October 31st

Last week through the early part of this week was a roller coaster for Ashley. She showed some strong progress in therapy. She has been tracking people with her eyes for quite a while, but her neck seemed too stiff to move in a fluid motion to follow someone or something. That changed last week. Ashley was turning to track and would turn to look to a source of sound immediately. She was also improving on her ability to reach out and grab items placed in front of her.

On Friday morning she had a high temperature and her RIC doctor decide she should go to Northwestern Hospital (one block away) for tests to be on the safe side. It turned out to be a treatable infection. They decided to keep her over Friday night for observation. Ashley’s temp and heart rate spiked again Friday night and she ended up at Northwestern until Monday afternoon.

The good news is she has responded to treatment and is back at RIC. The bout took a lot out of her and she was still pretty lethargic on Tuesday. Even so she was back to cracking a smile and chuckling to a joke Tuesday afternoon.

Each week the wonderful staff and students at St. Vincent’s school send a care package to our home. The most prized contents are cards a given class of students makes and sends along. We had to wait until Tuesday to read them to Ashley this time, but each time we do you can see in her eyes and smile the appreciation she has that so many people, even after four months, are thinking, caring and praying for her. The tremendous support Ashley continues to receive is an invaluable positive aspect in her recovery.

Since Ashley was out of RIC for four days the therapists have to re-evaluate her. She really wasn’t in a mood for it on Tuesday, but with the Speech Therapist Ashley did reach a new milestone. To set this up, Ashley has been taking sips of ‘thickened’ liquids such as OJ and Cranberry. She has also had minute amounts of pudding. The reason for thickened verses straight liquids is to insure nothing is getting into her windpipe. A thicker substance is more likely to cause a cough reflex than liquid. Well Ashley was given good old tap water on a spoon which she swallowed without any problem. Next she was given the thickened cranberry in a cup. Ashley took a sip and swallowed without incident.

So even after going through a rough and tumble weekend Ashley is fighting to get back on track to recovery.

Ashley had an appointment with an Immuno-Neurologist on Tuesday. This specialist is going to review all of Ashley’s records and do updated scans and tests with Ashley to determine what has been going on with her myelin. It will take a while for her to present her finding, but it will give us a sense of how Ashley’s brain is recovering and what likely to expect in the future.

While the vast majority of you had no idea what Ashley was going through this weekend, your prayers were being answered. The events of last Friday could have been extremely detrimental to Ashley’s recovery, but she bounced back and is getting stronger by the day. To have seen what see went through this weekend and to see her smile and respond during therapy on Tuesday is nothing short of a miracle.