Live from Boston

Hi Everybody,

Visiting Courtney today has been like seeing her for the first time, she's improved drastically since two weeks ago. Her arms and legs no longer move in spasms and she's becoming more coordinated. She can roll on her side, run her fingers through her hair and more easily move her weaker left side. Court is responding faster in conversation, she still maintains her sense of humor even through all she's dealing with.

As Julie mentioned, Court's been having a sharp pain in her stomach. This may be related to her coming down off of medication and, with hypersensitive nerves, realizing a pain that has been there all along. Other possibilities could be an infection from the stomach feeding tube or digestive issues. When the nurses gave her a figurative pain scale of 1 to 10, Court said she feels about a 7. It's been difficult for her to sleep and she moans from time to time.

Courtney's starting to piece together the past week, she doesn't remember much of the previous two months, but she recalls some details from therapy and conversations we've had recently.

The doctor's have Court scheduled for a vision clinic on Monday to evaluate her focus. She's complained about having blurry vision, so we'll look to the ophthalmologist for answers.

Doug has given us the scouting report on a few rehab facilities in Maine and New Hampshire. He was most impressed with Crotched Mountain in Greenfield, New Hampshire (Web site here), both with the level of care and the facility itself (which happens to feature a climbing wall and horseback riding). It seems to be the most appropriate destination for Court, with an established history of helping patients with brain injury, a young base of patients and a variety activities that she loves. A big turnoff with rehab facilities is that they are run like a nursing home and last thing Court needs are prunes and the constant smell of mothballs.

I still can't believe how far she's come, today has been a pleasant surprise.

-Sean