Nine Weeks

Nine weeks. Looking back so much has happened. Last month we got excited when a finger moved on command. Now we get excited when she does something new with her mind. When we arrived last night and came into the room, Clare was not alone. Hospital beds are barely large enough to hold one person but somehow Kris had climbed in with Clare and they were snuggling and snoozing under a blanket. I suppose that if you are going to share a single bed you should be newlyweds. I hope they remember that there is a camera above them and the nurse’s station is watching.

Clare was the most interactive and responsive we have seen her. Not only did she answer questions, but she asked questions and spoke in complete sentences. At one point she teased her little brother Jonah with different things that she hoped would get a response from him. When we said things that were humorous, she smiled big and she looked happy and very natural. The big thing for me was watching her change from just responding to interacting and initiating conversation.

The battle of the week is nausea. Clare gets an upset stomach quite often which impacts what she feels well enough to do.

Most of the time we spend with her is sitting in a quiet room. She wakes and sleeps, in and out all the time. When she is awake we get a few minutes of interaction, but really try not to over stimulate her. She gets all she can handle in therapy. She is doing incredibly well. Every day there is improvement and we are so grateful for every little blessing.

Today in physical therapy she kept saying, “I want to go home.” She got mad at the kind therapist and loudly told her to stop and that she wanted to go home. She is starting to show some pushback to being here. This afternoon it was more difficult. She would not be consoled. If she was in bed she wanted to be in her chair. If she was in her chair she wanted to be in bed. She wanted to dance, to get on the floor, to leave, to go to the bathroom. . . . There was no comforting her. She is now so mobile that she can’t be left alone for her own safety. They did say that this stage would happen.

She is schedule for another surgical procedure Monday. They will remove the filter from her vein that has been catching clots. They put it in before her pelvis surgery and when she could not have blood thinners. Now that she can have blood thinners, they will remove the filter before it becomes permanently attached.