Time for faith to grow!

Yesterday there wasn't much to report other than good progress. Today I have a number of things to share.
First, the OT came in at 8:30 and had Shannon dress herself completely. It wasn't very challenging for Shannon because she has been doing most of it herself anyway for some time. Then breakfast and the speech therapist came in. Shannon did so well that the therapist wanted to try Shannon on the next level of food--the mechanical diet. This is where she gets real food that she has to chew but it still needs to be soft. The therapist told me that the chewing process would be very tiring for Shan and so we don't want too much too fast. She can have one regular food item per meal but the rest needs to be pureed for a while yet. The therapist was talking about the plan and said something like, "maybe we can get the tube out of your nose next week or the week after". Shannon replied, "how about Monday?!" The therapist chuckled but I thought, "I wouldn't be surprised." She was so pleased with the progress Shannon has made since she saw her last Friday and kept saying how loud her voice had gotten! She was indeed really pleased. They also moved her up to 3 meals a day, snacks and drinks (thickened). They have cut her feeds way back so she will be hungrier at meal times. Major good news!
One of the challenges we face is that the therapist or the rehab doc will decide we should change something but they have to wait until the trauma docs approves their suggestions before we can start on things. It can get rather confusing. In fact, at this moment I don't know if they have the new orders for the feeding tube because it is going right now. It is generally something that is very smooth--transition from trauma to rehab but insurance is involved so I guess this time it has been much more time consuming than they are used to. Oh well....it will happen soon enough. The only real difference we should see is that the trauma docs and nurses won't be around and the rehab folks will be totally in charge. (The rehab folks of course, want things a little different--now we will have some real goals in place!)
We continue to see miracles happen with Shannon and today was no exception. The day started out pretty normal but during therapy, several different doctors came in for their rounds at the same time and so there was discussion about several different things going on a once. Quite exhausting for me let alone Shannon, I must say. Then she finished therapy with the breakfast we already mentioned. PT had her scheduled later in the day which was probably good because Shannon was so tired after the morning's activities she wouldn't have done well. She had been complaining of a headache which hasn't been unusual for the past several days. So they gave her motrin and she went to sleep. An hour later when it was time for PT, she did not want to wake up! We were pretty insistent and soon had her in the PT room. She continued to act much more tired than usual. She wouldn't keep her eyes open...she just wasn't herself. She did a set of stairs and then started a crawl pattern and finally just laid down on the floor saying she couldn't do more. Well, we have heard that before but not this way and not the way she was acting. The PT went to get the nurse and I sat and talked with Shan. I finally got enough information from her to know that her headache was much worse and it was making her so tired she couldn't do anything. It wasn't time for more meds and so she really shouldn't have been in that much pain. We took her back to bed to let her go to sleep...but she didn't sleep. Again, unusual. I asked her if she wanted a blessing and she immediately said yes. I was getting quite concerned myself because we hadn't seen this kind of behavior before. I arranged for Rob Wellman, one of her most favorite people, to come give her a blessing. We called Joel, another dear friend here in Salt Lake and in 30 minutes they were both here. In the meantime, from the time Shannon said she wanted a blessing, she began to improve. I believe that was because of her belief and faith in the Priesthood. She received her Priesthood blessing that told her that her headaches and dizziness would dissipate but she would have to be strong. The next time I asked her about her headache it was more of the typical headaches that we have been used to dealing with. She had been taken tylenol and motrin as soon as it was time in the morning. Well, now 10 hours later and after the blessing, she hasn't even asked for meds. She says her head still hurts but nothing like it was. As simple as that may sound to some, the bottomline is that the Priesthood of God is here on the earth and those that are worthy can access it at any time. And through that power another miracle took place today!