Day: August 18, 2010

Claire had another good day. We’re seeing a pattern emerge. We’re excited and anxious at the same time. It makes me recall having a baby again. I remember times with each of the girls when we would think we were making headway only for the baby to change on us. I’m happy that Claire is doing well right now but holding my breath hoping a downturn isn’t waiting around the corner. It’s hard to rest with such conflicting feelings.

While the inner turmoil continues, it is abating as Claire gets better. I’m not having to check on Claire as often each night and my sleep cycles are improving. Aside from the infrequent renegade night, we are all starting to get more rest.

Autumn and Heidi are getting excited for school next week. We are happy for them yet we mourn this summer. This was Heidi’s last summer before starting school. She received a bigger education in these two months than she will at school for the next nine. We wish we had two more months with them both before the year begins just so we could do some traditional summer family activities. We’ll be hoping and praying for that next summer.

But until then we have a lot of work to do. Thank you for you hopes and support. Goodnight!

It was a long day. We were up before the sun made its appearance in North Texas and on our way to Medical City for Claire’s second MRI. All things considered, the visit was smooth and efficient. We were told we would be headed home by 8:30 barring any complications and we were on the road at 8:45 AM. That was a success by medical services standards.

The highlight of the morning was seeing Kara and Brian at Medical City. Kara has been mentioned in previous posts: she was one of Claire’s brilliant PICU nurses. Brian was the chaplain on-scene the night Claire was admitted to the PICU. We enjoyed seeing them both. We were torn about taking Claire to visit the 5th floor PICU today. We want Claire’s return to be more triumphant; however, we are eager to see our PICU family. If we had more time, we would have persuaded ourselves to go up and visit.

We did not have time. My mom was scheduled to arrive at DFW and we had to battle with traffic to get to her terminal. Tiffany, Claire and I picked Nana up and we were all smiles. We’re glad to have her back.

Claire’s therapy went well today. We’ve also been exploring new therapies for Claire, taking cues from the Damoffs: Claire will have her first hippotherapy (equestrian) session next Friday morning. Vestibular system issues tend to associate with anoxic brain injury and I suspect that Claire is following suit. Our vestibular system regulates our balance and sense of self in space: problems with you vestibular system can lead to problems like vertigo. One recommended treatment for vestibular orientation is referred to as cross-patterning. George, Jeanne’s husband, had discussed hippotherapy success with me and the impact on Jacob’s cross-patterning skills. We began researching and found a location in Flower Mound that are welcoming Claire with open arms. It’s another tool in Claire’s arsenal and we hope it yields some solid results.

We continue to work on Claire’s spasticity. We are seeing improvements in her muscle rigidity and overall disposition. Claire was very calm and collected yesterday and today. She was attentive to movement around her and able to calm herself with greater efficiency.

Overall, the past few days have been encouraging as we continue to see improvement and develop new tactics and strategies. We continue to look to the blog comments for encouragement and thank everyone for their prayers and support. We hope your week is going well. Goodnight!