March 24th

Well Ashley’s perfect ‘healthy at home’ record came to an end on March 14th. She was doing fine during her doctor’s visit on Thursday the 12th. At that time we discontinued a medication for seizures we had been slowly tapering for the last year. That Saturday Ashley had a seizure. She is doing fine now and it was a single event. She had not had a seizure since November 2007 when she was at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago for plasmapheresis during her stay at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

We took her in to the ER as a precaution and it turns out Ashley had a mild infection (she wasn’t even running a temperature yet). She finishes up her antibiotic today. She has been feeling just fine ever since. The onset of that infection, again her first since being home, may have triggered the seizure. She will remain on the very low dose of the anti-seizure medicine as a precaution for the foreseeable future.

Unlike when she would get sick during her inpatient stays there was no set back in Ashley’s progress. In fact the next day she had quite an appetite. As we have mentioned for several weeks now Ashley is eating quite well. While liquids are still a work in progress, eating a full serving of a balanced meal (pureed) is not. We will be following up with her dietitian in April to report on her progress.

Over the last couple of days Ashley has been doing a fantastic job of walking in the evening at home. Seems odd that her best walking would come at the end of the day when she is usually exhausted, but watching her take step after step without any assistance placing her feet (only balance support) is awesome.

We took advantage of the warm weather this weekend to get out for a walk. Ashley took a few dozen steps with her walker as well while we were out.

In mid April Ashley will have her ankles ‘cast’. This will be a process where they will put casts on both lower legs for three days at a time to help stretch her Achilles tendons and properly position her feet. When Ashley stands up her knees are bent and while she can stretch and stand up straight she cannot maintain that position. Each time a new cast is applied they will slightly increase the corrective positioning. The target is to reach the goal of proper positioning within three weeks. We will keep you posted.

Ashley enjoyed visits from several friends over spring break both at home and at therapy.

The final update would have to be on the Talk component of the Walk-Talk-Eat mantra that Ashley’s friend Emily coined. While we don’t have words yet Ashley is constantly working on those vocal cords and working those mouth muscles to form letters. You can tell she is bursting at the seams for all the intricate pieces to come together. It will be a glorious day when we get those first words and you can bet there will be an instant update on that day!
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support