The Road To Recovery - Week 22

"Courage is not defined by those who fought and did not fall, but by those who fought, fell and rose again." - Adrienne Rich

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.")

December 21/12
Heading Home for Christmas
     Alysha had a great day in therapy today and headed home for the holidays one day early.  For the next week all the Christmas festivities, visiting, shopping, eating will provide all kinds of therapy for Alysha and her family.

  

December 20/12
Alysha continues to adamantly refuse Botox injections to help with her spastic muscles in her left wrist and arm.  She has been working hard on her arms in therapy.  She now works on a recumbent bike that works her legs and her arms (see picture below).  The therapists offered to support Alysha by holding onto her left hand but Alysha refused their help and went on to do the exercise on her own.  Alysha is eating full servings of food now, so there are no further worries about the feeding tube remaining out.  Below you will see pictures of the recumbent bike, parallel bars for walking, and the arm peddle machine Alysha uses in her physiotherapy sessions.

Alysha on the recumbent bike

Arm Peddle Exerciser

Parallel bars for walking practice. 

     

December 18/12

     Alysha has been pouring out the effort in her therapy sessions.  She is showing so much improvement in standing upright when she is walking.  She has started practicing a new exercise where she walks between two low parallel bars supporting herself with her arms on the bars with one therapist offering support from behind. She has also been practicing climbing up stairs and using the bicycle arm exercise machine. She has had speech therapy sessions with the Therapy dog, where she needs to speak words clearly enough for the dog to respond with the required actions.  Alysha can tell that she is speaking clearly when the dog does as she asks it to.  

The Road to Recovery - Week 21

The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.

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.")

December 15th.
Fundraising dinner and auction.
     Alysha came home on Friday evening after completing her therapy sessions for the day.  A three night, extra long weekend at home was planned.  She came home a day early so that she could attend a benefit dinner and auction at Georgian College.  Georgian College is the school Alysha was enrolled in prior to her brush with death.   The hours of the benefit (7 pm to 11 pm) were challenging for Alysha as most days she is exhausted and in bed by 5:30 pm.  Lisa brought Alysha home on Friday night so that she could sleep in and have a restful day prior to her big night out on Saturday.  This was Alysha's first evening out since July 24th.  The benefit was attended by some friends and family and it was so nice to see Alysha out at a public event.  Alysha did tire early into the evening event but went on to socialize until about 10:30pm. 

Alysha Dancing

December 13.
Alysha spells the words she can't pronounce clearly.
     Today, Alysha's therapy included Christmas arts and crafts.  Lisa and Alysha made some ornaments together.  Alysha was in charge of holding the glue and Lisa reported that they had "glue everywhere."  It was also Alysha's responsibility to direct Lisa where to place the glued pieces. 
     Alysha's is making a lot of progress with her speaking.  When the situation arises where a word can't be understood by the listener, Alysha spells the word for them. By the way, Alysha's spelling abilities are not deficient in any way.  
     The Doctor was back in today with a recommendation that Alysha accept a therapy option that will reduce the effects of the contracted muscles in her wrists.  The therapy they are suggesting has been made famous for reducing facial lines and wrinkles for women of a certain age.  BOTOX injections.  Alysha has been against this therapy because it involves more needles.  Lisa is going to try to encourage Alysha to consider this therapy more seriously.  It is possible that it may reduce the chance of permanent disfiguring and disabling contractures. I have included a link to a web site that describes the condition of spastic muscles (scroll down to the section Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Spasticity for a comprehensive but simplified read).  I have also included 2 links to information about the medical use of Botox injections for conditions such as Alysha's.

Link: Spastic Muscles definition, treatment

Link: CNN Health - Botox information

Link: Botox article

December 12/12/12

Alysha is progressing rapidly.

     The occupational therapist told Lisa today that she has never had a patient progress as rapidly as Alysha.  She is getting so much stronger every day.  Looking back on Alysha's arrival to the Rehab institute 4 weeks ago she was, "unable to control her spit and was still drooling but now she is drinking from a cup!" 

     Alysha is most challenged by the function of her left arm.  It is very affected by muscular contractures.  Lisa requested that the staff re-visit a therapy technique where Alysha completes a bicycle peddle exercise with her arms.  Alysha has also been fitted for arm splints to strretch out the contractures. 

December 11/12

Alysha can do simple math, and she can do it quickly.

