"It really is miraculous"

"It really is miraculous." Those were the exact words the Neurology Physician's Assistant used today to describe Courtney's progress. Of course I had to agree with her. She made this observation as she watched Courtney walk back from the shower, unassisted. She's quickly turning into a hall roamer. This afternoon Courtney got out of bed and headed for the door. I asked her "where are you going?" she answered "next door." The nurses in the hallway let her know she wasn't allowed in other patients' rooms and so we walked up and down the hall.

Later Dr. Williams (internal med) came by to check on Courtney. "How's your walking?" he asked. She responded by getting up and walking out the door - actions speak louder than words! He was quite impressed. Tomorrow Courtney's team will meet again to re-write her goals and establish a plan leading up to discharge.

We still face hurdles, not the least of which is eating, and Courtney is being quite stubborn about this. Her team and I talk more now about behavoir problems and working through Courtney's stubborn streak. That same stubborn determination is what has helped her recovery and since there's no playing games with Courtney I have started to tell her there are certain things about which she can not be stubborn.

Courtney did a little reading today. She read from the scrapbook Nora made about Courtney Bears and she read the title of the book "I love you more." Tomorrow she'll read the book to Maureen, a speech therapist. Courtney also answered many of the same annoying questions she answers every day such as 'what month is it?' 'where are you now?', etc. These are reality orienting questions but they drive Courtney crazy because she takes them as an insult to her intelligence. Speech therapists are constantly forced to apologize for the silly questions but insist they must ask them anyway!