June 11
In support of
Addison Stavar
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Addison Stavar
Short update, but Addison has slept through the night two nights in a row with the exception of waking up for a diaper change (pee). The new food seems to be working really well for her, and I got all shipments yesterday and today, unexpectedly! So we are all set with food (yay!)
She is practicing sitting up in PT. She lays on a bean bag and has to squeeze the therapists hand to be helped up and then sits all the way up. It's HARD work, but she is doing it! Yesterday in OT she glued cotton balls within a cloud drawing - she had to open her hand to receive the cotton ball, she had to close her hand around the cotton ball, and then place the cotton ball on the gym.
Today, we had a special guest Josh Abbot perform at the hospital. This was DEFINITELY a treat for mama. I've been listening to him since my times at A&M when I would two step every weekend. It was such a treat. I got to sing with him, and he was kind enough to talk to each of the kids individually, including Addison. Dairy Queen put on the event, so I got to place some ice cream on Addisons lips! She is able to swallow but it seems like there are times where she forgets how to or is hesitant to - maybe a bit of both, that is unclear - so she didn't fully swallow it, but I wanted to remind her of what ice cream is like.
She is physically looking better with each passing moment. The last scab (and the largest) on her skull came out today. It is nice to be in a place where she is comfortable more and more throughout the day. She is handling the things she doesn't like like collar care and brushing her tongue with medicine (she has thrush) so much better. And she calms so much quicker.
We talked with neuro yesterday, and we will be keeping her neck collar on for the full 6 weeks. They initially told us 4-6 weeks, so we were hopeful that we could take the collar off this week, but she fractured her skull at the point where the cervical spine meets the skull. She needs to be able to display flexion and extension, aka bending her head forwards and backwards to take off the collar sooner. We are not at a point where she could do that on her own without help and she can't vocalize to us anything, so we are going to abide by what the literature says - that at six weeks, it is safe to remove the neck collar with a ligamentous injury. That being said, she IS showing us more and more head control each day, so much so that her physical therapist even shared it with us.
Her OT told us that they have an indoor pool here at the hospital that she wants to take Addison to. I said, HE** yeah! Let's do it. If you remember, one of my early prayers is that Addison would get to swim this summer. She's going to take Addison to the pool this summer and show her the pool and start talking about it to get her comfortable with the idea. Something to look forward to next week!
I got some good laughter from her today when I was with Andrew. Andrew was holding my hands standing on her bed trying to stomp on her stomach, and I kept saying Andrew! You can't stomp on her belly! And she got a kick out of it! It was the most laughter I've seen and I got a huge smile. It's strange to me that when she laughs we can see a smile, but the rest of the day she is very straight faced. There is so much that is unknown about TBI's and each one is different. Every time we see her laugh and smile, I am encouraged.
In speech today, they work with a big red button to communicate. They record things like "no" and "stop it" or "Let's go", so she can hit the button to communicate. She still is unable to really press or push things with her hands. Her feet and legs seem to have retained a good amount of memory and strength, so we placed the button at her feet on her wheelchair, and her speech therapist said she hit stop it 10 times. Get it girl.
Getting sleep through the night and seeing her more and more calm and comfortable are making a world of difference.
Please keep praying! Current prayers:
- Her body would remember to swallow easily and automatically
- That her mouth muscles and vocal chords would continue to remember how to move and work together
- That as a result of the two things above she would show an interest in food and speak
- That she would continue to rest and digest easily
- That she would be focused and be full of endurance during her therapy sessions
-That her mind and body would work together and REMEMBER and reorganize
Until next time. Picture is from yesterday.
She is practicing sitting up in PT. She lays on a bean bag and has to squeeze the therapists hand to be helped up and then sits all the way up. It's HARD work, but she is doing it! Yesterday in OT she glued cotton balls within a cloud drawing - she had to open her hand to receive the cotton ball, she had to close her hand around the cotton ball, and then place the cotton ball on the gym.
Today, we had a special guest Josh Abbot perform at the hospital. This was DEFINITELY a treat for mama. I've been listening to him since my times at A&M when I would two step every weekend. It was such a treat. I got to sing with him, and he was kind enough to talk to each of the kids individually, including Addison. Dairy Queen put on the event, so I got to place some ice cream on Addisons lips! She is able to swallow but it seems like there are times where she forgets how to or is hesitant to - maybe a bit of both, that is unclear - so she didn't fully swallow it, but I wanted to remind her of what ice cream is like.
She is physically looking better with each passing moment. The last scab (and the largest) on her skull came out today. It is nice to be in a place where she is comfortable more and more throughout the day. She is handling the things she doesn't like like collar care and brushing her tongue with medicine (she has thrush) so much better. And she calms so much quicker.
We talked with neuro yesterday, and we will be keeping her neck collar on for the full 6 weeks. They initially told us 4-6 weeks, so we were hopeful that we could take the collar off this week, but she fractured her skull at the point where the cervical spine meets the skull. She needs to be able to display flexion and extension, aka bending her head forwards and backwards to take off the collar sooner. We are not at a point where she could do that on her own without help and she can't vocalize to us anything, so we are going to abide by what the literature says - that at six weeks, it is safe to remove the neck collar with a ligamentous injury. That being said, she IS showing us more and more head control each day, so much so that her physical therapist even shared it with us.
Her OT told us that they have an indoor pool here at the hospital that she wants to take Addison to. I said, HE** yeah! Let's do it. If you remember, one of my early prayers is that Addison would get to swim this summer. She's going to take Addison to the pool this summer and show her the pool and start talking about it to get her comfortable with the idea. Something to look forward to next week!
I got some good laughter from her today when I was with Andrew. Andrew was holding my hands standing on her bed trying to stomp on her stomach, and I kept saying Andrew! You can't stomp on her belly! And she got a kick out of it! It was the most laughter I've seen and I got a huge smile. It's strange to me that when she laughs we can see a smile, but the rest of the day she is very straight faced. There is so much that is unknown about TBI's and each one is different. Every time we see her laugh and smile, I am encouraged.
In speech today, they work with a big red button to communicate. They record things like "no" and "stop it" or "Let's go", so she can hit the button to communicate. She still is unable to really press or push things with her hands. Her feet and legs seem to have retained a good amount of memory and strength, so we placed the button at her feet on her wheelchair, and her speech therapist said she hit stop it 10 times. Get it girl.
Getting sleep through the night and seeing her more and more calm and comfortable are making a world of difference.
Please keep praying! Current prayers:
- Her body would remember to swallow easily and automatically
- That her mouth muscles and vocal chords would continue to remember how to move and work together
- That as a result of the two things above she would show an interest in food and speak
- That she would continue to rest and digest easily
- That she would be focused and be full of endurance during her therapy sessions
-That her mind and body would work together and REMEMBER and reorganize
Until next time. Picture is from yesterday.
Comments
Janny Sersen
Janny Sersen
Carol Malone
Dana Sherman
Branditownsend00
Doug Greenberg
Jeff Wahl
So thankful God is guiding so much help and inspiration to this family.