April 23rd

Beginning last week Ashley has been having corrective casts placed on both of her feet. A week ago Tuesday she had her first casting which stayed on until Friday of last week. Those came off, more adjustments were made, and two new casts went on that same day. Those in turn came off this last Tuesday. They were so pleased with the progress that the current casts are going to stay on until next Tuesday.

Believe it or not the casts do not bother Ashley much. She really did not express having any irritation until this last set. With those it was just with the first time she put weight on them standing up. Even then after a little while they were comfortable. She has had no problem sleeping in them.

Here you see the finishing touches being put on one of the casts. It takes about 2 hours to do them both since they have to take several measurements and then decide on the adjustments and make sure those adjustments are maintained throughout the casting process. Like everything else they do at therapy they are doing this to perfection.We expect Ashley to go through this process for another couple of weeks. At the end of that her feet should be back to normal posture and it will be easier for Ashley to walk. Up until now Ashley has been more slouched when standing because of changes created by the affects of tone in her legs, ankles and feet. We are anxious to see the improvements this procudure will make. The weather continues to improve and we can't wait to take a really walk outside.

For now, with both legs in casts, it looks like we allowed her to walk down the steps solo.We are happy to report that Ashley is continuing to eat quite well. We are working on the liquids and are confident that it won't be long until Ashley will be getting all her nutrition and hydration orally verses via the feeding tube.

With great strides on the Walk and Eat areas of the Walk-Eat-Talk focus we are picking up the pace on Ashley's talking exercises. When she is laying down and does not have gravity pushing down on her diaphragm she is very verbal. It still takes her a bit of effort to get her diaphragm going when she is sitting or standing, but she continues to work at it. We don't have pronunciation yet but we know it is coming.

What we do know is that Ashley is continuing her slow but steady progression. Each day our confidence builds that Ashley will have a remarkable recovery.

Thanks to all for you for your continued prayers and support.

April 6th

What a change in weather for us. We woke up to snow this morning. Yesterday we got back from a Caribbean cruise. We earned a trip through my job and were fortunate enough to work with a travel agent that specialized in wheelchair accessible itineraries. Originally we settled on a hotel in Puerto Rico that had wheelchair access right up to the beach. We did stay there the night before our cruise and it was perfect. The photo below is the beach at that hotel. It was a bit breezy that morning, but Ashley enjoyed getting her feet in the ocean, the first of several times.

In the end we took the travel agent’s advice and booked a Royal Caribbean cruise out of San Juan. We had a wheelchair accessible cabin that provided us with plenty of room. All the public areas of the ship called the Serenade of the Seas were accessible.

One highpoint for us was that they prepared each evening’s meal for Ashley so she could dine with us and eat what she wanted. The food was great and while the rest of us have pledged to drop the weight we gained Ashley ate better than ever. Although we only went to the main dining room for dinner Ashley ate pureed foods for every meal. She did so well we are going to adopt the strategy of preparing full meals three times a day for Ashley from now on.

We took Ashley’s collapsible wheelchair so we could get out and about on the different islands. We assumed we would have to get help carrying Ashley to a beach lounge chair, but to our delightful surprise we were able to pull Ashley backward in that chair across the sand. As such we visited beaches on...

St. Thomas (Megan’s Bay)

St. Maarten (Great Bay on the Dutch side)

Antigua (Dickenson Bay)

Barbados (Malibu Beach).

We were blessed with beautiful sunny weather every day. We did a pretty good job of managing our sun exposure so no one had a painful sunburn.

As we cruised along the west coast of St. Lucia we saw the Pitons at sunset.

The staff on the ship was very accommodating and we met so many friendly and helpful people both on the ship and on the islands.

On deck prior to formal night dinner.

Kicking back on deck.