July 29th

July is the heart of summer and Ashley has taken advantage of it, even with a new round of castings to help her leg and foot posture. Thursday night has been friends’ night and that certainly is among the highlights. Last week saw the ‘signing of the casts’ with her friends.

Of course the signatures don’t last long since her casts are removed every 3-4 days and then a bit more correction is made to get her ankles closer to ‘neutral’ and a new cast is put in place. The procedure helps stretch Ashley’s leg muscles so she can stand straighter and flex her ankles more. Her left ankle is pretty much there; it is the right side that needs the most assistance. This is her second round of casting (first was earlier this spring) and we hope this will greatly assist Ashley in walking and improving her balance.

It is interesting that she seems to walk up stairs more fluidly then walking on a flat surface. It is the fact that her muscles are tight that makes stepping up easier than stepping out.

Ashley’s strength is also improving. Even with her cast on she was doing leg lifts repeatedly with her left leg which, like her left arm, she has more control of. She was weighed at therapy this week and although she is looking thinner her weight is pretty stable. It is obvious that muscle tone is improving and accounting for the slimming without marked weight loss.

Ashley had a visit from Andrea her roommate at St. Mary’s two weeks ago. This will be senior year for Ashley’s classmates and we will certainly have to make a visit or two to St. Mary’s and Notre Dame to see her friends prior to graduation.

Now that we have the van we have had more opportunities to get out and about. Combined with the fact that we don’t have to take liquid nutrition, nor a box full of mediations, we have taken several trips to the grandparents’ lake home. Now we just pack a food processor. Ashley eats what we eat. To say sitting out on the dock is therapeutic is an understatement.

Two weekends ago Austin swam in his last city summer swim meet. Ashley swam in it from 8 years old through high school. Her first year at ‘city’ she took first place in freestyle. Fort Wayne’s fastest 8 year old! This provided Ashley an opportunity to see many young swimmers she either taught swim lessons to and/or coached during many summers at Glen Aqua Swim Club. She also got to see her long time swim buddy and fellow coach Rachel.

Some of you may know the tradition Austin has for the city swim meet. For the rest of you this will be a side of Austin you never knew. Before each meet we give Austin an ‘extreme’ hair style. This year the team’s theme was military camouflage. We cut Austin’s hair into odd shapes, bleached some spots and added blue coloring to others (it’s a pool so blue made sense). Ashley’s favorite cut for Austin was two years ago when, for the teams racing theme, we cut a checker finish flag design on Austin’s head. In case you are wondering. Austin gets a shave following the meet. Unlike his father, his hair grows back.

Last weekend it was a trip to the Fort Wayne Zoo to check out the new African Journey section of the zoo. Now you can feed the garaffes, platform to the right, but Ashley pasted on that!

Ashley went to the dentist this week. During her first visit just over a year ago it was hard to get Ashley to open her mouth. Six months ago as a precaution a ‘bite block’ was placed to avoid the chance Ashley would bite down. During this trip we first parked her chair in the hall and (with assistance) she walked into the exam room. No bite block this time. Ashley as was able to cooperate like any other patient. Perhaps better than the average patient since Ashley was perfectly at ease watching the TV and responding instantly to requests. The moment was not lost on Ashley. As nearly the entire staff commented on her progress her smile lit up the office!

Next week (August 6th) for friend’s night Ashley will be going to the local minor league baseball game, the Tin Caps. The name comes from the pot John Chapman a.k.a. Johnny Appleseed was noted for wearing on his head. He is an adopted son of Fort Wayne and is buried here. Needless to say an entire black market of ‘Fort Wayne Pot Heads’ shirts and hats has popped up to capitalize on the new team name (formerly the Fort Wayne Wizards). In any case they have a beautiful new stadium and there will be fireworks following that game. The Tin Caps also have the best record in minor league baseball.

Austin will be heading off to IU that same week since he will be a videographer for the IU football team. We still don’t know who his roommate will be nor when he will be moving into his dorm (they’ll be putting him up in a hotel during summer practice). Ashley adores Austin and, like mom and dad, will miss him greatly. Thank you all for the van; we are likely to see several home games this year and perhaps will take in a road game at a rival Big 10 opponent.

The following week we will be going to Victory Junction for four days. We will be seeing some people we saw last fall and will be meeting more individuals with similar conditions to Ashley. It was a wonderful experience for us last time and we can’t wait to go back down again. You can learn more about the camp and its programs at http://www.victoryjunction.org/. It is just south of Greensboro, NC.

Ashley is as motivated as she has ever been. We know that your continued prayers are a major component in her recovery. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

July 13th

It took us two years, but with some help from Austin we finally got Ashley’s Facebook account reactivated. Over the weekend Ashley saw postings from several dozen of friends and Austin sent out a notice that Ashley is back on Facebook.

Ashley made a new request this last week. She wanted to chew something. We started out with graham cracker. She had no problem keeping it in place and chewing it sufficiently to swallow. We took a leap and gave her a blue berry. The skin proved too much to handle just yet, but as usual Ashley is taking the lead in her recovery by asking to try new things. We plan to stick with the consistency of crackers for awhile and as she builds that coordination we will move along to other foods. Liquids are still proving a challenge and that comes from the fact that Ashley has a hard time keeping her head up when chewing and pursing those lips. Try swallowing a sip of water that way and you will see what a challenge that is. She is getting there though. I think of it like perfecting a golf swing. Why can’t we all swing a club like Tiger Woods? Ashley has to concentrate and compensate for every motor skill we take for granted (as uncoordinated as ours’ may be).

We were home this past weekend and that meant that Ashley slept in her own bed upstairs. As we stated in the past she climbs stairs quite well. She has improved her descent as well. She is properly bending the knee that stays on the higher stair as her other leg moves down to the next stair. Perhaps it will be soon rather than later that Ashley moves upstairs full time!

Ashley will be back in a cast starting next week to continue the improvement of her feet/ankle/leg posture. Please focus your prayers on the success of that process in helping Ashley walk more easily.

We went to a Fort Wayne Tincaps game a few weeks ago (minor league baseball) with a couple of Ashley’s friends. The new ballpark is great. We plan on going to another game on August 6th which is followed by fireworks and have been getting the word out to Ashley’s friends.