Back off

We went to see Neuro Psychologist at Rehab Clinic a few weeks ago. Everyone there was so excited to see Ada. After a long conversation, I told her that Ada can express more emotion; angry, frustration and fear, and that she always look for me when she get frustrated with something, so I always get the worse of her. Dr. suggested that I "back off" and be her mom and try not to be her therapist. I should try to get out of the house more and let Ada's nurse work with her, which usually works better when I am not around anyway.
My problem is I just can't leave her alone, always thinking that there must be something else that I can do. Since she does not get therapy except with Speech Pathologist once a month, I feel like it is up to me to help her, work with her, but may be I am wrong. In order for me to be able to take care of Ada for a long, long time, we need a break from each other.
It is not as easy as it sound, but I am thinking about moving my work table which in front of her room some where else, so I can be away when I am suppose to be away. May be I can use the room up stair when Archie moves back to Bloomington.
There are a few problems that we have to deal with this past month. First, she doesn't eat that much Cheerios like she used to, so I have to replace it with something else, second, what goes in does not always comes out. Then she has the red eye that we thought from her scratching it but it went away then came back for a day, then went away again. Always something.
Other than that she continues to boss us around and we love it when she does that.

Grant

Grant, I might say, is the only guy friend who still visit Ada. He visits when he comes back to town, from Afghanistan. Grant's mom is a good friend and genius hair dresser, she can cut my hair, (Seriously, it is not an easy task). Ada gives him a big smile and he makes her laugh. Grant got transfer to Japan which will make us sleep better at nite knowing that he is no longer be in the war zone.

Last week, Rachael and I took Ada to the movie theater. We are not sure how long she is going to sit there, so we picked the movie "Toy Story 3". Ada likes the preview, she laughed and smile d up until 3/4 of the movie, when it was kinna sad and not so excited, she pointed to the door. I took her out, walked around then went back in but she was not happy about it, so we went home. Not bad though, she was in there for more than an hour.

Ada starts eating more and more Cheerios, but I still have to give it to her by hand.

Early this morning, I heard Ada laughed, I turn around and she was still sleeping.

Must be a good dream.

Concert at New Augusta North

Mr Staubach wanted to bring his Orchestra to play at our drive way again this year, but it had been raining and storming almost everyday, so I told him that we will bring Ada to school instead.

First, we settled Ada in front of the kids but she signaled us that she did not want to be there, so we moved her to the back. She was smiling and laughing the whole time. After each songs, we applauded, and Ada tapped her right hand to her right leg. This was new and I think she really enjoy the music.

The kids were so good and I am happy for Mr. Staubach that he was able to teach such wonderful group of kids who will play and enjoy music for the rest of their lives. What a job he has! I hope he can continue teaching forever.

Look, Ada is smiling.

This month, however, had been difficult for us, caregivers. Ada had learned to express herself more and more. She is scared, grumpy, moody and angry. Those are good signs. Also the night before I left for Milwaukee, she grabbed a piece of puzzle and swallowed it. She was choking really bad. She was trying to swallowed the purple letter "O"., imagine that ! After that she doesn't eat much. Well, she doesn't eat very much Cheerios as she used to, so we have to give her more formula. She also sleeping or napping a lot. Sleep is good, right?

We also went to see a new doctor who is an expert in Brain Injury, and I have to say I really like her. She asked questions, observed Ada real close and makes a recommendations that we should hold off on PT, OT and let get help from Neuro Psychologist first. May be we be able to help Ada with all of her emotion issues.

Ada is making steady progress, slowly at a snail pace. She is trying to get ahead of us, it is hard to catch up with her. I am exhausted and tried but never lost hope.

How far can she go, or become, we have to wait and see. Please stay with us, I just can't do it by myself. Your friendship and your support had help me to get up every morning.

A visitor

Today I moved Ada's bed out of the way and pulled up her chair next to the window. There is a bird feeder outside and hungry birdies come all day for food. They come early and make so much noise.

Not only birds come, today we have a small visitor. I put a table outside next to her window and plant some flowers. Look at the squirrel peeks through the planter.

He walks around the planter looking for seeds that I dropped on the table earlier. He even peeks through the window. Ada was amused and she was enjoying his company. I left a few nuts near the window. I hope he came back.

We took her downtown today. Walking along the canal then crossed the White River to the Zoo. There are gazillion kids at the zoo. We will go back some other time.

Ada has a few issues this week, she is grumpy and does not sleep well. We took her outside as much as we can. Mom needs to go for a walk too. The drawback is that Ada knows we will put her on wheelchair and push her around so she doesn't need to walk. Still struggle to get her to walk 10 rounds around the house everyday.

Other than that, she is healthy and happy. :)

Mrs. Fox at IMA

Last week when we visit IMA, we saw Mrs. Fox and her pup down from the bridge. Amazing! Today we just learn that she has 4 puppies. But they were mowing the lawn today, so we did not see her.

Here are picture of Ada in front of flowering tree. She and her nurse are my "Look out" while I snipped some of the tiny flowers and put them in my sketch book. I have a project in mind and will use some dried flowers. Each week, there will be new blooms and the garden looks different. Glad that we have such a place near by and can go there everyday.

