Emily had another great week. After triumphant 400-500 feet of walking on Monday, she walked about 250 feet with the forearm crutch Wednesday and Friday. She's doing better and better with it, although it's still a lot more work than the hemi-cane. She's able to take more and more steps without holding on in the parallel bars and her balance on stairs has gotten amazing. I think it's actually easier for her to go up and down stairs than to just walk. We're using the wheelchair less and less when we're on the main floor at home.

Emily started her voice therapy this week. She'll be working with a second speech therapist that specializes in voice therapy for a half hour each week, and she'll have exercises we need to do at home. The goal is to stimulate the area of her brain that controls the pitch and sound of her voice rather than just treating the symptoms by doing more vocal chord injections.

Emily got her first home school report card. She's passing everything and getting A's and B's in the classes where she's done enough work to get an actual grade. She finished her American Lit research paper on modern monarchies, and heard back from Ms. V that she got 100% on her chemistry project. So school's going really well.

Em was able to go back to Philosophy Club on Thursday. It's CSAP week, so nobody was really in the mood to do Philosophy, but Em enjoyed visiting with everyone and actually worked on her computer in the Creative Writing Room for a little while. We got all the paperwork filled out, so Em will be a regular from now on.

This coming Thursday Em will have her final round of nerve block injections in her right hand. The hand seemed to be loosening up really well, but as we got the arm looser the hand got tighter. She's working with a new robotic device called a "hand mentor" to help get her hand working again. The OT's are going to train Ken and I to use it with her when we have a little extra time around Craig.

One of Emily's former ski teammates is making a documentary about her recovery. He's filming at the house this weekend and will be filming at Craig on Friday. His goal is to make an inspirational documentary that can help other people get through traumatic brain injury. We were proud of Emily for agreeing to do it and looking forward to seeing the final product.