalie's walking progress. This was so amazing to watch because I had never even seen her stand up with her walker before. I was able to stand in on one of her physical exams where therapists tested her ability to walk. First they stood her up (which she does on her own by pushing herself out of her wheelchair) and she grabbed onto her walker. They then asked her to walk for three minutes and measured her distance. The therapists were unable to help her because it was a test and were only allowed to stand behind her and 'spot' her from behind. This did not stop Natalie from walking an unbelievable 97 feet in the three minute period! I was shocked to see how fast she was able to move with the walker and both Becca and Tina were floored by her acheivement. After this test they asked her to walk from one line of tape to another (a distance of 5 meters). Before she started Natalie said she could do it in thirty seconds. The therapist started the timer and Nat was off. This test was repeated and Natalies times, respectively were 26 and 20 seconds! She managed to shock us all again! The final test was a little buggy and we had to have Nat re-do it three times because the computer measuring her steps was goofing up. Nat was to walk down a mat with sensors hooked to a computer that would calculate her exact steps so therapists could work on any corrections. It turns out repeating the exercise three times drastically helped Nat because she improved greatly in her last try. After this test was complete and we headed back upstairs to her room we kept hearing from different therapists of how surprised and happy the test givers were of her progress.
All in all I can definitely say that Nat is progressing wonderfully at Sunnyview. The therapists are all doing a terrific job with her and she really is coming back to us. Again I'd like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year and a strong recovery for Natalie and the family!
Sincerely,
Mike
Secondly, I feel it has been a while since I've posted on Natalie's progress and I know today is the perfect day to recollect my personal experiences with her this past week.
Rebecca and I drove up to Schenectady on Christmas morning - the greatest time to drive, I believe we got there in about 2 1/2 hours. We drove directly to the Foulger's apartment where we met the family - Marc, Tina, Kyle, Al, and Natalie. We spent about 7 hours there before Becca and I left and the rest of the pack brought Nat back to Sunnyview.
While at the apartment we played games (the present game, hungry hungry hippos, battle of the sexes, charades, etc.), enjoyed a delicious meal compliments of Marc, and watched The Grinch.
I couldn't help but notice how much more expressive Nat seemed from the last time I visited. She was laughing a whole lot and telling jokes of her own. I was also very pleased to see that she is getting a little bit of her attitude back! When someone would ask her to do something she didn't want to she'd let them know - For example, Becca would say, "How about you eat some carrots?" - and Nat replied with, "How about, no!" This may have happened about 10 times while I was visiting and it cracked everyone up each time she said it.
Along with her increased expressions Nat is also feeding herself wonderfully. She holds water bottles to take drinks from straws or directly from the bottle. She can use spoons and forks and is very understanding, even when she doesn't feel hungry, that she must eat to get stronger faster. During her meals the family tries to get Nat to eat as much as possible because they all (including Natalie) want to have her feeding tube removed. Currently she is only receiving tube feeds at night.
The other improvement that I observed is Natalie's walking progress. This was so amazing to watch because I had never even seen her stand up with her walker before. I was able to stand in on one of her physical exams where therapists tested her ability to walk. First they stood her up (which she does on her own by pushing herself out of her wheelchair) and she grabbed onto her walker. They then asked her to walk for three minutes and measured her distance. The therapists were unable to help her because it was a test and were only allowed to stand behind her and 'spot' her from behind. This did not stop Natalie from walking an unbelievable 97 feet in the three minute period! I was shocked to see how fast she was able to move with the walker and both Becca and Tina were floored by her acheivement. After this test they asked her to walk from one line of tape to another (a distance of 5 meters). Before she started Natalie said she could do it in thirty seconds. The therapist started the timer and Nat was off. This test was repeated and Natalies times, respectively were 26 and 20 seconds! She managed to shock us all again! The final test was a little buggy and we had to have Nat re-do it three times because the computer measuring her steps was goofing up. Nat was to walk down a mat with sensors hooked to a computer that would calculate her exact steps so therapists could work on any corrections. It turns out repeating the exercise three times drastically helped Nat because she improved greatly in her last try. After this test was complete and we headed back upstairs to her room we kept hearing from different therapists of how surprised and happy the test givers were of her progress.
All in all I can definitely say that Nat is progressing wonderfully at Sunnyview. The therapists are all doing a terrific job with her and she really is coming back to us. Again I'd like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year and a strong recovery for Natalie and the family!
Sincerely,
Mike
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