We had a nice relaxing day. Em had breakfast with Dad, company in the morning, some time in the garden before it got too hot, a nice nap after lunch, some PT with Mom, followed by mini fruit pizzas and a nice visit by Ms. Dubrava in the afternoon. Ms. Dubrava, who will be taking over as head of the Creative Writing Program at DSA in the Fall and has also been Emily's Spanish 2 teacher, brought along a lovely book of Mexican and Latin American poetry. Emily did a great job of understanding the Spanish. We discussed my "plan" and she agrees it might be the best alternative - so we'll just have to see.

Ken and Hannah brought pizza for dinner and then we went to see "Bridge to Terabithia" in the Craig Entertainment Room (they have a 110" projection TV, so it really is a cool place to see a movie). It's an incredibly sad movie. Emily said she liked it and it was a good screen adaptation. I'm trying to give Hannah the assignment of reading the book to see if she agrees with her. "Trying" being the operative word.

Tomorrow we're going to TRY to take Emily to Good Shepherd for 10:00 Mass. She really enjoyed Father Neal's visit on Thursday and told me she'd like to go to Mass. Then we'll come home for lunch and head back to Craig between 3:00 and 4:00. I hope that works with everybody's plans to visit. Company is welcome until about 6:30 when it's probably time to take a shower and head to bed.

Remember we're also usually just relaxing Monday-Friday from 4:00-5:30 after she finishes classes and before dinner, and now that she has more stamina that a fine time to visit.

COOL by Emily Boldt, June 29, 2007

The sky is falling
The clouds are falling
The wintertime is falling
The snow is melting

Happiness fills my soul
My soul is completely full

A fish is full of happiness
A fish is full of everything

This is the first thing Emily has written since the accident - she wrote it herself with a little keyboard help from Robyn her OT.

Sorry I didn't get a post done last night - I was too hungry when I first got home and then fell asleep watching TV with Hannah later. I thought about doing the post when I woke up and went to bed, but I know how worried everyone gets when I do posts at 2:00 a.m.

There was a mix up with Swedish about the surgery on Em's vocal chords, so it had to be rescheduled for next Friday. We'll just keep doing her vocal exercises in the meantime. All of the pain from the nerve blocks seems to be gone - now it's just a matter of consistently stretching her ankle and calf to get her normal range back. I'm going to try my hand at new duties in my alternate career this weekend and work with her on standing at the parallel bars. The supervising PT actually suggested I use the EZ Stand, but Dan came to my rescue and told her I'd need more training (ya think!).

Work on the house is coming along - Mike Hughes with Partners Construction has really come through for us. Ken went to have breakfast with Emily (Saturday is biscuits and gravy) and then he's going to spend the rest of the day working on cleaning/rearranging the garage to make room for a ramp if it's needed. Since I can't transfer Em to the car by myself and I need the gym at Craig to work on her stretches, we'll be hanging there today. Ken and Hannah will come by around 5:00 with dinner and then we're headed to the Saturday night movie at Craig. It's finally "Bridge to Terabithia," so we'll see what Emily thinks of the screenplay adaptation.

Ken and I never want to seem ungrateful - Emily didn't die and we got her smile back, we have much to be grateful for. That doesn't change the heartbreak of telling her she won't be able to go back to school in the fall, but we've wrapped our minds around it and have a plan to discuss with Ms. Dubrava.

Emily is starting to show definite signs of recovering her short term memory, which is a really good sign. No surprise, but it seems that writing things down for her and having her read them is very helpful. Sometimes it's simple tasks - like when you wake up in the morning you need to push the red button so the nurses know you're awake (she's remembered for 2 days!). Other times it's trivial - what did you have for breakfast. Even her Speech Therapist was overjoyed when she got that one. She also seems to revel in being able to remember things. Being able to retain new memories is a big milestone. By the way, her reading comprehension continues to be very good.

Emily had her first round of nerve block injections for her right arm and leg. The concept behind the injections is to numb the muscles for a period of time and then use casts to stretch those muscles to a more normal position. I'd been warned that it was uncomfortable, but having stoic Em almost fly off the table was a little more than I expected. She'll have another round of injections on July 12, but the ones today are intended to help her right ankle maintain a normal position and relax her right arm to a nearly straight position. She was very sore and extremely worn out after the procedure and was in bed by 6:30. The goal for tomorrow is to get her ankle in a neutral, or flexed-foot, position and get her into a cast - we'll start with the EZ Stand at 8:30 and continue with a physical therapist at 9:30. Getting that right foot in a normal positin and the ankle protected is key to moving from standing to trying to walk. She has been able to move her right leg in PT more in the last few days, but tonight she was able to pull her knee to her chest and straighten her leg 4 times.

The surgery for her vocal chords is tomorrow. It will involve a local anesthetic and take about an hour. Hopefully the collagen will help the left vocal chord meet the right, strengthening her voice and eliminating her swallow issues. The collagen is only a temporary fix - the real key is the vocal exercises we do with Em in all of our spare time.

Okay - for all of our sakes I'll try to channel "positive Barb" tonight.

