Wednesday update
Two news items. Linda has a new skill today. She can pronate her left hand, i.e. if you lay her hand palm up in her lap, she can turn it palm down. She can also go backward some, but it's very weak. She seems to have a bit of weak pronation in her right hand too. The doctor is pretty sure there's some left-hand finger squeezing too, but I haven't felt it myself. I still believe him of course.
The bigger news item is that Linda has her swallowing test tomorrow, or at least her first one. If she does well, she'll get to have a bit more than ice chips. She had a really hard time with 1/2 tsp of applesauce today, so you can imagine it'll start slow. But she's sure to get a little chocolate pudding if things go well. The speech therapist said she can just spit it out if she can't get it to the back of her mouth to swallow.
For the test, Linda sits in this interactive sort of X-ray machine which shows her head on a TV monitor. I was disappointed to find out it is just her head. I had been preparing a bit of levity for the occasion, "I can see through your clothes. It's not as great as you might think. I can see through your skin, too." Anyway, they feed her various textures mixed with barium (so they show up). I think they expect her to do best with thick liquids. They're relatively easy to get to the back of the mouth with your tongue, but they don't run down your throat before you can react.
Two news items. Linda has a new skill today. She can pronate her left hand, i.e. if you lay her hand palm up in her lap, she can turn it palm down. She can also go backward some, but it's very weak. She seems to have a bit of weak pronation in her right hand too. The doctor is pretty sure there's some left-hand finger squeezing too, but I haven't felt it myself. I still believe him of course.
The bigger news item is that Linda has her swallowing test tomorrow, or at least her first one. If she does well, she'll get to have a bit more than ice chips. She had a really hard time with 1/2 tsp of applesauce today, so you can imagine it'll start slow. But she's sure to get a little chocolate pudding if things go well. The speech therapist said she can just spit it out if she can't get it to the back of her mouth to swallow.
For the test, Linda sits in this interactive sort of X-ray machine which shows her head on a TV monitor. I was disappointed to find out it is just her head. I had been preparing a bit of levity for the occasion, "I can see through your clothes. It's not as great as you might think. I can see through your skin, too." Anyway, they feed her various textures mixed with barium (so they show up). I think they expect her to do best with thick liquids. They're relatively easy to get to the back of the mouth with your tongue, but they don't run down your throat before you can react.
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