ChloeWatts.com

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Sunday night and Chloe is finally finished with her daily tasting. She has been encouraged by her speech therapist, Steve, to try whatever she wants… she just can’t swallow it. So, she’ll stay at the table for hours if we let her. She uses her suction machine and a spit cup to get the food out of her mouth. However, even with this, it’s a joy to her to have food in her mouth. It is also helping to move her tongue. She actually had the tip out of her mouth last night. That’s key!

We were out back for a little while as I worked on the deck. There is a lot of rotten wood from all the years it’s been out back. As luck would have it we have a lot of wood from Dr. D’s old deck. There was still quite a bit of good wood when he replaced it. I’ve had it at my house for a couple years now. Finally it is finding a great home.

We are set up for some PT, OT and Speech appointments for next week. This seems to be just one more layer of angst although we know it’s so important for Chloe’s improvement. Chloe would just as soon stay on the couch watching the food network and playing her computer games. But that isn’t going to happen and she does understand. When we get to Dornbecher she likes her therapists but getting out the door is hard for her.

The nights are starting to get a little better. With Chloe at night, the rule is, less is much more. When the nurse comes in, if she’s asleep then she tends to have a good night. If they have to spend much time doing the prep work for the night, or if they talk to her more than 10 seconds, she gets all wound up and ends up having a bad night. So we are trying to pull in the reins from professionals who have a job to do even when we’d rather they just sit back and keep Chloe safe overnight. We’ll see how it goes.

We are looking forward to Thursday night when author Dan Millman visits our church as a fundraiser for the family. With Dana not working and not having a prospect of going back anytime soon, any help is a lot of help. I never would have imagined how much meals have helped. Now if we cold just stretch our days by 12 hours or so…

Chloe has had her cuff down for up to an hour with no problems. This means we are getting closer to getting rid of that thing. I’d like to say soon, but that would be a little optimistic.

It’s been pretty much the same ol’ story lately. She is getting more impatient but she also shows us some spunk with getting things done for herself. It’s good and bad to watch.

Stay tuned.

Ron