Team Meeting ROCKED:)

Did I say before how much we like Strong's Hospital?  If you have to be sick, this is the place to be!

Ok we had a great team meeting today.  We have had some very sad team meetings in the past....this one made up for all of those!

I hope I can convey things correctly medically.  We are used to medical things since we had Sam but this is a whole new area and we are learning as we go.  Sometimes I may understand things, but not good enough to share it...but that doesn't stop me from trying LOL

First we discussed her OT/PT and ST  They have been seeing changes for the past 4 week almost daily.  She is doing good things.  Her arms have relaxed to the point she no longer has to wear splints to keep her hands and arms in a normal pose, she does it now on her own!!!    Her knees have normal range of motion, while she is being worked with, although she hates it.  Her ankles have almost a 90 degree range of motion when worked with.  They have progressed, but still need to worked with.  That stiffness was caused by the accident as well as just laying in bed for 3 months....it can be reversed.  An order has been put in for Speech, since she is progressing and swallowing some.

Pulmonary thankfully she has had no issues with her trach or breathing.  She breathes 100% on her own.  She is tolerated the "nose" that covers the trach and acts just like our nose as far as humidifying and cleaning the air that goes into her lungs.  She is doing all that herself.  They have started deflating the cuff.  The cuff is inside  her and it helps to keep her secretions out of her lungs,  It's been deflated now for 48 hours and she hasn't had a problem.  We are working towards getting a smaller trach, one she can make sounds over and eventually one day her coming off it altogether.  I hope I"m explaining it right.  She is swallowing some but needs to improve, we are sure she will in time.   It's all GOOD!!

FISH OIL STUDY will be started Monday!  She is having an MRI today and we are just waiting on them to come and get her.  She needs one for several reasons but this will also give us a baseline to see what kinds of progress she will make.  She has to be sedated for it:)  Why am I smiling?  Because she is moving too much to trust her to stay still!  That's a good thing!  So much has gone into getting this started and we are so thankful for Dr A who is working with us and all her hard work!!!

Future Plans Selah is about to the point she is eligible for rehab!  So that seems that will be our next step for her!  Because of insurance, we are looking at one in Florida called Brooks but is it a long way from home.  Its in Jacksonville.  There is a Ronald McD House there but I HATE change!  I'd so much rather do the rehab here and just stay here but Jon does have to get back to work. It's hard for me to trust and I have full trust in the hospital here and would rather be in the St Mary's that works with Strong's.  We discussed her going to St Mary's now and then transferring to Florida but our insurance might not cover that.  It's just going to be hard for us to transfer.  It will be long term and it is not going to be easy on our family.  Jon will probably be home and the kids  & me will probably be up there.  If you know us. that is not how we roll, we do everything as a family....

Someone asked me to explain where Selah as far as is she still in a coma?  She is still considered to be in a coma.  Comas have different levels and there is a scale.  She was in a very deep coma in the beginning but now she is in the lightest coma stage.  She has progressed well over the past 4 weeks.  It usually isn't like how you see it on tv at all.  She was at one point in the stage like Terri Shivo (the lady in Florida that her husband took her off her feeding tube and she starved to death)  I saw a video her parents took off her and there was a time I easily compared Selah to Terri.  But now Selah is responsive when she is awake.  She follows us with her eyes and by moving her head with her eyes.  She doesn't just react to pain, she moves away from anything she doesn't like.  I was clipping her nails and she snatched her hand away.  She still hasn't reached for anything or grasped without help but I think that will be coming!!!  She swallows some, and has some head control.  I think Selah would still be considered to be in a persistent vegetative coma, but she is not as deep into it as she was even last week.  That means she is progressing well!!!!

So I hope I've done justice to the explanation of our meeting.  It was a HAPPY one:)  Lots of hope!  Please keep praying for Selah!!!  You can pray over all the above things and as always we pray she will cough and gag!  That would be a huge thing!

I received some sad news today.  A dear college friend lost her mom today.  Her mom was such a sweet classic Southern woman with a sweet drawl and very classy and had a great sense of humor!  Please keep my dear friend in your thoughts and prayers! 

Also a family I grew up with lost their dear son unexpectedly.  He had some special needs but was a very special and very loved boy!  My heart goes out to this wonderful family, who worked hard to make his life perfect!  They had him in all kinds of therapy and had enhanced his life in so many ways.  He will be greatly missed by his grieving family!  Please pray for them!!!  They are shattered!