Thursday, October 30, 2008

Under Construction & More on Kira

We discovered that we had water under the flooring in our family room and kitchen a little over a week ago. A part on the back of the refrigerator had broken so water had been seeping in where it could - under the floors. Somebody had to come out, rip up the affected flooring, and left some very high-powered ... very noisy ... fans in the house for a few days to dry out some sheetrock and cabinets.


We'll be picking out some new flooring and getting it installed before Christmas.

Kira continues to improve. She absolutely never wears any leg braces and walks around in tennis shoes, flip flops, or sandals. Her walking needs some fine-tuning to be real smooth, but she has great balance and control. Her right arm is starting to come around, but it is a slow process. It starts with the shoulder and the fingers are the last to wake up. I attended one of the therapy appointments and learned something very interesting - therapist said that exercising after a stroke is completely different than exercising after any other type of injury. The brain has to connect to the body part that is being rehabilitated and much of the energy it takes to do this is in the concentration. I was amazed to see how much more she could move her arm when she really focused on it.

Kira's speech is also improving. A lot! The left vocal cord that was paralyzed from the operation is slow to recover, so there isn't much sound, but she is doing so much better getting the right words out. We aren't needing to guess at what she is saying anymore and only need to ask for clarification once in a while. She does need to spend more time doing more deep breathing exercises to get her diaphragm working more efficiently and help with tiredness.

Still going to occupational and speech therapy twice a week, but her physical therapy has been cut down to once a week.

It is so exciting to see the tremendous amount of progress that Kira has made in less than 2 months! Full recovery can't come too soon for her. You know how impatient these "youngins" are - wanting immediate results and all.

One of the most amazing things to witness is the way that Kira is coping with all this. She has her moments (and certainly has every right to have them), but she has her eye on the prize and knows that if she weakens and gives in to self-pity she won't progress. What a gal!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, sounds like things are getting much better! Just imagine how well you'll be doing by the time Christmas comes around!!!
It's always good to see an update, I think of you a lot!
Happy Halloween!

Gina and the Gang said...

I am SO happy to hear that Kira is making such great progress. It really looks like 100% recovery is in sight. Keep going Kira, yet don't be afraid to give yourself time to rest and recover. You are a soldier!

Amber said...

That's wonderful news Kira! You are such an amazing young woman!

Bahar said...

Kira
Your strength and love for your family is overwhelming. I am so happy to hear that you are doing better and better everyday. Give that cute baby boy of yours a kiss for me.
Love, Bahar