Emily had her first post-accident vision test today - if anything her vision in the right eye is slightly better than the left, so there's no vision loss. Tomorrow we'll start eye stretching exercises to try to get her right pupil to move up, down and beyond mid-line. I'll be trained on the exercises so that I can add that to range-of-motion and voice exercises I'm already trying to squeeze in between classes along with bathroom breaks. Actually, we've started doing her range-of-motion in bits and pieces throughout the day - for example I do her right hand while she's in the EZ Stand at 8:30 every morning, and we did her vocal exercises while she was resting this afternoon. It's still a pace that makes the average school/work day pale in comparison, but I think that way goes "negative Barb."

Emily's strength has gotten much better. Last week it was taking her 20 minutes on the stationary bike to go 2+ km. On Monday she did the same distance in 18 minutes. Today she did almost 4 km in 25 minutes. She really seems to enjoy rocking out to her Ipod and biking - given all of the hours she's spent on our exercise bike it probably feels very natural, dare I say almost normal.

The muscles in Emily's right leg continue to respond more consistently. She's doing perfectly balanced bridges now (hip raises for you non-yoga types) and managed 10 reps on a right-leg only bridge today.

Finally, our dear friend and neighbor Julie, who's been coordinating everyone's efforts to help, will be going out of town with her family soon so she will no longer be available to coordinate. Rather than distracting our very small neighborhood from the new priority of helping Dave & Lisa Spence, Ken and I have decided it's time to stand on our own two (or would it be 4, 6, 7 or 8? Remember one of Em's legs doesn't work very well right now) feet. All of our wonderful friends can't keep feeding us forever. There are undoubtedly some of you who will still want to help and we truly do appreciate it. All of you know how to contact either Ken or me directly and we can coordinate. Also don't worry we won't starve - Julie's making sure the freezer Ken will go buy on Saturday is well stocked before she goes. Thanks to all of you for your time and financial contributions - it will never be possible for us to truly say thank you.

Sometimes it's scary to contemplate how a few minutes on a ski hill can change an entire life. Emily is officially scheduled to come home on August 17 - just 7 weeks. When she comes home she's still likely to need a wheelchair, but she will hopefully be able to stand, transfer and maneuver independently. She will not be able to return to school in the Fall. Once she completes her inpatient care she'll have "months" of outpatient therapy. No one will speculate where she'll ultimately end up in 1-2 years. Cogntively - there are still very high hopes. Physically - she may have weakness/limitations on her right side and tremors/control issues on her left side for the rest of her life.

She does have things in her favor - her age and her sex. For reasons no one understands, the female brain tends to recover "better" than the male. The research seems to indicate there is a link between the brain's ability to recover and female hormones. The down side is some of the drugs they could use to help her speed up her brain's processing abilities have only been tested on older boys, so it's really not known if they might interfere with her natural ability to recover. At this point, her doctor is hesitant to prescribe more meds unless she fails to meet certain milestones in the next 1-2 weeks.

There's no dispute that Emily's going to make huge improvements in the next 7 weeks. I'm not sure her doctors/therapists and I are in complete agreement on where she's at today. I see her reacting to my wise cracks in exactly the same way she would have pre-accident. This tells me she's mentally processing pretty normally but she's obviously not where they want her to be on the various tests they give her.

The ENT did his evaluation of Emily's vocal chords today. The good news is that both vocal chords are moving, the left is just slow and not meeting the right. The solution is a collagen injection to help her voice/swallowing while we continue exercises to strengthen her vocal chords. And no, I'm not sure I'm spelling "chord" right - it frankly doesn't look right, but I'm too tired to look it up. Who knows - maybe she'll just wow them when it's easier for her to talk.

Emily really enjoyed going to the movies Sunday afternoon and getting take-out pizza for dinner. We ended up seeing "Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer;" it was entertaining and we were frankly worried that the 3-hour Pirates movie would be too long for her at this stage.

Monday was incredibly busy - Emily barely had a break between 9:00 and 4:00. Emily went to her first mat class with the other patients and therapists. She did very well. Not only are the exercises and stretches good for her, it's also great practice at following instructions. In PT her therapists was amazed at how well Emily is coming to a stand - huge improvement since just last Thursday. She was also doing more of the exercises with her right leg, which is a good sign. Her OT put a patch on the right lens of her glasses to help her avoid double vision now that her right eye is almost completely open. She's got an appointment in the vision clinic on Thursday and we'll probably get some exercises to help get the movement in her right eye stronger and get both eyes tracking together. We'll also see the ENT sometime this week for her vocal chords and start the muscle injections to get some relaxation in her right arm and ankle. Once we get the ankle to neutral, she'll start wearing a boot cast and be able to do a lot more PT to get to walking.

We have our conference with Dr. Weintraub and the therapy team at 1:00 today. This is the conference where we'll get their full assessment, our planned in-patient discharge date, and where we're likely to be then in terms of Emily's capabilities. It will also give us a picture of what kind of modifications we'll need to make to the house.

