Karen's Blog

Paul's Update: May 1st @ 6:40am

There really wasn't much in the way of news from the weekend, so I sort of took a break from the blog.

Karen continues her regiment of speech, occupational, and physical therapies, but gets Sunday's off. I took Friday off and spent most of the day at the hospital with her, watching her through her physical and occupational therapy sessions. I also sat with her during her lunch. All of the therapists have a unique interest in Karen, and seeing her succeed. This is apparent in the way they work with her.

She continues to improve, but sometimes the incremental changes are small. She is definitely getting better though. She still has what the therapists refer to as "left side neglect", where she has not yet regained the use of her left side. She has muscle tone and the limbs can move, but her brain is having some difficulty recognizing them, so she tends to use her right side for everything.

Karen seems to be in generally good spirits, and enjoys being able to feed herself, and drink her water. She still has a pretty good sense of humor, and will crack a smile now a then if she thinks something is funny.

It appears that she can read fairly well, except for the fact that she has difficulty holding a book open with one hand. Yesterday, I was holding a water bottle, asking her if she could read the label as I was pointing to the big letters - DEER PARK. Karen responds by saying "Established in 1947" I take a second look at the bottle, confused as to what the heck she is talking about, and noticed that just below the Deer Park is the fine print.

Seeing this, I picked up one of the books that was brought in for her, and I held it for her. By looking at her eye movement she was definitely reading the page. She seemed to enjoy what she was reading, and I think she somehow recognized the book, but wasn't quite sure. She is also able to write her name as well as others.

I'm certain she will improve fairly rapidly in these areas as she gets more in depth therapy.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Monday, May 01, 2006