Rehab Breakthroughs!

Today's Post comes straight from Dad!

Natalie has made amazing progress in the last few days, she is now much more aware and is communicating much more. We are very excited by this progress, but please bear in mind as you read the details below that I am describing Natalie’s accomplishments in her best, most alert moments. She is still in the process of emerging from her coma, though she is now significantly further along in that process. She now scores 16 out of 23 on the Coma Recovery Scale. Her response level changes somewhat from hour to hour and day to day, and she still has a long way to go, but she is now consciously participating in her rehabilitation process. Here is what she has been doing:

Natalie can distinguish between different objects, even when they are similar. When shown a hairbrush and a paintbrush she knows which is which, and will brush her hair with the hairbrush.

Natalie can perform single commands, even when they are abstract commands, such as “make a fist”, or “point at the ceiling”.

Natalie can swallow, and is learning to eat little spoonfuls of applesauce and crushed popsicle.

Natalie can talk! Her voice is mostly a very quiet whisper, and can be very hard to hear (Al has the best hearing!) but she can carry on a conversation. She usually gives a small nod or shake of the head for yes and no answers. She can tell us her full name and the full names of all of us around her, and can spell all of those names letter by letter! She knows the name of the road we live on, the name of her college and many other things.

She can count and tell us what 2 + 2 is. She has asked questions about her accident and has articulated her frustration at being in bed or in a wheelchair all the time. And she told her therapist that she does not like apple sauce!

Natalie can read! When her therapist wrote commands such as “stick out your tongue” on a piece of paper Natalie read them and followed the commands.

Natalie is working very hard to get her legs working. Her leg casts have now been split to make them removable, and she only wears them at night. Since her whole left side is very weak she cannot put much weight on her left leg. Her right leg is strong, but cannot be straightened out after being tightly bent at the knee for so long. We stretch her right leg out as much as possible every day. Once a day she goes on a “tilt table”. She is strapped to a horizontal table and it is gradually raised towards the vertical, putting her weight on her feet. She very much wants to do this, but it is very painful for her because her right leg must be stretched as hard as possible and strapped in place. Her multiple daily physical therapy sessions are also very tiring for her, and she is usually exhausted by the afternoon.

Natalie’s left arm now has three different arm and hand splints which alternate during the day, to gradually correct the tight contraction of the elbow and hand muscles. She has regained a very small amount of movement at the wrist. Her right arm and hand work very well and are amazingly strong. She can do a lot with this hand, although she is still subject to some agitated movements that are hard for her to control.

The improvements of the last few days have made a huge difference. Natalie knows who she is, where she is and why she is there. She can tell us what she is feeling, and can understand what she needs to do to continue to get better. With her determination, I am sure her therapy sessions will bring her improvements in mobility that she now longs for.