friday evening

we have completed another week of therapy-filled days and are looking forward to the weekend. tomorrow gen is only scheduled for three half-hour sessions. that will be restful. today gen had e stim for an hour and a half on her arms. at 10 colleen came to our room and hooked up the electrodes, and gen worked on scooping cheerios into a cup and pouring them into a bowl (no milk was involved, just in case you were wondering.) she did really well at the pronation and supination of both wrists. at 10:30 we moved to the gym (still wearing the electrodes) and worked on pushing her arms up and out away from her. there is a device called "the sander" which doesn't really sand anything, but has handles that slide the center panel along a track. you can set it up at various angles, and you can even add weights to it. courtney set it at a very steep angle for gen, to work on getting her arms up that high. at 11 we moved to a table and gen worked on dot-to-dot still using e stim. at 11:30 we had pt, and gen did some sitting, standing and walking (with a regular walker.) we only had three of us helping her walk (short by one person) and it was a little harder for gen and for us. she did a good job and we all survived. gen had ot again during lunch, and she fed herself some of her food. she also held a cup with a handle and drank from a straw. that was helped by the noseplugs (they have a real scientific name but i can't remember beyond "nasal -----"). they helped because they kept all the air focused in her mouth so she could pull liquid up through the straw. without the nose pinched or plugged closed she has difficulty getting a drink from a straw. at 2 katie worked with gen in speech. she recorded gen saying a list of 57 words without the nasal plug and then another list with the plug. someone will be listening to the recording and reporting how many from each list they could understand. at 3 in pt gen worked on rolling from side to side and bending her legs. her second speech session was at 3:30 together with pt, and she was given words and had to use them in sentences. she always comes up with some fun and funny sentences. we all laughed a lot, and then at 4 she was through for the day. whew!!! thank you to everyone who takes the time to read the blog and keep up on gen's progress. we really appreciate the care and concern you all show us. thank you.

susan
ps jenny: "nobody beats me, because i'm the wiz!"