Pray for Meredith

Tuesday is the weekly team meeting for the rehab docs and therapists.  They discuss their patients and re-evaluate their goals and discharge date.   Meredith met 3 of her goals out of 27 — the first evaluation to technically list any “M’s” for Met rather than O for ongoing (even though we know she’s made lots of gains).  They didn’t officially change her discharge date yet, but they are pretty much all in agreement that Meredith is progressing so well that she would benefit from more time here as inpatient.  So when they meet next week they might push back our discharge date.  Which is really a good thing.  Everyone here is very pleased with how she’s improving from all the therapies.

Praise God for using rehab and these caring nurses, therapists and doctors, not to mention all those from both ICU’s, to heal Meredith!  “for I, the LORD, am your healer [Jehovah-rapha]” – Ex. 15:26

Today marks the first day without extra water being given through the NG tube, so I’ve had to stay on top of her fluid intake.  She’s had a cup and straw with her most of the day with juices or milk.  Her ideal fluid for a 24 hr period would be 34 oz. and we managed 27, which I think is a good start.  They also are stopping her nightly tube feedings b/c she’s eating well and is very close to taking in enough calories by mouth.  So by not being fed through the night she might be even hungrier and eat enough on her own.

AND tomorrow the speech therapist will start making an attempt to get her to take her meds by mouth.  Once that hurdle is done she should get that tube out.  She currently gets meds 8 times over a 24 hr period, so it’s a big hurdle and I hope the doctors can adjust some of those to make this possible.

A special part of the day was taking a walk with Meredith.  With the therapist helping to support her hips, Josh and I each held her hand and she walked down a long hall from physical therapy back to her room.  Again, another step that was a wonderful surprise and a new mercy today!

Mere continued to crack us up today along with the therapists who were hearing her voice for the first time.  She sang some more, danced and laughed a lot.  While she was hiccuping for the 2nd time today she said, “I wish we never had the hiccups.”

When we went outside for some time on the blanket she crawled off the blanket and starting barking — just like the old Meredith playing puppy.

In speech the therapist told her she was a pretty little girl, especially when she smiles.  Meredith smiled really big and said, “Cheese . . . and crackers.”

Today Meredith whispered a little louder and a lot more than before.  We heard a lot of funny lines from Spongebob and Napoleon Dynamite (“Give me your tots, man”).  She sang her Super Spike song and another song she loves from the movie A Mighty Wind.  Tonight I sang Come Thou Fount with her.  I paused several places to see if she would take over and she did every time.  It was apparent that she knew the entire first verse.

She also got to play with Sophia this morning and Seth this afternoon.  Seth got her singing La Cucaracha  and playing the maracas.  She sang it over and over and over.  She paused before the last syllable — Cha — and would let Gigi sing that.  One time she sang La Cuca- and looked at Gigi and said, “Go for it!” and Gigi finishedwith the -Cha.

Here’s how talkative she was tonight:  the new patient attendant Alaina came on duty at 4:30 pm and spent a couple of hours with us.  Her supervisor came in just to check on things and Alaina said to her, “You told me Meredith was non-verbal, but she’s been talking ever since I came on.”  Mere has made us and several staff members laugh a lot today!

Meredith said this during her PT session today, and Gigi was there to hear it.  In speech she identified several short word cards by pointing to the correct word (without pictures).  She ate well today and had a few good attempts at feeding herself pieces of roll and cake, and she is drinking well from a cup.

The highlight of the day came tonight when I put her violin in her hands.  She immediately put it up to her shoulder correctly and held it there.  When I gave her the bow she started playing Taka-Taka-Stop-Stop, the very first and most important stroke that she learned from Mrs. Doty.  She played it over and over again!  MANY times in a row, Mrs. Doty!

Meredith is all there behind those big brown eyes and she is truly starting to return to us.  Praise the Lord, o my soul!

Meredith had a wonderful Friday.  She whispered even more (much of which we couldn’t hear) but also started using her voice more.  Grace came for the day but didn’t get to play her violin b/c therapies where back to back with the swallow study test in there too.  Still, Grace saw lots of improvements and took some good videos.

Joyce and Sophia van Engen also came to visit.  Sophia stood at one end of the parallel bars and Meredith walked towards her.  Because Meredith did so well on the swallow study, she now gets to drink from a straw and eat more textures of food.  Sophia helped feed her a grilled cheese sandwich, peas and mashed potatoes for supper!  Prior to that, in speech therapy, she ate 2 chicken strips cut into bites and a side of mac-n-cheese.

The other wonderful thing in speech was when Chris tried to get Meredith to sing.  Meredith told her she loved to sing.  Gigi suggested Edelweiss and Christ started trying to sing it.  Meredith started singing it with her voice!  She didn’t get in many words, but just hearing her singing the word Edelweiss — what a joy!

Gigi was with Meredith today while I was home with Josh and Laura Campbell.   Meredith had more of a sleepy day since she didn’t sleep all the way through the night last night — or the last few nights for that matter.  She still worked hard in PT and had a few good sentences come out.

At 1:30 tomorrow she has her swallow study.  May the Lord let her pass this test with flying colors and be able to eat more foods!

Today was Meredith’s most vocal day yet.  In PT when she was playing ball with Gigi, after I had left for Lexington, she said, “We are playing ball together.”  Then she asked the therapist, “Where’s Mommy?”   Tonight in the activity center she got very interested in the keyboard and played a while on that and was saying “Edelweiss.”

The video swallow study was rescheduled for Friday.  So in the meantime Gigi (who is with her until I return on Friday) will try to get as much pureed food and liquid in her as possible.  She requires a lot of calories and the more she takes in by mouth, the sooner they can take out the NG tube. 

The doctor also thinks there Mere might have some double vision or some vision issue going on b/c she often closes one eye to see or turns her head to an angle to look.  They will try using a patch on one eye at a time to see if that helps her vision.  Eventually they will be able to do an eye exam.

She continues to be very determined to walk using the parallel bars, and today she sat up without support for 3 straight minutes!  The improvements from day to day are gradual and yet so remarkable.   His mercies continue to bless us so.

I would lift up Laura Campbell for prayer because she is a little fragile and anxious at times from this extended change of life, especially at bedtime.  But overall she remains very happy and eager to help Meredith when she comes home.  And also, please pray for strength for Gigi who is spending time with Meredith and also recovering from carpel tunnel surgery.  

Blessings to all our friends and family!

Mere has had a LONG day because she woke up at 4 AM, but she did get 7 hours of sleep prior to that.  And hopefully she will sleep longer tonight to make up for her early morning.

She still had a wonderful day.  She did the best I’ve ever seen her do walking with the parallel bars today.  During speech therapy she used her hand to pick up Teddy Grahams and put them in her mouth herself!  That was pretty big.  She will have another swallow study this week to determine if she can have more textures in her diet.

She has laughed and smiled a lot with Gigi this evening.  While I was out of the room before her supper came she asked Mom, “Where is my food.”