Ashley has met with all of her therapists and they have completed their evaluations. Ashley will have therapy in four categories: 1) Physical- restoring movement and rebuilding strength. 2) Occupational- Focusing on specific skills as her physical and mental states improve. 3) Speech- this is a subset of occupational since it is such an important and intricate sense. 4) Psychological- Addressing the emotional issues that are present while dealing with the stress of acute rehabilitation.
Active therapy actually began yesterday for physical and speech. Between the therapists at Select plus Mary and I we have been able to keep Ashley limber. Now they will build on that and as Ashley increases her participation, add more treatments that involve muscle restoration. In speech it started with testing Ashley’s swallow status. For the first time in nearly three months Ashley allowed someone to place something in her mouth without biting down. That alone was remarkable. In this case it was a cold metal spoon. The therapist placed it on Ashley’s tongue. This has a tendency to encourage a swallow. Ashley did not swallow yesterday, but she did today! Actual ‘speech’ therapy will certainly take longer than that. The therapist explained that Ashley has not used any of the muscles in her throat or month to form words in such a long time that it is not possible for her to speak without rebuilding those muscles let alone having the right signals reaching the right targets in her brain. Ashley makes vocal sounds so it is just a matter of time.
Ashley’s birthday is Tuesday (25th). If you want to send Ashley a card you can mail it to:
Ashley Harrington 10th Floor
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
345 E. Superior St.
Chicago, IL 60611
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5 comments:
Ashley,
Excellent job swallowing. Keep thinking about the peanut butter chocolate cake, definitely dessert before dinner!!!!! I'm so looking forward to seeing you tomorrow I'm not sure I'll beable to sleep. I miss you and love you. Aunt Beth
wow Ash!!!
I'm so excited that you got to Chi-town or the windy city or Chicago whatever you prefer. It sounds like an awesome facility and You have made SOO much progress its AWESOME!! It won't be long before you'll be craving an infamous strawberry Natur-ice from GA!! keep healing... I miss you!!
Much love,
Rach
Oh Ash I forgot to say it earlier, but you know that I am an avid michigan wolverines fan, and well we did just happen to thoroughly defeat Notre Dame on Sat.... I guess the best team was victorious!! hahaha GO BLUE!!!! that'd be the michigan blue!! well just thought I'd let you know in case your dad and Austin were too upset to relay the news.. hahaha Well I think that's all for today, hugs for both you and your mom!
It was great to see first hand all the progress you are making and I can't wait to see what you will be doing next week. Sweet view of Lake Michigan. Alex was so glad he was able to see you and thought it was cool you were able to keep your arm raised for that long of a time. I know you will continue to work hard. When I see you Tuesday go ahead and whip the yellow turtle at me, I want new glasses anyway!!!! See ya TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 25!!!!!! Loads of love Aunt Beth, Uncle Craig, Alex and Jess
Ash--
Oh giiiirl sounds like they've got you in the right place! Progress already, knocking them off their feet! You show them! haha That's so excellent, I'm incredibly excited for you.
The Dent plans are shaping up on this whole Chicago thing. It's looking rather nice. OH and guess what? SOMEONE'S BIRTHDAY IS SOON!!! WOOWOO!!
I'm at home this weekend, I wish you were here so I could see you, but I know you need to be in Chi! Keep up the FANTASTICALLY AMAZING good work (don't you like my randomly enthusiastic adverbs and adjectives?!) and I'm looking forward to another hand-squeeze and beautiful Ashley smile when I come to Chicago!
LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!
Emily
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