     When Lisa arrived on Tuesday morning Alysha was all upset and agitated.  She was upset because the staff had been in to draw her blood for tests.  Alysha told her mom that she wanted to go home and not be in rehab any more.  She is so tired of being a human pin cushion.  She is tired of all the medical investigations to ensure she is safe and recovering well.

      Alysha is very aware of her anticipated discharge date of January 25th.  Today she was talking to Lisa about this.  She knows that she has over a month to wait to be released home full time.  She also knows that Christmas is quickly approaching and that she will be home for an extended period of time over the holidays.  Lisa was rambling on to Alysha about there being 14 days left until Christmas but noted that Alysha would be coming home 4 days before that, and Alysha immediately offered that that would be ten days from now.  Lisa asked her how she knew that and Alysha simply answered, "subtraction." Lisa continues to be surprised at all the brain function Alysha has maintained.   

The Road to Recovery - Week 20

Believe in yourself and all that you are.  

Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle. 

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.")

December 10/12
A discharge date is given.
     Accompanied by Jeanne (Nana), Lisa returned Alysha to the rehab center this morning.  There was a multidisciplinary meeting about Alysha that the family was invited to.  The discharge date they are planning on and working toward is January 25th 2013.  Lisa was so excited to hear this news.   They will continue working with Alysha beyond this point as an outpatient, with 2 therapy sessions each week in Toronto.  At the family's urging, the Rehab institute will look into suitable therapies a little closer to home such as with RVH.

December 8th and 9th.
Home for the weekend.
     After a hard week of therapy, Alysha was rewarded with another trip home for the weekend.  This is expected to be the norm now.  Daily therapy sessions from Monday morning until Saturday morning and home on the weekend.
     Lisa continues to make food for Alysha, which Alysha clearly appreciates as she has no problem finishing servings of her mother's home cooking.  Lisa still spends between 5 and 7 days a week in Toronto with Alysha during the day, goes home and makes food for Alysha for the upcoming meals.  Lisa brings her meals down to the rehab center all portioned up and freezes them for use when Alysha finds the Center's food unappealing.
     As they were driving home on Saturday, Lisa asked Alysha if she would like anything special as a treat.  Alysha announced that she wanted a big mac and fries.  So they bought a big mac meal and took it home to eat.  They did not pop it in the blender as would be recommended by the staff at the rehab center.  Instead, Lisa removed the top bun and offered the rest of the burger to Alysha who took little bites, defined by where Lisa placed her fingers on the burger.  If Alysha were to take a large bite she would bite down on her mother's fingers. There is often laughter shared among this mother daughter diad, but Lisa tries to limit Alysha's laughter while she is eating.  It takes Alysha a fair bit of concentration to organize the food in her mouth for coordinated chewing and swallowing.  Laughter during meal times increases the risk of choking.  

December 6/12
No sticker for therapy today.
     Alysha had a pretty good day today under the care of her father at the Rehab Center.  She ate her meals which consisted of cinnamon apple crunch and milk for breakfast, mashed potato and sweet and sour pork with mixed veggies for lunch and minced chicken, mashed potatos and oriental veggies for dinner. 
     The promise of a sticker and a session with the therapy dog wasn't enough incentive for Alysha to complete her walking exercise without complaining today.  She did walk the planned distance for the day, but she was upset and complained for the last 30 feet of it.  Each day the therapists continue to add distance to Alysha's walking exercises.  It is such hard work learning to walk again and building up her endurance.  See video from December 1/12.  
     Memere visited today. 

December 4/12

Alysha refuses to replace the feeding tube. 

     The doctor came in today and told Lisa that the dietician recommended the feeding tube be re-inserted based on Alysha's food consumption records from last week.  Alysha declined this intervention. Since last week Alysha has been making good efforts to eat more food and drink more water.   Today she drank one 500 ml bottle of water and 250 ml of milk along with 225 mls of Ensure.  The meals that they are sending up for Alysha are half servings.  Today Alysha told Lisa she was finished after eating 3/4 of the food served for her.  Lisa explained that if Alysha wants to keep the feeding tube out, she needs to eat all of her food.  Alysha proceeded to finish all the food presented to her. To boost her calorie intake and give her a reward Alysha also ate 200 calories of cheesies as a treat.  The dietician wants Alysha to consume 1200 - 1500 calories a day and drink 2000ml of liquid.  

     Watch the movie below of Alysha speaking.  Remember that it was only a few weeks ago that Alysha wasn't using any words and her main communication was nodding yes and no.