We also went to see handsome, Dr. Dave' today. Ada was happy and laughed a lot. I'm sure Dr. Dave' was delighted to see how much Ada has improved. he saw her 2 months after the accident and it was not a pretty sight. he recommended us to see another doctor who specializes in Brain Injury. Can't wait to hear what he has to say.

Being outside

We are taking advantage of the nice and warm weather by taking Ada outside everyday. Either a walk around the neighborhood or to the park. Yesterday we went downtown and walked along the canal. We parked under State Museum and walked all the way to 10th St. and back. I wonder if Ada would sit still in the paddle boat. Next time we will walk in different direction across the river and visit the zoo.

Ada continues to make her snail and steady progress. She always in a good mood, laugh and bossing us around. She is getting good at those puzzles.

She seems to sleep and nap a lot more, which is a good thing for the brain to rest and heal. Rachael is still coming every week and Katherine also visits often. Abby is getting married so she must be very busy. Hope to see more of Ada's friends soon.

I start adding Teddy Gram, Yogurt pieces and tiny, round Japanese cookies into her bowl of Cherrios and she eats them all.

Her favorite TV shows are Spongebob, iCarly and Family Guy.

I am thinking about starting the backyard project. I want a small garden and a place for Ada to sit outside when we can't take her to the park. Will post an update on that later.

Saturday in the Park

We took Ada to IMA since it was so nice outside and Arthy who just start his job last week wants to spend time with his sister. She gave him a kiss the other day and while we were cleaning the basement, I found Ada's old homework. She wrote a very nice things about her brother. She said "I think he is like an angel from up above when he's not acting like a little brat!" if you know Arthy, you'll know what she means.

It was nice having him there pushing Ada's chair, even though he was texting while driving, it is getting harder for me to do that. Ada has gained some weight during winter but she looks good and healthy. I just need to exercise more.

The IMA garden and ground had been our favorite place to visit for many years.

Last picture is the"Forget-me-not". Those tiny little flowers are so cute and so blue. Don't forget Ada, come visit her sometime. Oh, did I tell her that she open her left hand and gives up Hi-five? She is working on it and that's a great news.

One Fine Day

Today we took Ada to her appointment with Dr. Segal. He was not in the office but his intern was there. last time Ada was mad at him because he did not say hello to her. I think he was new and did not read her chart, which is about 3" thick. This time he came in, said hello and shake hand to her. Ada smiled. He must had done his home work because he asked what did she studied at Indiana University.
Oh, while we were waiting in the lobby, a nice young man asked if I remembered him. I thought he was Ada's friend, but he said he is an EMT and took Ada to the hospital one time. he was so excited to see her. he kept saying "Oh, she looks so good" and he will also tell all his friends. I don't know about those EMT guys. I don't expect them to remember everyone they have to pick up, but they all seem to remember Ada. Let face it, for 6 months after the accident, she was wearing pajama all the time, had her head half shaved or whole, had cast on her right feet, and half conscious most of the time. I wish I could go back and give them hugs. Those guys and girls did took good care of Ada. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We got done early so we went to visit folks at American Village Nursing Home. Everyone was happy to see Ada and Ada smiled, laughed and shake hand with all the nurses and therapists. Miss Florida, who took Ada's room was happy to see her and the 104 years old lady across the hall already passed away.
Really, I though I have to live there with Ada for a long, long time, but we ended up there for 3-4 months. Lots of good memories there. We will visit more often.
Ada starts moving her left arm and left hand more. She gives us nuggle and try to open her hand for high five. She is working hard on that.
She is completely off Bacrofen and she is doing good, so far.

Making progress

A trip to visit Speech Pathologist always bring a smile as well as tears on my eye. It is so good to see Ada response to the game board, toys and devices that help her to communicate with us. Yes, she can pick up the picture of Cheerios from the board and give it to us when she wants Cheerios and she also picks up picture of the toilet to show us that she needs to go to the bathroom. We also have a device, like a recorder, with a button to push (like the "Easy" button from Staple), and it will say "Come here, please". When she needs me and I am not in the room, she can call me and I will be there. We also record the greeting so she can use it to say "hello" to her friend who visit her.

Overall, she is very happy, she laughs all the time and make us happy and laughing with her. She is able to pay attention and has an eye contact when we talk to her. I think she is studying how we talk. Sometime when we sit and watch TV, she will tap on my arm and make a sound "Umm" from her throat.

There are a few changes here. First, her old nurse is going back to school, so we will have new one. Second, we went to see Dr. Dave' and he wants to take Ada off of the Baclofen. Humm, I thought she has to take that for the rest of her life, but we will gradually wean her off and she will take more Amentadine which help her to be more alert and focus.

I start reading her some children book with lots of pictures. We also do puzzles. She is very fast with locating the A B C on the Alphabet puzzle make me wonder how much she remember them. We shall see.

Here are a few pictures of Ada. Sometime I posted them on facebook.

Laughter is The Best Medicine

Just want to make a quick report that Ada has been sleeping through the night without any medication for 2 weeks now. So, no more groggy, no sleepy and no grumpy.

It had been 2 years since the accident. Just think about that time when she was in the hospital, fighting for her life, and now she is laughing, smiling, walking, eating and she even gives me a kiss. Daddy gets a bigger kiss, of course.

We are working on bathroom training. She is more aware of what is going on and is able to let us know. She starts pointing her finger to the TV remote control and I assume that she wants to watch something else. Her favorite show is Spongebob Squarepants.