The Road to Recovery - Week 25

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - MLK Jr

Our sweet cherished Alysha Rose Smith is recovering from a post surgical complication that put her into cardiac arrest and into a coma for 7 days.  She emerged from the coma with severe brain damage.  This website was created to update friends and family of Alysha's progress along the road to recovery.  Please join us as we support Alysha on her journey.  (For earlier details, like the history behind this medical nightmare scroll to the bottom of the blog and click "older posts.")

NOTE: You can now expect weekly updates.  

Alysha has a break down over her memory loss.
  On their drive home from the hospital on Friday January 11th, Alysha asked her mom what month it was.  Lisa told her it was January. Alysha looked puzzled and asked if she had missed Christmas.  Lisa reminded Alysha that they had a big King Family Christmas on Christmas day with all her aunts, uncles cousins and Nana.  Alysha started to cry.  "What happened to me mom?  Why am I so stupid?"  Lisa began a review of what happened starting with the routine tummy tuck surgery.  Alysha didn't remember having the tummy tuck.  In fact when Lisa spoke about it, Alysha had a confused look on her face.  "If I had a tummy tuck, why do I have all this extra skin on my abdomen?" The fact is that since her surgery Alysha has lost more weight and certainly muscle mass and her body no longer fills out her skin.  Her loss of muscle has also changed the shape of her body and Alysha has noticed this.  Lisa went on to review the complications of the surgery that caused her heart to stop for 40 minutes which in turn caused brain damage.  Alysha remembers the beautiful, bright, bubbly, woman she used to be. One who could move with ease, run, and drive a car and lift up her cousins and babysit and work and go on dates.   Alysha was overcome with the frustration of the heart breaking limitations she now faces and she began to sob uncontrollably.
   Alysha's comments about Christmas certainly brought the family's concerns about Alysha's memory loss and capabilities to the forefront.  When they returned to rehab the following Monday, Lisa asked for an evaluation of Alysha's memory capabilities and limitations.  Unfortunately Lisa was told that would take weeks to organize and they wouldn't be able to facilitate this before Alysha's discharge date from the Rehab Center. The occupational therapist was able to shed some light on Alysha's short term memory recall.  She told Lisa that after every session, she gives Alysha 4 words to remember for the session the following day. With Lisa there, she asked Alysha what the words were from her previous session.  Alysha told them she didn't remember.  When the therapist prompted her with, "one of the words was an animal." Alysha recalled all four words starting with rabbit. We are very interested in having Alysha's cognitive/memory function assessed so we can better understand how to support her and work around her limitations. 
     It looks like Alysha will be discharged from the Toronto Rehab Center without having a vision evaluation despite a request from the family that this be done at a multidisciplinary meeting just after Alysha's admission to the Center.  This seems like a pretty big oversight on the part of the Rehab center and is particuarly disappointing to the family. 

Update January 9/13
     Alysha has been continuing to improve at the Toronto Rehab center.  She stays as a resident of the center from Monday morning until Friday afternoon and goes home each weekend.  Her target discharge date from this residential rehab program is January 25th but Alysha is strongly advocating for her own release from the residential portion of this experience as soon as possible.  Since she has spent so much time at home lately she is really resistant to staying at the center between her daily sessions.  Each weekday afternoon as it get's closer to the time that Lisa heads home for the day, Alysha gets more and more upset.  "Mom, don't go.", "Mom, I want to go home."  She repeats these words over and over again and cries alligator sized tears.  During one session of, "I want to go home," on Monday of this week, Alysha pushed her call bell to summon the nurses.  Lisa asked Alysha, "Why are you pressing the call bell?" Alysha responded, "I want to tell the nurse I don't want to stay here any more."
     At home on the weekends, Alysha is improving her speaking, balance and strength. So much so that upon her return to therapy each Monday morning, all the therapist comment about the improvements they can see in Alysha since before the weekend.
     Two additional therapy sessions have been added to the original 3 that Alysha had when she started at the Toronto Rehab Center.  They have added a half hour standing therapy session and a half hour recumbent bicycle workout to the original, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy sessions.
     Alysha is also showing a lot of improvement in her fine motor skills.  When she was visiting on the weekend, she was hungry, so I offered her an oreo cookie which she held in her own hand and fed herself.  During her therapy sessions at the center, Alysha has been playing Connect Four with a therapist.  She has been picking up the small round plastic pieces and placing them herself.  Frankly she has been placing them in such a way that she usually wins the game.
     One further exciting piece of news.  Alysha has finally agreed to have Botox injections.  The doctors recommend that she receive the injections in her left wrist, left elbow, left shoulder and left foot. This special treatment is not covered by any drug plans. $450.00 per location.
( Click here to go to the post from December 13th week 21  and see links in the post from December 13th - week 21 for information on Botox and the spastic muscle disorders it treats.)
     I have included images of the Connect Four game she has been playing and the Camelbak container she has been using to independently drink from when she is thirsty.

Instant classic. Our spill-proof,  BPA-Free eddy Bottle makes it easy to stay 
hydrated on the go. Redesigned to provide faster flow and enhanced durability.

Alysha and Justin hanging out at the Rehab Center between therapy sessions.