(Day 334)

Good day all. Shawna has continued to make good advances in communication. She is definitely good with pointing at pictures and words using a drum stick. She even named her puppy using this form of communication. We received a gift of a beautiful white male shnauser mini mix. His name is Q-tip. He's 5 weeks old and hopefully Deb and Jessica are not alergic to him as Shawna and the family are already quite attached to him. He sits and sleeps very sedately on Shawnas lap while she carefully pets him. Its an amazing form of therapy. There isn't much therapy for the next couple of weeks but we have our hands full with visits and therapy we can do with her. Not includng the puppy training. The doctors still haven't given any instructions for the increase in tone but the physiotherapist has given us a stimulation machine where we attach probes to her right back muscle to make the left side release. This has proven to be very effective in reducing the amount of tone that is present in her left side. We hit a bad spot with the biking as Sawnas tone increased to the point she couldn't do it by herself anymore. Weve changed the way that we do the range of motion exercizes involving her legs and she has again been putting in some very good days on the bike. We remain thankfull to our Heavenly Father for what he has given and continue to thank you for your prayers and support. We would also like to take the opportunity to wish you all a blessed Christmas celebration and God's continued blessing for 2009. Al, Deb, Shawna, and family

(day 320)

Good morning all. Things are still progressing slowly.....but its still progress! We had a team meeting with all the therapists and care givers to go over the past 3 months of Shawnas care and to determine the new goals. The main jist of the conversation was that Shawna has progressed considerably with respect to amount of time she can focus before zoning out. She's gone from 1 hour to 3 hrs with a couple cat naps. Her communication is improving and her comprehension is very evident. The therapists main concern is that the sessions not overlap so she can rest and have all phsio activities occur only after the language and fine motor skills. The phsio sessions completely drain her for hours. The muscle tone in her left side is beginning to complicate the therapy. Shawna has been for a CT scan to see if there are any brain pressures contributing to this. She also had some bloodwork done to check for infections. The next thing will be for her doctor to determine if drugs are required to control the tone until Shawnas brain can adjust and be able to turn off the muscles that she can now turn on. Shawna has been out to a couple of functions and enjoys it tremendously with lots of vocalization to show her appreciation. Vocalization seems to be improving a lot especially when combined with laughter and spontanaity. When she tries to talk though it stops when she concentrates. We look forward to spending a lot of time together with family and friends during the upcoming holidays. Our contractor has been busy with the addition. The walls are up and the front of our house has been stripped to the bones to make good to the new roofline (quite a sight). We continue to realize our dependance on our Father for his goodness and guidance as we continue on the path He has chosen for us. Thanks for your prayers and support. Al, Deb, Shawna, and family

Day 306

Good evening. Its been a while but sometimes no news is good news. Shawna continues to progress slowly. We hired a massage therapist to help combat the tone in her left side. At this point it seems to be working very well. At least she is not in total pain all the time. Her friends have even managed to take her shopping and let her pick the items she wanted. That takes a lot of patience as it sometimes takes quite a while to get a consistent answer. The SLP therapist has been having a lot of good sessions with her as has the OT assistant. The physiotherapist and myself have also been able to assist her in paterning walking. She has been standing beautifully with little adverse effects from the tone. One other exciting development is that we had Shawna in a partial crouch against her door and asked her to stand up which she did three times. Those are the same muscles used to lift your feet when walking. We are currently building an addition or sunroom on the house to facilitate an exercise room and more family space as the wheelchair routes have decimated our living area. When this is finished we hope to have an open house for those who would like to come and visit Shawna. We know there may be a lot of visitors but we are getting quite used to our house being an open house anyways. Its been exactly 10 months since her accident and Shawna is continuously getting stronger and we thank the Lord fo his gifts. Thanks for your prayers and support. Al, Deb, Shawna and family

(Day 293)

Good afternoon all. We've had to slow down on walking Shawna for a while till the tone in her left side leaves. The physiotherapist doesn't want her walking till she can again keep her trunk muscles straight otherwise she will have a crooked gait. Her left side is getting a lot of tone which we are constantly combatting by sitting her leaning right and having her rest lying down on her right sde. Once it dissappears we will resume her walking exercises. Its a bad thing about the tone but an extremely good development that her left side muscles are being energized and mapped by her brain. She went in for a supposedly simple proceedure to remove the "J-tube" on monday. Aside from being difficult to pull out there was a looming danger of food leaking from the opening from the lower intestine. Thankfully we could turn her feeds down and not exercise her for a couple of days. The opening has now closed and everything in regards to her feeding is once again normal. Shawna has agan been taking small bites of puddng and smoothies and swallowing them successfully. She is staying awake a lot more during the day especially when the therapists are there. The only times she is sleepy is if she doesn't have a good nights sleep. This is something that has developed lately. Now that she has very good mobility with her right arm she scratches and grabs at things when she is lying down. Once she got a hold of her feeding tube and almost pulled it out. Now we put a stress ball in her hand and enclose the hand in a tube sock ensuring that she can't grab her tube again. As a result she has restless times at night which may require some sleeping medication in the future. It makes for restless nights for Deb and myself as we hear her sighing and scatching motions on and off throughout the night. We are thankfull to our Heavenly Father though for what he continues to give us and leave our cares and worries in His hands as he guides us on his path. Thanking you again for your prayers and support. Al, Deb, Shawna and family

