wednesday evening

genevieve had a huge day today. she worked on speaking while she was in her chair this morning. josh and i were taught how to use the speaking valve and were given permission to work with her 20 minutes out every hour. we didn't do quite that much because of other activities today, but we gave it our best shot. in the afternoon we got her dressed and claude took her to the rehab gym where she did the "tall kneel." this involved gen's kneeling on a padded table, and supporting her arms on a small stool in front of her. all the weight of her torso was on her arms, and she had to keep her elbow straight and her hands on the stool. she also held herself up straight and had very little help from the rest of us. she got to watch herself in a mirror (at the same time helpful and not fun...who really likes the way they look in a full-length mirror in the gym?) as soon as we got back to the room, speech therapy came in and gen worked with the speech valve some more. the lady from rehab came and did a reevaluation on gen's condition. all of gen's therapist's (speech, physical, and occupational) have upgraded their recommendations from "skilled nursing facility" to "in-patient rehab." this is due to the tremendous progress has shown in the past two weeks. this is a big help in getting her accepted into a rehab facility. we should hear back from the rehab lady some time next week.

jenny- gen wants you to know:
"we can dance if we want to.
we can leave our friends behind...
cause your friends can't dance
and, if they can't dance,
then they're... no friends of mine."

-susan and joshua and genevieve