02.28.03 Chelsie had a full day of rehab today, and she was glad for that. The first thing she told her Dad this afternoon was that she walked 12 minutes on the treadmill, beating her record of 10 minutes. Half of those minutes were without her leg braces. She continues to gain strength on her walking and standing without help. Mom and Dad got to see her today for the first time since Monday, and she sure has improved in lots of different areas. They had a meeting with her staff and heard nothing but good news about her recovery.
02.27.03 Chelsie had a partial day of therapy today. Because of the snow/ice, she was still confined to the dorm but did some Speech/OT/PT therapy. She worked on vision motor skills, writing, sitting/balance, and she even worked on throwing and catching a object. She also walked with some assitance. They have started the last few days of weaning her out of her wheel chair, making her walk more and sit in regular chairs more often. Hopefully the wheel chair will be a thing of the past really soon.
02.26.03 Chelsie had a repeat of yesterday. SNOW DAY again. She had to stay in her dorm again all day. With more ice expected tonight, it may be a snow day tomorrow as well. We bet she begins to get cabin fever really soon.
02.25.03 Chelsie had a snow day like most kids in Arkansas did today. She had to stay in her dorm all day. The hospital called and cancelled her appointment to get her feeding tube removed on Thursday. Now it is changed until next Wednesday. She wasn't a happy camper because she was looking forward to getting it removed.
02.24.03 Chelsie had a doctor's appointment today at Arkansas Children's Hospital with her Rehab Doctor. They told us to continue her wake up meds and that she is now in level 7 of the Rancho scale of her coma. She is making good progress but still has some hard work ahead of her. She also has a doctor's appointment for this coming Thursday to have her feeding tube removed. This is something she is really looking forward to. She also gained another 3 pounds this week, which isn't good. This is mostly due to her still being in a wheel chair most of the time. The Dietician will be looking at her tomorrow to get a plan to slow down the weight gain.
02.21.03 Chelsie had a very busy day in PT therapy. Dad went to visit her today. She walked for 10 minutes on the treadmill today--a record for her. She also walked several times with a walker that she controlled the whole time. Dad found out she had gained over 3 pounds in the last week. Good thing she has started walking more or it was going to be diet time!!
02.20.03 Today, Chelsie had oral motor exercises, and took notes off the board pertaining to the brain in speech. Chelsie is much better at her voice elevation. Every word is not so monotone. It sounds nice to hear her talk with some expression.
--Courtsey of Keith Burroughs MS, Ed
Special Education Teacher at Timber Ridge
02.19.03 Chelsie may have had her best day yet at Timber Ridge by looking at the update they faxed us this afternoon.
ED- English
Writing Sentences-capital letters & punctuation
Identification of parts of a story
Relating pictures to beginning, middle, and end of story
Speech- Worked on taking small bites
Worked on visual sequencing for memory
Worked on larynx elevation
OT- Finished evaluations
PT- Walked on treadmill for 6 minutes with dividing board between her feet
Walked 200 feet with minimal assistance
Worked on fine motor skills
When Mom and Dad talked to her on the phone tonight, she seemed to still have lots of energy and was in a very good mood.
02.18.03 Chelsie had an upset stomach again this morning. The doctors gave her medicine for it. We really don't know what is wrong with her. She missed school, but after a nap this afternoon, she felt better. She was able to attend PT/OT therapy. In O.T., they worked on her fine motor strengths while she was worked a puzzle. In P.T. therapy, she was put on a rocker board to work on her balance and weight shifting. She has walked about one hundred feet with moderate/mininmal assistance. Mom and Dad went to visit her tonight, and she was in a wonderful mood and feeling great.
--Courtesy of Brian Harris, LPTA
Physical Therapy Assistant at Timber Ridge
02.17.03 Chelsie had a good start to her week with normal workouts in all phases of her rehab today. She walked 75 feet with a walker and 75 feet with minimal assistance. During education, she had to tell about the details of a story that was read to her. During speech, she worked on her memory skills.