Sunday(day 286)

Good morning all. We have been very blessed this week. Shawna was standing so beautifully on tuesday night that I brought her forward away from the door and she stood with minimal support for over a minute. She was so excited and smiled immensely. When spoke with the physiotherapist the next day about this he had me repeat the procedure with her. He was also very excited about this when she did it again. His next words were "let's walk her". I thought he was going way too fast but we supported her on either side and with Deb moving her legs and feet we walked her three times across the room approx 12 ft. She was so tired after that she slept for an hour. We now do this with her every night to start patterning her for walking. She seems to be able to assist us with bending her knee and helps us slightly with slidng her feet. It may take a very long time of mimicking this walking pattern for her to take her first steps. I will post the video of it when I get my camera back from loaning it out yesterday. We are so thankfull to our Father for again showing us he is in control. He gives us hope for her recovery. Everything else is continuing as before. Her feeding is continually being increased. We are up to 130 ml/hr with the target being 180. This way already Shawna is able to have a good nights rest with no feed machine going. Shawna enjoyed a whole day out at the wedding and reception of her cousin Sarah and Colin Hekert. It was a beautiful and stimulating day for her. She was awake and in her wheelchair for almost 12 hrs with a small laying down break. She smiled almost the whole day. It was a very beautiful experience for all who saw her. Once again we give thanks to our Heavenly Father who continues to provide for us. Thankyou for your prayers and support. Al, Deb, Shawna, and family

Sunday (day 279)

Good day all. Sorry I didn't write last week. We've been very busy with several projects around the house. Shawna continues to improve. For feeding she is up to 120ml/hr and tolerating very well. The J-tube is now obsolete and hasn't been used for two weeks. It will most likely be removed soon. All the muscles on Shawnas left side seem to be getting energized and as a result there is a lot of muscle tone developing in the left side which we combat with constant therapy. Its a good and bad thing. Its good the muscles are coming in but bad about the tone she can't fight because she can't quite control them yet. Along with the increase in left tone also came an increase in vocaization. Its beautifull to hear her attempt to make sounds. I've posted sme pictures on the site friends and family of Shawna Bethlehem which show her sitting on a couch and standing against her door. She still has her casts on and on Tuesday they will be removed and she will wear new "AFOs". She is almost at the same point with her exercizes as she was at before the tendon release. Shawna had many sleepless nights and dopey days as she recovered from this operation. It was a delicate balance of pain killers to get her enough sleep and yet be awake for therapy. Its been a couple weeks of sleepless nights for Deb and myself as we waited for her to heal. We think were almost out of the woods now though. Yesterday it was 9 months ago that Sawna had her accident. We have come so far since that day and we praise our God for his mercies and guiding hand as he continues to provide for us and Shawna. Have a beautful Sunday with ylur loved ones. Al, Deb Shawna and family

Sunday (day 265)

Good day all. We hope you all are enjoying this beautiful Thanksgiving weekend. We certainly are and we are thankful to our heavenly Father for allowing us to bring Shawna home again after a brief hospital stay. Last thursday Shawna was supposed to have tendon release surgery on her achillies, and be released that evening. We we're highly doubtfull that she would be coming home that night from previous operation experiences. The surgery was successful and her feet were casted to maintain the new positioning. As we predicted though once Shawna was put under using a general anesthetic, it took her 24 hrs to have full body functions again. We were a little disappointed at not taking her home again but we were prepared for it. On friday morning we returned to pick her up but she still wasn't in good enough condition to come home. She had a couple of light siezures in the morning which the doctors felt were brought on by stress and pain. Since then her meds have been adjusted to compensate for that. She was almost ready to go home late Friday but we erred on the side of caution due to the long bumpy ride home and picked her up on Saturday morning instead. Slowly she has been recieving less pain medication and getting a lot of sleep. She slept throuh the whole night with only one dose for pain. When she awoke this morning she smiled her huge loving smile which let us know she was back to her usual self. Tuesday she will receive her fiberglass casts after they mould her new splint casts. Vocalization continues to improve. Were not quite to the point where she can do it on command but we know the triggers to get her to make sounds. Even at Henderson we met people who have heard of Shawna's road and give us their prayers and well wishes. We can only stand back and marvel at God's care and providence. We thank Him and you all for what we have received. Wishing you all a blessed thanksgiving enjoying time spent with your loved ones. Al, Deb, Shawna and Family