| Haku, from Spirited Away, I watched it so many times that after awhile so I decided to draw Haku. It took me ten trys to finally get it right. If you want to see a bigger picture, click on "Haku drawing". (Note, this drawing were all done before Michele's sroke) |
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| Welcome to Michele's Page |
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| 12/06 - Michel has finished Occupational Therapy in September and will finish Physical Therapy this month. To continue her rehabilitation we have hired her a private trainer for 3 months. Hopefully this wil increase her strength as well as her endurance. Her Violin playing has improved so much we bought her her own violin! She was thrilled when we gave it to her. Maybe this will even get her to practice more! High School is a little harder for her. She is struggling in Social Studies. We are studying a little more each night and hopefully she will improve next semester. 2/06 - Michele continues to improve. Last month she went skiing and this time she was able to stop. She has truly gotten so much stronger over the last year. Before last week, Michele , while in a sitting position, was only able to lift her right leg just slight off the floor, now she can lift her right leg almost straight out. Last week I started working on supination. This is simply holding your hand palm side down and than turning it over so palm side is up. She was not able to do this at all. She used her left hand to flip over her hand and when she did this her hand would immediately close up into fist. In just a week she is now able to flip her hand over on her own and is able to open up her fingers flat (except the thumb, it still wants to be curled up) We'll work on this next. And the last thing, since Michele's right arm is getting so strong and she is able to control it quite a bit, we decided to start her back on violin lessons. Of course she can not do this in school, but we have hired a high school student to give her a 1/2 hour lesson each week. The first less on was Feb 13th. She absolutely loves the fact that she can play the violin again. Obviously she is not as good as she once was but knowing that she can play again has brought her joy. 12/05 - Michele received her Green Belt in Tae Kwon Do! We are so proud of how strong she is and how much balance she has. Go Michele! 11/05 - Michele attends 8th grade and still has an assistant that helps her. She attends a total of 4 hours of Speech, Occupational and Physical Therapy each week after school hours. She also takes private Tae Kwon Do lessons each week. She has a brace she wears on her right leg and walks fairly well. She has between 25% and 50% usage of her right arm and hand and will probably not get much better than this. Her speech is normal and her written language is greatly improving. Recently she told us she started dreaming again! She is very thrilled with this fact and cannot wait to tell us of her dreams each morning. She also recently has been able to close her right eye while leaving the left eye open. Soon she will be winking at all the boys. 6/05 - Michele completed 7th grade making the honor roll almost every marking period. Shs had a great year considering all the obstacles she had to overcome. She received Student of the Marking Period twice in the school year! We couldn't be more proud of her. 3/05 - Michele went skiing - yes she can still ski! There is a slight problem though, she cannot stop! She had a private instructor who puts her on a leash around her waist and helps her to stop. At least she is still on the mountain. 10/04 - Michele begins taking private lessons in Tae Kwon Do with Master Kang, this is helping with her right arm and with her core balance. The stretches and exercises are helping her muscles grow stronger. 9/04 - Michele goes back to school as a 7th grader. She has an assistant who helps her carry her books and takes all her notes for her. She still struggles with communication but we think she will do fine in school with the help of her assistanct. 6/04 - After spending the last nine weeks in the hospital Michele came home, just in time for Tom's high school graduation party. She will continue her Speech, Occupational and Physical Therapy, receiving a total or 8 hours each week. Plus she will receive 2 hours each day of tutoring for school 5/04 - Michele is now at Children's Hospital at Mountainside and is coming along nicely. Her spirit is great and she does something new everyday. She comes home on Sundays and when she was home this past Sunday for Mother's day she gave everyone a big surprise by standing up and taking a few steps, there was not a dry eye in the house. She has quite a few words in her vocabulary and can speak 2-3 word sentences, Mostly she has a hard time when saying new things. At the hospital she has Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapy for one hour every day, 6 days a week. She attends school for one hour Monday through Friday. She also has pool time, recreation, computers and exercise scheduled intermittently throughout the week. Pool time is her most favorite time since when she is in the pool her limitations almost do not exist and she can move about freely. 4/11/04 - Michele had a massive stroke today. The stroke left her unable to use the right side of her body and unable to speak. Many tests are being done to dermine the cause of the stroke. She is in Peds ICU at Robert Wood Hospital. |
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