Well our first outing went very well. We came home, watched some TV, grilled steaks, watched a little more TV, checked Emily's e-mail (hoping that one of her friends was on-line to chat) - generally had a lazy Saturday together as a family. Emily still struggles a little with the keys on her computer, but she was handling the cursor and touch pad all on her own. The dogs behaved themselves remarkably well. Emily has a couple of scratches from Spike trying to get up on her lap while she was in the wheelchair, but nothing serious. We actually got a great picture of him laying on her tummy while she was resting on the couch. She particularly enjoyed lounging on the couch and watching Hannah play with her remote control Bratz skater girl.

We'll check tomorrow to see how tired out she is from today's outing. If she's not too worn out, we'll probably go to chapel services at Craig at 10:30 and then maybe go see a movie in the early afternoon. We should be around for visitors between 9 - 10:30 and 11-1. If Em's up for it, I was going to suggest we pick up pizza and take it back to Craig after the movie, so we should be around from 5-6 as well.

Ken and I both noticed how much more Emily is able to help with her transfers in just the last few days. I took my first shot at helping her stand just a couple of days ago and there was a world of difference today (my back doesn't even hurt!). She had a little trouble earlier today remembering that today was Saturday, but once she got that today was Saturday she had no trouble remembering that tomorrow was Sunday.

I also realized when Nancy and Steve were surprised to see it that I had forgotten to mention that Emily drives her own wheelchair now. She can use both her left arm and leg, but she usually chooses to propel with the left leg and do brakes on/off with the left hand. When she's tired she crosses her left leg over her right with quite the little flourish.

For those of you who haven't seen her in the last week, it's really hard to describe the incredible joy she takes in everything - especially seeing her friends. If your vision is still of Emily at St. Anthony's or Kindred, you really should stop by and see how much she's improved. If weekdays work better, Emily is finished with therapy at 4:00 and has dinner at 5:30. Most days you can find she and Ken and I relaxing during that time somewhere on 2West or on the front patio where it's shady that time of day. During the day Monday-Friday just doesn't work - her schedule of classes barely leaves time for lunch and a little rest. For our friends in Winter Park, we're hoping she's strong enough for a day trip to the base in the next few weeks (she still has a pair of skis and her boot bag in the Comp Center locker room we need to pick up). We'll let you know via the blog when that will be.

For everyone praying for Emily please add our friend Dave Spence to your prayers. He was diagnosed about a week ago with a very rare form of cancer in the muscles of one of his legs. We're hopeful that the surgery got it all, but they had to remove a significant portion of his quad and some of hamstring muscles in that leg. Dave and his wife Lisa have been wonderful to us these last 84 days (Ken counted them today), and we hope to be able to reciprocate in any way possible.

Emily had a good day on Friday. So far the cognitive testing shows that her long-term memory is fine. She's having a little trouble remembering new stuff, but that's very common and there's lots of ways to help her that we're working on. She got to play hockey in mat class today and she had a wonderful time and did very well. Speaking, while soft, is coming more and more naturally. She'll see an ENT in the next week or so who will look at her vocal chords - it's very likely they were damaged when she was intubated right after the accident. Nothing to worry about, there are injections that can help repair them. She has an appointment in the vision clinic next week to check on her right eye - we honestly don't know if she's having any vision problems.

We will be bring Emily home for a visit and dinner this afternoon. If you'd like to visit her today, feel free to come by between 9:00 and Noon. She'll be back at the hospital this evening, but she'll probably be very tired from her visit. We'll see how today goes before deciding about tomorrow.

Thanks for your understanding and support.

Emily and I are so busy during the day going to class (at Craig you go to class, not therapy, and you graduate, no discharge) that we don't get a lot of time to just talk. Last night Emily and Ken were sitting in the Craig garden and Ken asked Emily what she was thinking about. "Life," she responded, and then she said, "Sometimes I feel like crying." Ken told her he understood and in the process was struggling not to cry. Emily looked at him and said, "You don't have to cry for me."

Late this afternoon, after all the therapy ("classes"), Emily and I got a chance to visit. I asked her what worried her most, and she said "dieing." I told her she wasn't going to die, then I walked her through how close she came to dieing right after the accident and the pneumonia, trach, lung congestion, ventilator. She just kept nodding her head and saying "okay" and "now I understand." She told me how much it helped to have me there every day, and then we talked about where we go from here - getting back absolutely as much of her life as we can.

We met with the doctors in the spasticity clinic today. They hope to start treating her ankle next week and then move on the her right arm, shoulder and quad. Basically they use Botox and other meds to help muscles relax and respond more normally. Emily was actually very adament that we start with the right ankle - getting that ankle figured out is key to her being able to walk and even though we didn't explain that to her ahead of time, she somehow knew.

In PT this afternoon she stood at the parallel bars - not on the tilt table or the EZ Stand - for the first time. She needed help getting up, but once she found her center she did pretty well. She also spent a lot of time in PT and OT demonstrating her trunk strength. We're very close to losing the head rest on her wheel chair since she only uses it for weight shifts. If she can control her trunk she can do forward weight shifts and won't need the head rest any longer.

Ken and I haven't formally passed our car transfer training, so we don't know for sure if Em will be able to come home with us for a few hours this weekend. Tentatively, I would expect that she'll be at Craig until after lunch and then come home in the afternoon. Once we know for sure she'll be able to come home we'll let everyone know in a new post.

