Looking For That Independence

She made it.  Lara is out of the hospital.  Friday was such an exciting day.  We got her home and settled in.  The next morning, being Christmas, was an early one.  Lara still has to be checked on every two hours through out the night to either help her move, or make sure she isn't laying funny on her left arm or leg.  Lara's current room is downstairs on the main floor of our house (Ben and Lacy's house, her sister).  So our 5 and 3 year old were up bright and early to check and see what Santa brought, which of course woke Lara .  Santa even had a stocking for Aunt Lara with her beloved sonicare and a few other things, but that sonicare is all that mattered to Lara.  It was a good morning.  We did our little family morning Christmas and then our big breakfast.  Lara loved being able to see her nieces and their reactions and share in those special moments.  Later that day we had the whole family over for food, more presents, games, and more food.  I thought the day may overwhelm her.  But she did great.

The next day we did our at home therapies of speech, OT and PT.  Then she went to her brothers place for his birthday.  She even had to go up a few stairs to get in.  She had her first appointment on Monday for her shunt.  Everything looks good.  Only has to go back for certain patterns of headaches for an adjustment.

Yesterday was out patient therapy evaluation day.  Lara will still be having all three therapies multiple times during the week.  Because of the therapists work schedules Lara will have to go in 5 days a week.

Today was my first day of gathering the posse by myself for some errands.  We made it!  Lara is doing great with her transfers and communication.  Still not 100% reliable.  She still will be impulsive without evaluating the full situation which could lead to some accidents.  She still has that left side neglect.  So working on seeing the whole picture to gather all of the information is still a work in progress.  Over all, physically, Lara is leaps and bounds better than she was even just a week ago.  It is her memory, emotional lability, just overall more of her mental game, that seems to still be moving slowly.  But hey...it's moving!

Looking for that independence is what these next few months are about.  We are starting small.  Well for you it would probably be ridiculously small.  Things like if you don't put the lid back onto the toothpaste tube, it gets hard and you can't squeeze your toothpaste.  (Which she has learned by experience) But instead of saying, "Lara put the lid back on the toothpaste" it is phrased, "Ok, is there anything else you need to do before we leave the bathroom?"  Or watching her fling her shirt around for five minutes before she asks for help and rather than giving her physical help, telling her a way that would be easier to get it on by herself.  Then watch her fling it some more (her attention span is the size of my 3 year olds pinkie finger) then she asks again for help and asking her if my instructions before were helpful.  Sometimes she gets it that she didn't try the suggestion, sometimes she still doesn't listen, sometimes she gets mad and frustrated...all depends on the moment.  That is more of the mental game I was talking about that seems to be moving along slower than the physical.  But again, moving!