but Instead

Tonight I could write about the ongoing challenge of depression, which is getting better, or about the anxiety attacks that have come on strong or that she still isn't eating much and not meeting the drinking goal but INSTEAD...

I want to tell you of the good things that are happening. We put together a schedule of Shannon's day. Each morning we review it and fill in all the free time slots. This makes it so there is no question of what we are to be doing and deverts the desire (sometimes) to just crawl back in bed after every activity. It really is helping. We also have set up a motivation/reward for Shan. She gets a point for every good therapy session that she has. If she gets 10 points before tomorrow night, she will get a WEEKDAY pass to go visit her "angel" that rescued her last week. She really just wants to go home but this seemed to be a good alternative.
Today we learned that there is still ANOTHER step in the fluids thickeness for Shannon to go through. But she passed today and so now we thicken her fluids 8 oz to 1 packet of thickener. It is hardly different but enough that it still keeps her safe. And it won't be long before they throw all those restrictions out so she will be able to eat/drink anything again. Yeh! her speech therapist is amazing and wonderful and is a great motivator herself for Shan. They worked on using her eyes better, reading and finding pictures within pictures. She did a great job. Her eyes continue to improve and each day she says they are focusing better.
In PT today she was amazing as well. She hasn't felt well with her stomach ache but she still walked down a flight of stairs, across the length of Primary Children's hospital, went outside, across the parking lot entrance to a green patch of grass. There she worked on kicking the ball--eye coordination and trying to walk without the drunk man's walk on the grass. We walked up a small hill and back down, across the lawn, across the parking lot entrance, back into Primarys' to the other end of the building, walked up a flight of stairs and all the way back to her room!! She's still unstable and hangs on to someone's arm but the endurance continues to increase!!
In OT, she worked through a 25 piece puzzle in record time but building those fine motor skills and eye coordination. Then she played "Trutti Fruiti" and "Blink" card games with her therapist and held her own at the number of times she won! They are both sight recognition and speed games. Great work with the OT as well.
The games reminded me of "Teen Night" here. All teens capable in the hospital gather together and play games on Tuesday night. Shannon did not want to go and had an anxiety attack over it until I said I would stay right beside her. She did interact a tiny bit with those she didn't know but mostly she played the game...spinner UNO. And with a little bit of strategy, she won the game. But then she was done. One step at a time....
Because Shannon hasn't been feeling very good they decided to do another CT scan just to be safe. They didn't think they would find anything and they didn't but we have just been trying to try all physical avenues for her not feeling well.
Last, I just wanted to tell you that Shan and I had a neat experience today after we read some comments in the blog. We found and read in her patriarchal blessing that even those who do not know her will be touched by her goodness and the light of Christ. That seemed so pertinent when we read from people that don't even know Shannon and how they are touched by the miracles in her life. Isn't it amazing that God knew that some 4 years ago when she was given that blessing? I guess since we like to identify the miracles, I would have to say that this was another one because as Shannon has continued to struggle, she humbly saw that God has a plan for her.
Pheobe