Mom's Update

Day One at Braintree has been very busy for Courtney. Through the night the nurses discovered that Courtney required some moisturization of her trachea to loosen the yuckiness from the pneumonia.

She is much better today and will continue to have this moisturization treatment through the weekend.

Courtney has been tacacardic(?) which means her heart rate and blood pressure have been high although in the safe range for her age. Nonetheless staff here felt that she should be given some medication to bring that down. It helped with the stiffness in her arms and legs as well.

Everyone has been very very attentive to every need and nothing has gone unnoticed.

Courtney was evaluated today by physical, occupational and speech therapy using the JFK Coma Recovery Scale. It is a very sensitive test that measures small - emphasis on small - progress. As Courtney emerges from this minimally conscious stage she will make progress that would under other rehab programs, not be measurable.

The TBI program here at BRH is very specialized in the early stages of emerging coma status.

Eventually and God willing she will progress to other measures of progress such as the Los Ranchos Almos Scale (?).

Courtney sat in a specialized wheel chair that she will have here until she no longer needs it. She was comfortable for about 2 hours - a good start. There is a special lift that brings Courtney back to bed - that means there aren't 6 hands grabbing and lifting her - she slept like a baby through the entire move!

Courtney's window overlooks a courtyard here and so she has spent sometime watching the never ending snowfall.

Mary and Dottie were Courtney's nurses today -they are absolute sweethearts!