June 8, 2009
Shelby had a great day today. Despite being up until around 4 am watching TV she was awake for pretty much the entire day. Her speech therapist is pushing for her to have her trach changed to a cuffless trach in the next day or two so that she may pass air over her vocal folds and start working on voice more. She is managing her secretions very well and so that is a definite possibility and soon too. Once this happens her speech therapist is encouraged that she may be able to have a swallow study done again. It won’t be anytime real soon but sometime in the not too distant future hopefully. Her arms are doing much better lately as well. She had her first serial cast taken off today and another was applied as well. The OTs continue to do E-stim on her right side and that is producing some results as well. Her right hand and fingers are much more loose than they have been. Her OT feels that her manual control of her fingers and wrist on that side is much better than it has been. Now for the big news, Shelby did a transfer from chair to mat today with almost complete control of her transfer using a sliding board. Her PT estimates she did about 90% of the first transfer all on her own. She uses her hips and arms in conjunction very well to get herself moved and she holds her balance on her own. She has also been holding her head up much better than anything I have seen before. She doesn’t lean forward as much as she used to and she doesn’t pull to the left as bad either. All-in-all today was a very good day. I would say her chances of being extended tomorrow are around 90-95%. I will let you know if this happens. She will make her fastest and best progress where she is and I would like her to get as much out of it as possible. Pray that she is extended and that she continues to make great progress. She is tough. It amazes me every day how just how strong she is.
SHELBY!! What wonderful news. First typing and now transfers. Our hearts are jumping for joy. Just can't tell you how excited we are about your recent progress. Keep up the wonderful work.. remember never, Never, NEVER GIVE UP.
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Shelby, you amaze us with your strength and perseverance. Never, ever , ever, ever give up! Matt we love you and want to encourage you also. Thank you for loving our Shelby the way you do.
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wow-shelby it is good to see your sweet face, and that dog hazel is something else. You look great on the computer, we are so happy for that. Shelby, Matt, Sue we here in Anaheim & Ontario California have our thumbs up for you all. We continually look up in prayer. the joy of the lord is our strength. God Bless you all. Melba
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Shelby, I'm so proud of you and so excited to see such great progress. Keep it up, you're amazing. Love you. Matt you are awesome, thanks for the updates. Love you both.
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Hi Matt & Shelby, First, I want to thank you Matt for the latest updates. It sounds very promising that Shelby is making real progress and I would think this would have some real impact on extending her release date. Shelby I love to see all the picture of you, your looking good and I'm getting use to your dark hair, it's cool. Of course you know how I loved your long blonde curls. You are a very strong, determined person and the proof of that is in all you have accomplished in the last week. It is so great that you have so many friends helping and caring for you, not to mention a Mom that in my opinion is NUMBER ONE in the book. Love you so much!!!!! Matt, thank you again for being the person you are and taking such good care of Shelby. You are both in my thoughts every day.
Love you much, Grandma Shirley
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You are in our prayers Shelby! There are so many people praying for you. Matt, you are awesome. Thank you for Shelby's blog and keeping people posted. Jericho, we hear you are there with Shelby, bless you.
We love you all.
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