out standing in her field

gen had another big day today. she sat in the chair for two hours, the last whole hour devoted to speech therapy too. she is getting her breathing under control when she has the speaking valve in her trach tube. there is still no audible voice, but the speech therapist said that is because of the liquid in the back of her throat on top of the vocal cords. we try to get her throat cleared out by respiratory therapy just before her speech work, but plans often go awry. sometimes respiratory can't get here in time, and sometimes speech gets called away when she is cleared, and by the time they come back she is rattling again. oh well, she did have a good session this morning. this afternoon she had physical and occupational therapy, both therapists coming together to work on things with her together. they asked her if she was a risk taker, and she nodded "yes." they stood her up, one holding her around the underarms, one holding up her back. Josh was holding her feet flat on the floor (they kept drawing up and turning sideways, because she can't control them). I was holding her head straight until she got it under control, which she did. she was pulled into a standing position three times, each time holding for a little longer. she was exhausted after her workouts, and she rested much of the rest of the day. she did work on hand movement with me a little this afternoon. she made a light fist around my finger and pulled my hand several inches forward. it is hard to tell what is reflex and what is voluntary, so we ask her. she tells us frankly if she did not do something on purpose, if it just happened. so we believe her when she tells us another movement is something she did do on purpose. these hand movements yesterday and today were voluntary according to gen, and we believe her.

-susan and josh