1 year + 3 months

Good evening all. A lot has happened since the last posting. Our prayers have certainly been answered as the tone or Distonic in Shawnas left side is continually lessening. The physiotherapist is excited to have Shawna almost back to the point she was before her brain turned all the muscles on her left side on full. We are once again working on sitting her nice and straight to work on strenghthening her core muscles. Accupunture is being used regularly to relieve tone in her arm with a lot of success. We have another new machine to use which is called an Acutouch which uses very strong magnets to change energy flow in the muscles. It works on the same principles as accupuncture with the pressure points but the skin is not pierced. Shawna seems very relived when we use this on her and tends to fall asleep almost immediately. Pool therapy also is a huge succes as we go onces a week every Sat night to Valley Park. When immersed in the 96 degree water the tone immediately dissappears and Shawna can move her limbs bit by bit Shawnas cognitive ability has become increasingly evident as she answers questions with eye-blinks. She is also increasing her food intake by mouth she's gotten as far as nine big teaspoons full swallowing successfully. She likes pureed pears and yams. Communication continues to be the primary goal and her eye blinks are very consistent but it takes a long time to determine what she is thinking. Shawna received her own P10 Tobii computer which uses eye gaze to manipulate screens and text editing as well as environmental control and blue toothed to her cell phone to text her friends. Much of this will take her years to learn but we have a very excited young lady on our hands chomping at the bit to learn. When the tone decreases significantly enough we can bring the computer with her everywhere for her to communicate as it speaks the words she types. Shawna has had several outings for social interaction aside from regular church attendance. One of the most intriguing was when her friends came and took her out for an evening of shopping and out for supper. This was totally unsupervised by us but we were very confident of her friends. After all one is a paramedic another is her OTA another is a nurse , one is her PSW and others trained to care. It is truly a blessing to have friends that care and are willing to sacrifice their time for Shawnas benefit. She was so energized when she came home that she was vocalizing for almost an hour and could hardly go to sleep. Our addition is finished and now we just have some landscaping to complete the walkways and gardens around our home. We have been so blessed by our Heavenly Father to experience the riches of His grace as he continues to provide for us. We belong to a community that continues to uphold us and strenghthen us with their word, works and prayers. We stand amazed and thankful to God for his blessings. Thankyou all. Al, Deb, Shawna, and Family