Emily continued to be all smiles today. I honestly don't know what it is in her spirit that allows her to be so incredibly happy through all of this.

She's taking all of her meds by mouth now, so her doctor wrote an order for the g-tube to come out. It may take a couple of days, but she'll be tube free soon. Dr. Lenig, who is Dr. Weintraub's partner, told me today she loves covering for Dr. Weintraub because she gets to see what progress Emily's made. Emily continues to amaze people with how quickly she's progressing.

She was much more talkative this morning. It's becoming more and more natural for her to answer in response rather than give a thumbs up. Her Rehab Tech today hadn't had her for a couple of weeks and was amazed.

At breakfast this morning she literally lit up when I told her she could have scrambled eggs, sausage, and toast. She so enjoyed her breakfast. For lunch she finally got her salad and her sandwich. She liked it so much she told her speech therapist that she had lamb chops for lunch. Guess I know what we're having for dinner one night this weekend.

Ken and I finished our off-campus training today (hills and curbs) and started our car pass training. We did pretty well, but we need to do it one more time on Friday afternoon before our "get out of jail free" card is official. Personally I don't think the process was designed for a 5'9" patient with equally tall or taller, and overweight, parents but somehow I know we'll manage. No overnights yet, but afternoons at home are within site.

Please keep praying - we see little miracles every day.

They've started doing some cognitive testing with Emily. She's doing very well. I was there for some of the reading comprehension and was impressed by the pretty complex paragraphs they were asking her to read and answer questions about. There are a couple of exceptions - she doesn't seem to be able to remember that she's 16 now or why she's in the hospital. Everytime one of the therapists asks her why she's in the hospital she has a different explanation. This seems odd since the first time she saw the neuropsychologist she remembered a fair amount of detail from the day of the accident. She has a new Orientation Class every morning to help her rermember things that are happening now.

She was an incredible trooper in therapy yesterday. She did a full hour outside during OT working on her observation, memory and speech in a distracting environment, and she did absolutely great. She also passed her test in ST to be upgraded to a regular diet. She got to have a salad with dinner last night and I'm going to get her a sandwich for lunch today. During PT she endured 1/2 hour of Mom-training on chair to bed and chair to toilet transfers and then proceeded to spend the second half hour standing (her choice, she had the option of mat work instead). Her PT actually teared up at how hard she's willing to work. The staff at Craig has given her the "happiest, most friendly patient" award because she says "hi" and waves to everyone she sees in the halls. Her ability to stay cheerful throughout this ordeal simply amazes me.

Today Ken and I are scheduled for car transfer and off-campus training. Assuming we pass, that means we'll be able to leave the hospital with Emily for part of the day every weekend and holiday. No overnights yet, but it's a chance to have dinner together as a family at home!

Emily had a great Monday following the "all birthday, all the time" weekend. She woke up to her favorite Rehab Tech, which she was obviously happy about. The days go so much more smoothly when she has a Tech that both of us are comfortable with.

She moved her right leg today - and then moved it again on request. She's moved her right leg many times before spontaneously, but today was the first time she moved it in an obviously purposeful way and then moved it again on request. In OT she moved from sitting work to kneeling. She told me it felt good to be more upright. I understand now that it's a progression - head control, trunk control, kneeling, then standing. In PT her therapist had her using her left arm/hand to stretch her right arm. She really did seem to have a new awareness of her right arm when she was stretching it herself, and she got it much higher than I'm usually comfortable going. Her right ankle seems to be loosening up a bit - they had to adjust the foot rest on her wheelchair to a more "neutral" position today after she complained her ankle hurt.

Emily is getting more and more comfortable with her voice. On Saturday she announced at dinner that she'd really like to have a sandwich. Sunday when Hendo visited she asked him if they could ski together again. Today during OT she asked her therapists "why are we doing this?" She seems to work much better when her therapists explain why they want her to do things.

Her doctor is going to have her seen by the vision clinic and have her vocal chords looked at. The neuro-ophthamalogist will be able to tell us the best way to get her right eye working while avoiding issues like double vision. A more detailed look at her vocal chords will give us a better explanation for her difficulty speaking in a stronger voice.

All in all she continues to make good progress and surprises her therapists and nurses with her progress.

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days - the whole birthday celebration was really exhausting.

First I want to say thanks to Sarah for asking for Emily's address - as everyone heads out on summer adventures, I know Emily would love to get postcards. Her address is: Craig Hospital-Room 215B, 3425 South Clarkson, Englewood, CO, 80110.

