Day 84

Progress is being made. Albeit small but progress just the same.


Nicole stood and took a few steps today. We are back in the walking mode. I was so happy to see that. Just like when your child is learning to walk, the joy you experience is indescribable. PT really wore her out. I suggested PT take a page out of the Montessori handbook. Montessori students engage in many tactile experiences for example; a student may get out tongs and pick up cotton balls and move then from one bowl to the next or maybe use tweezers to move beans back and forth. I think it would work manual dexterity on patients that are further along in the healing process.

Nicole is moving cones back and forth, while stacking them also. Clothes pins are also clipped to the side of a container as a way to start using her fingers. I don’t think she likes to do it much but maybe if they changed it up some it would lessen the boredom.

The unit also let us escape to the sunshine today for a while. It felt so god to get out today. The sun felt great on our faces up until I was so grateful that she was outside that I leaned over and hugged her. I thought my arm was high on her back but it was not high enough. As I touched her pain shot through her body. I believe the pain was excruciating. We needed to go back to the unit so she could get out of the wheel chair and on her back to try to alleviate some of the pain. I felt so bad. What I thought was going to be good for both of us turn bad quickly.

Nicole is able to have the speaking button on her cannula for part of the day. This time Nicole is able to force the air the right direction without the air escaping around the trach. She is speaking again. Her little squeaky voice is music to my ears. Lip reading is not my forte.

This week has been a growing experience for me. Even though I thought I was not taking things for granted I learned this week about different ways of looking at things in life showing the whole picture and not just pieces and parts. You may not be taking a piece or part for granted but when you look at how they work in conjunction with each other it may be a different story. I am working on that this week. Life, at any moment, as we know it, can be changed in a split second. It certainly has been for us.

Each one of us has a different story how this has changed us. From the outsider it might look like it is a huge burden. To another may be life altering. Some are curious while others are wishing the whole situation would just go away. Maybe you are one who wishes they could understand. Maybe there is no understanding. What I wish is for the pure love of Christ. We don’t know why things happen. We don’t know why some people seem to experience many more trials than others. We don’t know any of the why’s anyone can think of but I do know this. I know that because of how we deal with the trials we are given AND how we help others deal with the trials they are given helps us to progress and be better examples of Christ. We don’t have to understand what is going on in a particular situation, we don’t even have to pretend to like the situation but we do need to love that person as Christ does and our Heavenly Father. I hope I can do a better job of that.