BUSY AS BEES

Jenn Solomon, Thursday, October 24, 2013, 8:00 PM

I am sitting here waiting for Grey's Anatomy to come on, drinking a smuggled beverage in my Au Bon Pain cup, my daughter is sleeping soundly after a very busy day and my son is at my home with his dad and my daughter is doing the stupid flag swag thingy at the football game and I AM HAPPY. TODAY WE ARE HAPPY!

Before I get to all of the details of what we did today let me tell you the profound difference from SDR. Before SDR Rachel could not bend her knee so that her heel was at her bum and with her knee bent. She couldn't do this because she had so much tone in her legs that bending like that was very difficult. She could criss cross applesauce sit and she could W sit but she could not do that. Today she could. She was so excited. Her response, "I am going to make my kids get a Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. I told her that it is only for CP kids" and she just shrugged her shoulders like I didn't know what I was talking about. Another thing she can do in her wheel chair is we took the foot rest off and she can use her feet to move the chair. This is amazing because only 3 days ago she struggled kicking a ball. She also asked if she could do extra PT. So we got a list of exercises. Love her spirit! 

Now the details: 

Rachel/Shellbe's PT was moved to 9 and OT to 10. During PT she did a great job taking some steps. Here she is Day 7 post op http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PITgHqwH9dA. There were two boys in the PT room while she was in there...I am trying to figure out if that is why she tried so hard...we'll see tomorrow. Another little boy, Drew that has CP left today and he got a walker just like hers. She was trying to give him pointers while flirting. She doesn't discriminate, walker, age disability whatever...she will flirt with any boy. It's kind of funny. I need to find a PT or OT that is a boy.. Alissa - can you bring Bob (I think that is his name) to every PT session. Thanks.

From there she had OT and they talked about how Rachel is going to learn to get herself dressed and bathe herself. This would be the best thing ever (next to her walking of course). This is one of the most time consuming and frustrating things. I get her dressed and undressed every day. (unless Lizzie does it at night). It would be great if she could do this. They are also going to teach her how to brush her hair and put on her AFO's. Monday she'll get fitted for a hand brace for lefty. 

Auntie & Grampy came to visit us at lunch! Auntie brought a present from Aunt Ann for Rachel. It was a bear with a tutu and she named it Wanda. (photo in the photo gallery). She also smuggled in some mommy juice. Grampy brought Rachel some art supplies and I got a starbucks gift card. (please also check the ecard in the photo gallery - I got it twice today. So fitting). Then we got a surprise delivery from the Shirley police! They sent us a Halloween Edible Arrangements. Rachel loved that the cards was signed "The Police". She said to me "mom, I really have fans everywhere!" 

Some fun things we did today: She got visits by 3 therpy dogs! Yes 3!!! She took a shower and got that hair all untangled. She was so scared of going in the shower so I made a game out of it. We sang at the top of our lungs...I guess everyone could hear us. I took the picture of us looking at each other in the eyes right before we went in the shower. I wanted to remember the moment. We also went for a walk outside and sat there and talked. I am not sure I remember the last time I just sat and talked to her or any of my kids really. A lot of our time is spent coming and going and hurry up and waiting. Always on my phone checking email and text messages. I try to live in the moment we are doing things like our summer vacation or family nights out. But on a day to day basis I don't really talk to my kids. It's a hard admission to make and the reality is I am the one missing out. I will still travel for work and still be my crazy busy self but I for a couple hours a day I am going to try to live in the moment and not miss out on the little things that mean so much.

I cannot wait to see what tomorrow will bring! It will be awesome. Tori and Peter are coming for a visit. I miss them so much. 

Love,

Jenn & Rachel/Shellbe