--Courtesey of Jeff Adams MS CCC/SLP
Speech/Language Pathologist at Timber Ridge
02.16.03 Chelsie started her day off attending Sunday School and Church. She is participating in the worship services more and more each Sunday. She asked her dad when he was going to get her a new cell phone and a SUV to drive (typical teenager). She was able to call her big sister Doti (our 1st exchange student from Poland) today and wish her a Happy Birthday. Then she went to her cousin Josh's birthday party and ate pizza and birthday cake There she was able to visit with more family.
02.15.03 Chelsie started her weekend off with 2 hrs of OT/PT therapy and then got a overnight pass to come home. The first stop was dinner and then what she was waiting on all week--her first shopping trip since her accident. THE MALL! She went shopping for some new clothes, a favorite past time for most 18 year old girls. She loved it! Then she made the trip home. Once at home, she wanted to read over her website. She has started asking lots of questions about her hospital stay. Then her friend Megan came over and brought several Valentine cards that several kids from school made in Mrs Strickland's class. Check out pics of the week for her reading the cards and her shopping trip.
02.14.03 Chelsie's tasks:
Education- Chelsie wrote her schedule for next week. She has shown improvement in writing and is starting to be able to keep up especially with visual cues.
OT- She worked on creating valentine's treat bags for all the clients to put valentines and candy in. Chelsie initiated what design she wanted and what colors to use as well.
Lunch- Chelsie is working hard to take her time and take small bites.
Functional Activities- She worked with both of the adolescent groups together to decorate cupcakes for the Valentine's Day party.
Party- Chelsie ate well and enjoyed sharing valentines treats with the younger clients.
--Courtsey of Robin Powell
OTR-Occupational Therapist at Timber Ridge
02.13.03 Chelsie viewed a Head Injury video today and acknowledged that she was involved in an automobile accident. She also had a visual preceptual testing. With hand to hand help, Chelsie was able to walk 600 ft. Chelsie has also improved her time on the treadmill from 2 minutes to 3 minutes.
--Courtsey of Keith Burroughs, MS ED.
Special Education Teacher at Timber Ridge
02.12.03 Today Chelsie's schedule was:
OT- She worked on money management, counting money, and making change.
PT- She worked on her fine motor skills.
ST- Chelsie did speech assessments.
ED- She worked with greater/less than amounts of money, picture identification and grammar.
Chelsie's New Targets:
Scan/orient right
Take small slips/bites
Call staff and peers by name
Initiate social interactions
Initate tasks/acttivities
--Courtsey of Christopher Ewing
Coordinator of Behavioral Services at Timber Ridge
Dad went to visit Chelsie this evening. Mom was a little under the weather. When he arrived, he saw that Chelsie had a card in her day bag. He asked her who it was from, and she said the Goss family. Dad asked her what it said inside, and she told him. He was curious if she truly did remember what the card said, so he asked her to read it to him and yes she was right. She did remember! Her short term memory is really getting back to normal. Dad delivered several gifts to her tonight, and she enjoyed those. There was a poster from Mom's office with lots of employees and farmers signatures from the past couple of months. It's now above her bed. She also received some gifts from Mrs. Debbie and Ms. Cindy. Dad even printed off today's guestbook entries and showed them to her. She read each one of them. This is something he will do each day and give them to her to read each time they visit. A couple of Chelsie's cousins joined him tonight to visit her also. She did say she had an upset stomach around lunch time but whatever was bugging her then wasn't around this evening.
02.11.03 Chelsie had a very good day according to her therapists. They said she has really learned to laugh and use humor towards them, and that she can laugh at her mistakes and move on. She had a Boston Name Test today in speech therapy, and she performed very well. She also she had a Pattern Replication test using pegs. Her right arm that was in her cast performed well. She told her Mom tonight on the phone what she wanted for Valetine's Day--shopping for some new clothes! I bet she gets her wish. Left off from yesterdays update: Chelsie had great success in tieing her shoes and buttoning her clothes.