Emily had a wonderful 16th birthday. The Craig staff started decorating her wheelchair on Tuesday. By Thursday they had her wearing this ridiculous birthday hat (sparkley green of course). I honestly couldn't believe she was willing to wear it, but she seemed to be enjoying the spirit of the event. I'm not sure there are any helium balloons left in the greater Denver area - it's a good thing her roommate was discharged on Thursday! I also think she's gotten cards from every resident of Fort Madison and much of the state of Iowa. Thank you Grandma Nancy (and Grandpa Don, but I suspect Nancy's handiwork). Staff threw her a surprise party at lunch complete with a large and loud rendition of Happy Birthday and strawberry cupcakes. Everytime anyone asks her what she got for her birthday, the first thing she says is strawberry cupcakes. The incredibly thoughtful gifts and cards from the other patients and staff were so touching - roses and candy from Jon, a journal and Birthday Beanie Baby from Michelle, homemade cookies baked by Laura's son, a beautiful handmade wooden guardian angel picture frame from Virginia. It's just all so humbling.

Thursday evening we had a family birthday celebration in Craig's Friendship House party room. It was a beautiful night, so we got to eat outside near the fountain. Hannah deserves much of the credit for planning and executing the event. Once we agreed on a menu that Speech Therapy approved, she and Andrew shopped for ingredients and picked out and decorated a cake. Then Hannah supervised Uncle Gary's preparation of the twice-baked potatoes and helped him get everything to the hospital. Emily obviously enjoyed her first non-hospital food in 2-1/2 months.

All of the gifts from family and friends are truly appreciated. I'll get proper thank you notes out as soon as I can, but please know our thoughtfulness is appreciated. Emily now has nearly as many angels in her room as balloons.

In therapy Emily continues to make truly amazing progress. She now rides the exercise bike for at least a few minutes everyday. Her voice continues to get stronger - if you remind her to really take a deep breath it's very audible and as far as we can tell completely clear. It seems the concerns about slurred speech in the beginning proved unfounded. She's helping more and more with things - her transfers, her showers, getting dressed. She had a follow-up swallow test today and she got clearance for thin liquids and she'll probably be upgraded to a normal diet on Monday. Next week her days get that much fuller with an orientation group every morning at 9:00 a.m. and a session on the exercise bike every afternoon, on top of an hour with each of the therapists every day.

Last night Emily responded to an "I love you" from Hannah with a whispered, "I love you too." It meant so much to Hannah. Today, Ken gave me the afternoon off, so he got to go to Speech and PT with Emily while Hannah and I had lunch and saw a movie (Emily agreed with me that Hannah needed some Mom time). When we got back to the hospital a little before 5:00 Emily had just finished her shower and she demonstrated what she'd worked on in Speech by saying, "Hi Mom, I love you," in a very clear, audible voice. Her doctor asked me today if we'd seen any signs of anger or depression and I could honestly say absolutely not. You can certainly tell that therapy is hard and sometimes it hurts and she struggles, but she never gets angry or frustrated, she just keeps working at it. She's always all smiles when I get there in the morning ready for another day. She's truly an amazing person.

It's hard to describe to those of you who haven't seen Emily over the last month and a half what a transformation we've gone through. I think Uncle Gary described it best: she was always there, she just needed to dig through the layers. It's so incredibly fun to have her back. She's so happy it's contagious. That smile of hers has brought tears to the eyes of so many people the last few days. Even when therapy is hard, which it often is, you just get that determined face that Hendo always commented on. Whenever therapy gets tough, I ask her "is this harder than working on your heli." So far she's always answered, "only a little."

When I got to her room this morning, she was all smiles as usual. As I do every mornig, I asked her what she'd like to listen to while we got ready for the day. She surprised me by answering "Michelle Branch." Well I didn't any Michelle Branch with me, but how cool - she'd obviously thought about music and decided she wanted to listen to Michelle Branch. By the way, she settled for The Fray.

She had a fabulous hour with her OT today. They spent about 1/2 of their time working on that tight right shoulder and the rest sitting up and multi-tasking. Emily sat on the edge of the mat table for 10 minutes straight today without any support! During the sorting, multi-tasking, balance exercises her only sin was trying to take short cuts - as in, want me to sort a deck of cards into blacks and reds, well I'm going to look through several and if there's 4 blacks in a row, I'm taking them all. In speech she worked on vocalizing and reading. In PT she did a strenth test, some stretching and then 1/2 mile on the exercise bike. On the bike she was using her right leg, as I'd hoped, but the tightness in her ankle was pulling her knee out of alignment. We may be facing minor surgery in the near future to loosen that right ankle. It won't be a big deal (her scar will be way smaller than mine) and it will likely make a world of difference in her ability to use her right leg.

Emily got her smile back. We saw it yesterday, but today it was out in force. She looks like Emily. It's that big, wonderful, "I love life" smile that she's always had. She's just so incredibly bright eyed and present it's just wonderful.

She's starting to naturally try to talk to answer questions. Most of the time there's no real voice, but every now and then she surprises you and is able to vocalize what she's trying to say.

Even some of the patients and families at Craig that are struggling the most seem to respond to Emily. I just keep thinking - what is it about this girl that just draws people to her even when she can't speak. Then I remember what one of the kids said to me when I visited DSA after the accident: "The thing I like about Emily is she always treats me with respect. Even a nerd like me, she treats with respect." That's Emily.

