Courtney again giving a weekly update on Mom~
May 2nd in MN and I don't think the temperature got above 40 degrees. We had a quite weekend here in Minnesota. The weekend consisted of a lot of homework to work on from therapy on Friday, so that kept us very busy. During Monday morning therapy, J.J., our OT, continued to work with Mom on activities that help prepare her for a driving exam. We are really hopeful that she will be able to drive again.
There are many phases of this test. We are proud to announce she has successfully passed phase one, which tested her vision fields, reaction time, and ability to focus on more than one stimuli at the same time. This was tested with a large vision board that had many rings of light buttons, looked kind of like a big firework. Mom had to stand In front of the board. They positioned her close enough that when stretching her arm straight up she could reach the top, right, left and bottom buttons on the board. Once she was positioned correctly, she did three different tests of pressing the lighted buttons as they flashed one at a time all over the board. Another test included her acknowledging when a number popped up in the little screen that filled the center of the board. This is probably hard for you to imagine (I will try to remember to take a picture next time we are there). But needless to say, Mom passed this test with flying colors!
Another stage of the driving test focuses on Mom being able to recognize and know what to do when she sees road signs. This is something J.J. showed Mom the first day we went in to outpatient OT and at that point we could all tell it was way too much for Mom to handle. However, two weeks later, Mom is now beginning to match some of these signs to its meaning and working towards being able to pass that phase of the test. It’s SO amazing to see her progress and continues to remind our family every day HOW MANY things we have to be thankful for in our everyday lives!
Telling time, typing and addition have all been other major focuses of OT. Reading clocks and being able to set the time on clocks seems to be fairly easy for Mom. Her typing has also been improving. On Friday she did a great job of copying a sentence (by typing) that J.J. had typed out for her. Typing is great because not only is she getting more familiar with her computer, but she is also working on letter recognition and memory. Today we had a great breakthrough with addition and subtraction. Addition is something we have tried a few times before. Today, however she was able to answer the problems with quite some ease!
Finally, today in OT, J.J., had Mom cook an egg. She did this wonderfully, and at her next OT appointment she is going to get to make tacos!
As far as speech goes, like I have said before, Mom continues to get better every day. She is always surprising us with new words or phrases! One of my recent favorites was said when she was on the phone with Jess. Mom was working really hard on trying to say what she was thinking and after not being able to get it out right she said, "oh forget it!" and we all laughed.
Her morning routines are becoming more normal...she gets up and goes right in the kitchen to make us our flavored coffee (she even pours it for us and adds a little creamer, just how we like it!). This morning she was a lady on a mission as she decided to vacuum the upstairs and do the dishes all before watching Ellen.
We are so thankful for the treadmill the Tim and Ericka are lending Mom and she uses it at least a little everyday. Between her cleaning/organizing, therapy work and walking she really tires herself out. We continue to be amazed at her progress as are her therapists. We our keeping our prayers strong for a full recovery and we thank you all for your continued prayers and support!
Love,
Gordy, Lynn, Jessica & Courtney
Where have you seen God’s grace in your life today?