Emily's surgery is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. The surgery will take until about 9:00 and then she'll probably spend a couple of hours in the recovery room. We won't know until after the surgery if there will be a period when she has to be non-weight bearing. We do know that she'll be in a cast for 2-3 weeks. Hopefully once she's out of the cast and we can get her foot flat, she'll be fitted for a custom brace (AFO) and we can start trying to walk. We're cautiously optimistic given how much strength and movement she's gotten back in that right leg - she even did leg lifts with a 1-pound weight on that ankle today. This afternoon she was working on coming from a sit to a stand in the parallel bars and she was doing great. While standing she was shifting her weight between her left and right side and even let go of the left bar and stood almost completely independently. She was also doing some small standing squats to work on the strength in her hip muscles.

We've been working on putting weight on her right hand and arm - weight bearing is a great way for her weak limbs to start communicating with her brain again and vice-versa. Yesterday she was doing sitting pushups on that arm in OT.

She did a visualization test today in OT and her scores were well within normal range and her responses were generally very quick. The purpose of the test was to make sure her brain is accurately interpreting what she sees.

In speech therapy she's continuing to work on speed of processing (how quickly can she think something through), retrieving new short-term memories, and organizing her thoughts. She's started writing a story about her accident and her therapy.

Finally, for therapeutic recreation this week she went on an outing to play Bocce ball in Washington Park and today she went swimming. In the pool she was able to swim the length of the pool with very little help and worked on both her arm strokes and her kicking. She had good kicking with both legs. She was also able to swim across the pool completely on her own! Hannah went swimming with her today, which alternated between fun and irritating, which I think is the purpose of little sisters.

On a sadder note, our friend Ashley had to return to the ICU at Swedish on Monday. She developed a pretty extensive infection in the skull flap they replaced a few weeks ago and has also developed some blood clots that are a concern. Luckily, the infection has not spread to her brain and her surgeon felt like he was able to remove 95%. She's on very aggressive antibiotics to address the infection. They won't be able to replace the skull flap with a titanium plate for 3-6 months. It's uncertain if rehab at Craig will be effective during the period without a closed skull, so she may have to return to long-term care. Please keep her in your prayers.

On a happy/sad note, our friend Lindsay and her family head home to Nebraska tomorrow. Lindsay has been a good friend to Emily, and as to teenage girls they've shared a lot of the same struggles despite very different injuries. And I've grown very attached to her mom's company at breakfast and lunch and her dad's wonderful sense of humor. We wish them all the best and hope to keep in touch. Emily took her roommates discharge really hard last week and she was awfully sad at Lindsay's going away party this evening. Hopefully Grandma and Grandpa's visit this weekend will cheer her up.