During PT today, she stood in the EZ stand for about 1/2 hour and then did some sitting work. We played Boggle again while she was standing. When we asked her to spell any word she wanted without a card, she wrote "ode." Only one of Mrs. Clark's creative writers would immediately spell the word "ode." During her 1/2 hour sitting on the edge of the mat table, about 1/3-1/2 of the time she was sitting all on her own with no help from the therapists. She also surprised her therapists today by asking when she can join mat class and start riding the exercise bikes.

Continued thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers and support. I don't know how we could do this without all of your support.

Correction from yesterday's post - Steve asked Emily if HE was a nerd, and she immediately gave a thumbs up and laughed.

Today was another amazing Sunday - they seem to be Em's day.

She slept in a little and was bright eyed when I got there. She had a lovely breakfast, had communion from the Catholic Eucharistic minister, and then we went to Chapel services. This week's surprise at Chapel was even bigger than last week. Near the beginning of the service the minister asked if anyone had someone they wanted to pray for. Brooke said she wanted to pray for the caregivers. Jon said he wanted to pray for his Dad and Jack who were riding their motorcycles in the mountains. John, Lindsey's Dad, wanted to pray for all of the patients. Up until this point, with a few exceptions, Emily had talked in response to a request ("say Hi to Dad"). She suddenly raised her hand and trying her best to be heard said she wanted to pray for "Jon and his Dad." Jon is a 19-year old from Sidney, Nebraska who was hurt in a car accident. Both his parents are wonderful, but Brent, his Dad, noticed Emily very early in her stay at Craig and last week he was the one that started teaching her sign language. When I asked her later, she told me she wanted to pray for Jon and his Dad because they'd been so nice and helped her talk.

This afternoon Emily had lots and lots of company. Some of her visitors she's seen pretty regularly since she's been at Craig - Caroline & Julie, Laura and "big" Sandy - and she was obviously glad to see them. But she hadn't seen Julie and Mrs. Clark from DSA since she's been at Craig, and Ariel, from the WP Freestyle Team, and her Dad, Pete, hadn't been able to visit. Emily just beemed - it was the smile from the WP Season Pass - she literally glowed when she saw them. She also seriously enjoyed both seeing Miss Jan from Good Shepherd and the chocolate milk shake she smuggled in. The look on Ken's face when I describe that Jan held the milk shake low and I stood in front of the video monitor was priceless!

It was another good weekend, and we can't wait to hear how the therapists react to her new accomplishments tomorrow.

Yes I was too tired to do a post last night. I apologize to all of you who worry every time I miss a day.

Emily continues to adjust to her new diet and new wheel chair. Both take a lot more energy and she gets really tired. She was able to sit completely upright for a few seconds several times on Friday morning in OT, but she struggled Friday afternoon in PT. Good news is, a few weeks ago if she struggled it was for a day, now it's for a couple of hours.

On Friday she laughed at her Rehab Tech, but only the three of us saw it . Today, when Steve asked her if she was a nerd she immediately gave a thumbs up and laughed. The Metro folks will appreciate just how appropriate that response was.

So Emily talked today. Her speech therapist has been working with her on mouthing words for a couple of days. When they came out of ST today, Katie was excited and said Emily had been able to whisper words to her pretty consistently. Emily looked uncomfortable and I asked her if she needed something. She whispered "spray" for her Chloraseptic throat spray (which she hates but also realizes helps with her sore throat). I intentionally didn't call Ken. When he got to the hospital tonight I asked him to listen closely, and I asked Emily to say Dad. It was still soft, but this time you could really hear her voice. While Ken was composing himself, I told Emily that we needed to practice saying Hannah so she could say hi to her sister when she visited this weekend. She immediately said "Hannah" softly but clear as day. Soft, whispery, but no slurring or hesitation. It was a very good day.

In PT this afternoon I again had to lead the transfer from the chair to the mat table. I remembered everything except the brake extendor, and the transfer went very smoothly. Her homework was exercises to help her use her left leg to move her right leg. The PT's have started showing her how to hook her right leg with the toe of her left foot to move it. She also spent about 1/2 hour in the standing chair. While she was standing, she and I played Boggle. From the very first word she had no problem reading the word and spelling it with the letter dice. By the third word she'd figured out that the letter dice were grouped by proximity in the alphabet and her spelling got that much quicker. When she got bored she started trying to launch the dice at my head.

Today was the 100th anniversary celebration of Craig Hospital. In 1907 Craig started as a tent hospital for TB patients regardless of their ability to pay. It later evolved to treat polio patients and is now one of the few rehabilitation hospitals in the United States that specializes in just spinal cord and brain injuries. Ken and I didn't realize until recently that unlike most hospitals today, Craig is a nonprofit. In this era of health-care uncertainty, Craig has announced a goal of increasing its endowment to ensure it can provide care to the people that need it regardless of their ability to pay. Ken, Emily, Hannah and I are so blessed in so many ways - the incredible insurance coverage we have through the Federal Reserve System, Metro's leave policy that has allowed me to be with Emily from day one, and the fact that we live 15 minutes from Craig as opposed to the families we've met from all over the country. When we get through this, we really hope that all of us that love Emily can do something in her name that will benefit Craig patients in the future.

