We get to remove the collar in 3 1/2 days!!!! Thought we would never make it here. I am so ready to see how much she progresses once she isn't restricted in that way. 

Next week we will also do additional imaging to look at her blood clot to see if we need to continue to be on blood thinners and we will also look at her brain and see the state of where she was hit. As always, imaging isn't necessarily predictive - it's just another data point that gives information. 

Therapy continues to go well. She got to swim twice this week. I love getting her in the water, because walking with the zero gravity harness/machine they have in PT is challenging, so I love that she is getting to experience walking in the water, so her body can remember with the aid of the water. She practiced sitting to stand lots of times in the water and watched her dad act like a silly goofball. We noticed her hands yesterday were moving gracefully through the water, and she is very calm while in the water.  I'm looking forward to more swim days here. 

In PT she does a lot of laying down to sitting up, sitting to stand and some walking. She has gotten so much better at sitting to stand. Walking remains difficult, and the PT has definitely scaled back on that after pushing and seeing that we aren't quite there yet. Her arm and hand movements have improved SO much. Last week her legs and feet were clearly stronger, and that is still the case, but her ability to grasp things has improved. Her grip is still weak, but she is getting much more proficient at picking up knobs and blocks, and she even held onto her chapstick for about an hour the other evening. Every time we  are on a walk around the hospital, we help her to push the elevator and handicap door buttons. She is helping us more when we change her diaper by lifting her hips. When she starts to get lopsided in her wheelchair, and we go to move her, she ends up adjusting herself. And she got to ride a bike this week! I plan to request more of this, because she really enjoyed it and the OT said she did great. It's so important that her body keeps moving, and the OT noticed that her legs got tired towards the end, which means her legs were actively pushing the pedals initially. 

Speech - still none, but we get giggles all throughout the day and big teethy smiles with them. We've gotten belly laughs and she screams and cries when she is unhappy or doesn't want to do something, so her vocal chords clearly work. My understanding is that children who were intubated can have long delays with things like speech. Please keep praying for this. She is swallowing better and continues to grind her teeth less, but she will go long times without swallowing. It is unclear if she just doesn't want to or has a hard time doing it - most likely a combination. I have had conversations with her that the more we swallow, the sooner we get the tube out and get to eat real food, and she does her nervous "I don't want to" laugh, so I do think she is really understanding the process here. Yesterday she started using a computer screen for another mode of communication. Her eyes serve as the "mouse", so when she looks at an image, the aarow hovers over what she is looking at. She can play games with it and she can use it to communicate. They are going to leave it with us over the weekend to tinker with, and I am excited to have another option for communication! 

Thrush is gone! No more brushing her tongue four times a day with nystatin, while she screams bloody murder. Phew. I also learned that just having thrush can make someone orally averse, and since her thrush has subsided she has taken more interest in food! She has gotten to try popsicles three days in a row, and I've put some ice cream and ketchup to her lips, and we give her bacon and sausage kisses in the cafeteria every morning, and she smiles! (We just touch them to her lips) So, I am super super encouraged that maybe her thrush has a big contributing factor to her aversion to wanting food!

She still has a small skin rash on her left inner thigh. They initially thought it was contact dermatitis. Then thought it might be fungal. Then right before getting into inpatient rehab, they sounded alarm and said we needed an HSV culture, which came back false. We've been treating with a steroid for two + weeks, and now they think it's contact dermatitis again. It's like the weather man - the accuracy is inconsistent at best. We're going to take a pause from treating it at all. It's not bothering her, it just doesn't look great, and is concerning why it's lingering. Today they said that after treating something like this it can just be inflamed. Time will tell. 

We are down to four feeds a day. No more 10 PM feeds, which means the last of our meds and nurse duties are at 8 PM and then we don't get woken up until 6 AM for collar care. Come Monday, they can start the feed and do her meds at 6 AM without us needing to get up! There are no small things when you're in the hospital. Every single thing is a victory and progress. We are looking to drop her propranolol next. I am so ready to be done with all the extras. 

She continues to thrive with her new food. She is almost completely regular on her own. She has about four days of being regular on her own to every one day we have to give an enemies. They are very on top of bowel movements here, because they don't want to play catch up with her type of injury. 

Andrew's presence is 100% the most impactful thing to her recovery. Every time she sees him whether in person, over Facetime or in pictures, she gets the BIGGEST smile on her face and just laughs and laughs. Kyle and I are still on an every other day rotation at the hospital, but each of us are staying away from the hospital for a larger chunk of time, but we still get Andrew to see her in person once a day + I am still nursing, so while I have started to pump supplementally, I still require his relief. We're finding a good groove and continue to be well fed by you all and cared for by our parents. 

Prayers: 
-Progress woud continue!!
- Speech!!!!
- Walking becomes easier
- That her interest in food would continue to grow
- Her oral aversion would completely subside so she continues to be more comfortable swallowing and tasting things
- Confusion would flee her neural pathways and remembrance of movement would take its place
- That all of this progress would compound exponentially this upcoming week and weekend
- That she continues to be able to communicate with us so we can tailor rehab to her needs and wants as much as possible
- Continued REST in the evenings