Observations from Wednesday, September 15th

Barbara Adams visited Suzy for a few hours yesterday and sent the following observations:

I was with Suz for 2 hours yesterday. When I got to her room she was up in the chair, with no one else around, eating her lunch, and managing very well. She looked great, with her hair in french braids.

The physical therapist had her up and walking by the bars, like on Monday, but as I was watching, Suzy seemed to be able to swing her right leg forward a bit on her own, rather than having the therapist do all the work to move the entire leg forward like it looked on the video from Monday. 

The therapist got Suz a different wheelchair, slightly lower to the ground, so that Suzy can wheel herself down the hall by herself much more easily. Suzy was really going quickly down the hall yesterday; she was a natural at steering with her foot while pushing with her hand and foot. She passed another, older, patient who was doing the same thing in his wheelchair and his wife said: "Do you think you could go that fast?" and he said "No, not me." It was fun to see her trucking down the hall. 

The speech therapist was saying that she's doing well because she still has a good vocabulary--she hasn't lost her words. Also, she is able to "self-correct;" she knows when she's said the wrong thing and tries to correct what she said. That's a great plus for her, according to the speech therapist.