A very interesting day. Emily passed all of her solid food swallowing tests with her speech therapist and was upgraded to a soft diet from the pureed one. Hurray - she gets to eat food that looks like food. Katie continues to work with Emily on how quickly she swallows - she needs to swallow more quickly in order to get thin liquids back. We have figured out what she does and doesn't like in the thickened liquids - milk with thickening powder is a no, fruit juices like apple, grape and pineapple are too sweet, but she's okay with orange juice and lemonade.

Emily also got fitted for her new sports car wheel chair. Her new chair is certainly not ready for a 10K - hopefully wheel chairs aren't a permanent part of our lives - but it's certainly more maneuverable than her old reclining one. She can learn to propel herself in this one by using her left hand and left foot. It'll be much better for outings and walks too.

Ken and I have both been trained now to help with Emily's transfers. It's amazing how much more therapy time she gets when we can do a simple slide transfer versus having to use the lift. Emily tries to help more and more, which in itself is good therapy.

Dr. Yarnell told us this afternoon that its good that she can cough and mouth words, which she does more and more these days. That means that speech is just a matter of time (a phrase I could easily learn to hate).

Emily's OT's used an issue of US magazine in therapy today. It was really ingenuous - they used a large rolling board and binder clips to put the magazine up and in front of Emily - she had to sit tall and reach (great for strengthening her trunk and improving her balance) to turn pages, tell us which dresses and shoes she liked, and point to interesting gossip (I had no idea Reese Withespoon and Jake Gyllenhal were dating).

We went to a ceremony and reception tonight for the 4 high school graduates that are at Craig. The Director of Craig spoke and it was a lovely ceremony. One of the young men was hurt in Winter Park (on a jump they'd built for their snowboards at the condo because they weren't scheduled to be on the mountain until Monday) on the same day as Emily. He was one of Emily's neighbors in the ICU at St. Anthony's. He's regained the use of his arms and seems to have an incredible attitude.

Emily had a break through in speech therapy today - she made the "aah" sound! It was very soft and a little raspy but it was definitely the "aah" sound. She also started working on eating more traditional soft foods, rather than the incredibly appetizing pureed diet she's been on. Her ST said she did very well and that the act of moving and chewing food would be good for the muscles in her mouth and tongue, which will help with her speech, but that Emily admitted that all that chewing made her tired. We're going to try again tomorrow. Katie, the ST (now dubbed "food Nazi") did let Emily have a piece of cake at Bob and Michelle's baby shower tonight, which she enjoyed immensely.

A quick side note: There have been a number of articles in the Post and News the last few weeks about young couples dealing with horrendous injuries at Craig. Bob and Michelle are from Bozeman, Montana. I don't actually know how Bob sustained his injury, but he's been at Craig for awhile and definitely wins the award for patient with the best attitude. He's always so cheerful, as is his wife, Michelle, who's expecting their first baby in 3 weeks. Bob's making great progress and obviously has a loving family, but I can't even imagine.

Back to Emily: In addition to great ST sessions today, she had a full hour session with her OT and did beautifully. Her strength in her trunk and her balance get better every day, and they continue to work on loosening up that right shoulder. Her pec is so tight you can actually see it when you're helping her dress. Robyn, the OT, told me that most patients can't handle a full hour of therapy but Emily did so well she's going to try to schedule her for 1-hour sessions from now on. In PT Emily was doing such a great job holding her head up that she graduated from the slant table to the standing chair. The standing chair allows much more weight to be placed on her feet and ankles, which will help with her turned ankle and dropped toe on her right foot, but requires much better head control. Emily did about 20 minutes really well. She'll use the standing chair a few more times in PT and then sessions in the chair will be added to her daily schedule outside of PT.

Everyday somebody comments on Emily's beautiful spirit and great personality - and these are people that have never even had a conversation with her. It's just so clear that she's there to work hard - she'll get tired and she'll need breaks, but she's going to work hard.

This morning at breakfast Emily wiped her mouth. Not particularly big news until I add she wiped it on her own (no, "would you like to wipe your mouth prompt") with her RIGHT hand! She has not had purposeful movement in her right arm/hand since the accident. They saw the same movement in OT today, but it was in response to stretching and instruction. This morning she spontaneously lifted her right hand from her lap to her face to wipe it. When I asked her if that was what she was doing, she nodded yes. When I asked her again if she had really just wiped her mouth with her right hand, she gave me a thumbs up.

In speech therapy today, they worked on swallowing - which she was doing much better with - and matching instructions with pictures with a computer program. When we continued the computer program this afternoon, it was obviously too easy, so her ST tried some kind of abstract cognitive questions that she struggled with last week and she immiediately got 80% correct. The cognitive leap I saw in chapel and the garden yesterday is obviously real.

She also had significantly improved balance and trunk control today. Both her OT and PT commented on it. Her PT said we'd keep working on the slant board twice a week until her head control is good enough to move up to the standing chairs, and she didn't expect it to take too much longer. I've also successfully master helping with slide board transfers from the chair to the mat table both front and back.

Another patient's father has started teaching Emily sign language. She can now sign "hi" and "fine." It's a great way for her to communicate while she's getting her speaking voice back. Miss Jan from Good Shepherd may help her with that, and I really need to get a book so I can participate. I just have to believe that using language in any form will help her brain recover.