--Courtsey of Jeff Adams,M.S. CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist at Timber Ridge
02.10.03 Chelsie had to go to ACH today for another swallow study, and she didn't do very well. She is still drinking too fast and taking too big of bites when she eats. She will have to still have necter thick liquids for a while longer. She will most likely have to wait a couple more weeks before she can have normal liquids. When Mom and Dad arrived at Timber Ridge to pick her up this afternoon, all of her therapists were really bragging about her. They all said she had a great day and was worked hard.
02.09.03 Chelsie had a good night at home in her own bed. Her mother asked her how it felt to sleep in her own bed this morning, and without opening her eyes, she said it was wonderful. Chelsie was able to attend church and then have lunch with her family. When she watched it snow she said that it reminded her of Breckenridge, Colorado, and made her want to go snow skiing. She told us that one of these days she will be able to ski again. Chelsie has kept a positive attitude about all of her recovery and it is starting to show.
02.08.03 hi everyone this is chelsie i am at home mom and dad took me to eat catfish
Chelsie wrote the above update. She is at home tonight with an overnight pass. Her first night at home in her own bed since her accident. After we picked her up, the family went out to eat catfish. She sure enjoyed being out since it was her first time in awhile.
02.07.03 Well Chelsie had a busy day. She was put on a treadmill, bicycle, and multiple weight machines in physical therapy. She did so good on all the machines. Chelsie had to write down her schedule for next week. She has trouble writing, but she is determined to keep practicing. She threw a snowball her mom made at her at dad! The speech therapist is trying to have her initiate a conversation instead of always answering everyone else. See the February pictures for Chelsie in action.
06.03 Update: Chelsie had an eye appointment at ACH this morning at 9:45, so Mom and Dad had to get up really early and drive through a snowstorm to pick her up and take her there. She had been saying she was having trouble seeing well out of her right eye. The only thing the doctors found in the exam was her right lense needed a little bit more power, but everything from the accident as far as her eyes looked fine. Check February pics of the week for pictures of Timber Ridge in the snow.
02.05.03 Chelsie dressed herself with minimal assistance this morning. She is getting better at this daily. She also started requesting to use the restroom without being prompted, which is a big step for her. She even buckled her seat belt by herself on her wheelchair. Chelsie required fewer cues during meal time with a focus on taking smaller bites. She participated in orientation training during speech and partticipated in sorting tasks during OT therapy. She walked 200 ft with maximum assistance and walked for 2 minutes with maximum assistance on a treadmill during PT therapy. She remained on task and completed all tasks/assessments during eduaction. She had GREAT attitude all day.
--Courtesy of Chris Ewing
Coordinator Behavior Services at Timber Ridge
02.04.03 Chelsie had a good day at Timber Ridge today according to her phyiscal therapist. She attended a birthday party for her case manager. He said she even sang happy birthday to him. She had a hearing test today which she passed and had some other tests in OT therapy today also. Mom and Dad visited her tonight and she was very tired. She ended up having a little upset stomach before we left and wanted to get to bed a little early tonight. She must have worked hard today.
02.03.03 Chelsie had a very good day at the school here at Timber Ridge. She seemed very positive today and participated well in all therapeutic sessions. Today she endured testing in speech pathology and education. In education she took an achievement test and in speech pathology. She completed an evaluation on how she processes infomation. I sat with her during lunch and she ate everything on her tray and drank two cups of koolaid. One of her tasks in occupational therapy today was coin identification. Her OT reported that she participated very well and showed improvement throughout the length of the session. We are really happy to working with her and will continue to challenge her.
--Courtesy of Jeff Adams, M.S. CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist at Timber Ridge
02.02.03 Chelsie had a day pass today from Timber Ridge to go to church and home. She never got into her wheel chair. She walked into church and walked out. She stood during church when everyone else was. Then she went home for lunch with family and friends and again this Sunday she was the one that said the blessing for the 12 people that were seated at the dinner table. She had several friends visit her during the afternoon.
02.01.03 Chelsie had a good number of family and friends visit her today. She has really set some goals for herself. She told us her first one is to get out of her wheel chair to be able to walk, run, and jump. She also hopes to graduate in May with her class and then go to college. According to the staff at Timber Ridge, she is really working hard.