Good evening friends, family, and followers. We have had a couple of positive days for which we are very thankful.
Yesterday, Joy saw a new physical therapist who specializes in treating balance issues in patients with traumatic brain injury. She did a number of manipulations and positions with Joy’s head/body to address the vertigo Joy has been experiencing which in TBI patients is often caused by the displacement of small calcium carbonate crystals, or canaliths, within your inner ear. Known as the canalith repositioning procedure (CRP) it is a method to remove these crystals trapped in your ear’s semicircular canal. While this was only one session, Joy feels she has had some recognizable benefit and we look forward to more sessions with this therapist next week. The only down side was for two days Joy was to keep her head upright as much as possible which meant not looking down at projects like knitting or Sudoko.
But with it being such a beautiful day yesterday we did two walks, on the first Joy walked a half mile and on the second 4/10ths of a mile! We were thrilled at the opportunity and at Joy’s progress.
Then this morning we were introduced in speech therapy to the Tactus Therapy iPad app for Aphasia. Joy did amazingly well with the app and although she felt rather confused at the excitement I and the therapist showed at her responses, she was encouraged by our enthusiasm over her efforts. Joy’s confusion stemmed from the fact that she was struggling to grasp what she was actually accomplishing evening thought the therapist and I observed her unscramble words, pick the correct answer between two sentences, match pictures to words, and several examples of cognitive connections that are there even when they don’t as yet have full meaning for her. Again, it was very encouraging and we have the app on her iPad and a list of homework assignments from the therapist.
In addition, and much sooner than expected, we received word from the jeweler that her ring had be resized, cleaned, and polished so we raced down to Ridgedale to pick it up. It is stunning on her hand and we are both so pleased with the outcome.
Then this afternoon we enjoyed a special time with our friends Woody and Su Roland who always lift our spirits and encourage us.
In this long journey we know there are going to be many ups and downs and we are thankful for the encouragement these days have brought us. We are also thankful for the encouragement of you all who are so faithful in your prayers, compassion and concern. Please don’t let up on those prayers, we need them more than you can know.