I got to see two other patients take their first walks today. One is a 19-year old girl who was injured in a car accident a few weeks before Emily. Her mother's always with her and I just couldn't resist giving her a hug - what a huge step.

I certainly agree with Sarah and Brendan, Epic Movie was really, really bad. I felt especially bad for the older patient and his wife who came expecting to see last week's romantic comedy. I'm not sure Emily enjoyed the movie so much as enjoyed getting out and doing something, although she has always been able to suspend her intelligence and laugh at the absurd.

She surprised me yesterday morning when she said she wanted to go to Sunday church services at the hospital. Ken and I have been letting her exercise her natural skepticism of organized religion for the last couple of years, so I was really surprised she wanted to go. She truly listened and tried to participate - raised her hand immediately in response to a question and holding her right hand with her left and praying. After the service she told me she wanted to go downstairs to the T Rec area, and when T Rec wasn't open, she wanted to go outside. We took a walk in the garden and she was reaching out to touch the plants, flowers and trees. It was a level of active engagement we hadn't seen before.

She seems to be having pain from her torn muscle more the last few days. She tore her quad (largest muscle in the body) up near her right hip. It obviously hurts more when she's up in her chair, which would explain why she wanted to rest in bed more this weekend. The orthopedic surgeon that consulted on it believes it will heal on its own and not require surgery, but we'll have to be sensitive to her pain.

Pretty quiet Saturday but there are a few things to report. First, we got our first results from Emily's MRI. An orthopedic surgeon examined Emily today because the MRI showed a torn muscle in her right hip. It's not a complete tear and her hip is not dislocated. He said it will heal on its own and will not impact her recovery at all. I'll check with her physical therapist on Monday to see if the muscle tear will affect her therapy. One more piece of evidence that her right side took the impact when she fell.

Second, I took in Em's laptop today. She was immediately interested and when I created a new word document and asked her some questions she tried her darndest to type in her answers. In response to one question she tried to type "sounds good." To another simply "yes." She's still struggling to control her left hand so it took her a few minutes to get to the right key and then she tended to hold it down a little too long, but Ken and I both saw cogent responses and we'll keep trying.

It's much easier to have conversations with her now. She follows exactly what you're saying and responds quickly, usually without any prompting. She chooses to use her head nods most of the time rather than her thumb and tends to revert to her thumb for "okay." She also responds with waves and high fives for staff she recognizes - some of which haven't taken care of her in a couple of days. She obviously knows who she likes.

The whole family went to the movies tonight at Craig. They show a new release dvd every Saturday night in the entertainment room. Tonight's high-brow offering was "Epic Movie." Emily and Hannah both loved it, although it probably wasn't terribly appropriate for either of them. It was really, really nice to do something as a family again.

In keeping with movie night at Craig, we have a new plan to get Emily talking. Those of you who know her well know that she is an incredibly tough critic of movie adaptations of her favorite books. Hannah and I actually swore we'd never go to another movie based on a book she liked after "Eragon." We'd barely recovered from "Ella Enchanted." Thank goodness she approved of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Well in two weeks the Saturday night movie is "Bridge to Teribithia," another of Emily's favorites (thank you Becky). None of us have seen the movie and have no opinion on the screen play, but if commenting on a movie adaptation can't get her talking it may be time for extreme measures. I know some folks at the Federal Reserve that have some ideas that may have merit.

Emily has gotten physically so much stronger the last few days. She holds her head up really well now except when she's extremely tired, and she can sit up right for almost a whole minute. Yesterday in PT she was able to roll to either side from her back without any help and she was trying very hard to help with her transfers from the wheelchair to the mat table. She spent about 1/2 hour up at 70% on the slant board, which is the closest she's come to standing upright in 2 months.

She successfully completed a cognitive test yesterday intended to check her short-term memory, ability to follow instructions and patience. She did really, really well. The only problem she had was when the speech therapist got to the questions with 3 parts, she was supposed to follow the directions in the order they were given. She'd do all three, just not always in the right order. For example, the the instructions were to point to the door, pick up the pencil, point to the floor, she'd get the pointing out of the way before picking up the pencil. It was actually a much more efficient way to complete the tasks. She also started a reading comprehension test yesterday. She can obviously read words and sentences and despite being really groggy when she had her morning speech therapy session, it was clear that she understood what the sentences were saying.

Emily had an MRI yesterday. The purpose of the MRI was to get a more detailed picture of her brain injury and also check the rest of her - we know her right shoulder hurts, so the doctor wanted to check for damage to her shoulder - for any injuries from the fall. Since you need to stay perfectly still in an MRI and that's difficult for most people but especially for Em right now, they had to give her sedation. Unfortunately the sedation kept wearing off so in the end they had to give her 3 doses of valium. She was really tired and groggy all day after that. Hopefully she slept well last night and will be feeling better today despite the cold or spring allergies she's had all week. Last night she told Ken and her nurse that her left knee hurt. That's the knee she she had trouble with all last year - hopefully it just needs to be stretched and she didn't reinjure it in the fall.