Saturday afternoon

Last two days continue to be good ones. Each day Katie gets a little bit better on her short term memory. She still is always interested in what "the plan" is in regards to a couple of things. Mostly the kids, but she is also interested in what my plan is. This is tough as we are constantly filling her in on what "the plan" is, but she seems to lose it quickly. I think it's mostly because she is very concerned about the kids and when the memory is not right there she asks. However, she is getting better at knowing the details and I have to tell her less and less each day.

Here is something that's pretty cool. Katie's main speech therapist told Sue the other day that she has never worked with anyone like Katie. Now she has worked with lots of people who have brain trauma, but none like Katie for this reason. Katie is demonstrating most, if not all, of her higher brain functions. Things like humor, self evaluation, empathy, etc.... These are things that usually take a long time to come back, if they every do, but Katie has demonstrated them right from the beginning.

Last night Dawn (one of Katie's best friends) spent the night with Katie and here is what she sent me this morning....

A great night. I appreciate the fact that Katie sleeps like the rest of us now. She needs it dark and quiet. All the other nights, I read until about midnight while she was sleeping and never worried about whispering to any of the nurses. This time, I went to bed when she went to bed b/c she wanted it dark and quiet...like any of us would! Perfect! What difference 3 days makes! I didn't see her Tues-Thrs. And when I got there on yesterday, I about fell over when I saw the improvement in her strength and balance. It's out of this world! Of course, I still followed her everywhere. I heard her telling Chad on the phone this morning, "Dawn jumps every time I move." :) I love to be annoying! She's totally looking forward to her day w/ the family. Have a great time! Also, I know it was probably tough when Katie thought you were the one keeping her in the hospital, but she told me this morning that she wants to go home so bad, but they have pretty strict rules at the hospital and she doesn't know all of the rules, but she knows that they can't keep letting her out a lot until she's finished with all her therapy. You might not be the bad guy anymore...at least you weren't this morning. At one point she even said, "Davey's great."

D

Today I took all the kids up to spend a couple of hours with Katie. We even went outside to a small park that's right outside Katie's window for a little while as today was an absolutely beautiful day. While we were outside a few nurses from the ICU stopped by to see the "miracle girl". Poor Katie is almost beside herself missing the kids and talks about them all the time. She still has a hard time understanding why I can't just take her home for a few hours every day. In the end though, Sawyer need to get to sleep and Katie's room just didn't seem to suit him.


Here is the last thing. Yesterday I took Katie down to the cafeteria and we had supper together. After that I took her on a little tour of some of the hospital. I took her by the waiting room where all the family and friends gathered on that very first morning. It started Katie asking questions and in the end I told her the whole story, and I didn't leave anything out. She took it well and it really helped her to understand why some people just like to sit in her room and just smile at her (like me).