Saturday (day 51)

Good day everyone. Shawna continues to have progress. Although its not very fast we continue to see many things which point toward a positive recovery. She is beginning to flex and make some use of her left arm. We've also seen her stretch which moved both of her arms, hands, and legs. This proves the connections to the brain are there for involuntary movement now she has to learn how to move them vountarily. All her bone fractures are healed and as a result she has been cleared to be able to use a special reclining wheelchair. She is able to be pushed around in a wheelchair instead of a bulky neuro chair/bed. Its been fun pushing her around on level 6 chasing the sun from room to room. They have not progressed far with removing her trache as she has a small lung infection possibly causing secretions. The nurses do "cork" her trache while we are there to monitor her breathing. As a result Shawna can make small vocal noises and sighs while she is corked. She tries very hard by this method to communicate with us. In regards to the infection, they are fighting it with antibiotics and her white blood cell count is coming steadily down. They have removed the filter for blood clots which was in her pulminary vein, because they can use blood thinners to eliminate clots at this point. Her heart rate is steadily decreasing they have removed one of the two heart medications. As the brain swelling continues to go down her heart rate is becoming stable. Her eyes are almost normal and reacting properly by constricting with light. The pupils are almost the right size. She continues to be awake most of the day and spent 3 hrs in the wheelchair. They put her last casts on her feet yesterday which will be cut in half and used as splints for a while till they deteriorate and then she will be fitted for splints. Shawna will be moving either Monday Mar 17 in the afternoon or Tuesday(18) to Dunnville. Everything is supposedly in place and they have trained us how to use a lift to get Shawna from her bed into a wheelchair. When the weather gets better maybe we can "wheel" her to Grampa and Grandmas house just down from the hospital(I'm very optimistic). Any of her followup treatments ie CT scans and checkups will be grouped into one day to minimize the amount of trips she will have to make with OPT. A physiotherapist is teching us how to do her physio so we can do it daily without their assistance and then he will visit Dunnville for assesments and to further train us regularly. Last Wednesday the neurologist and her assistant assesed her and asked for an EEG of her brian to check for areas of activity. We will learn more about that on monday. They will continue to follow her and will place her in the appropriate rehab program when she is ready. We do look forward to Shawna moving to Dunnville, not just because its closer to home but also because there may be less exposure to infections

God has richly blessed us by guiding the doctors and nurses hands here at the General. Although we are sad to leave a comfort zone we are happy that He has strengthened her to the point she is stable enough to be treated and taken care of in a smaller hospital. We continue to trust in His faithfullness because morning by morning new mercies we have seen. Have a blessed Sunday of praise and worship. God bless you all. Al and Deb