Saturday, October 9, 2010

Anybody need help with grocery shopping? Sydney is your girl! She went grocery shopping at Smith's today, and bought all the ingredients for a Spaghetti dinner (which she will cook on Monday!) Riding over in the car made her a bit nervous (which is understandable after being in a car accident!) But when she got there she transferred to a wheelchair, then to a walker, then to a grocery cart! She pushed the grocery cart around the store and loaded her items into the cart! The biggest challenge was reaching the spaghetti sauce on the bottom shelf! Josh (Occupational Therapist) gallantly let her sit on his leg (a.k.a. emergency backup chair!) so she could reach the sauce. She then unloaded all the items from the cart at checkout, and Josh paid the bill. Wow! She is doing great! Miss Independent!

When she returned to the hospital, Kristen handed her the canes, and Sydney walked 520 feet with only 1 stop! She is cruising! Kristen then challenged her to transfer out of her wheelchair onto the floor. This was very difficult so Kristen assisted her. She then wanted Sydney to lie down, roll over, get into a crawling position on all 4's, and climb onto the mat. This proved to be a bit too difficult, but now Sydney has a new challenge!

Mr. Smith and Miss Plain will be excited to know that Sydney did some Calculus homework today – that is dedication! As Saturday is a lighter therapy day, Sydney has a goal to do homework on Saturday mornings. What fun!

Last night, Sydney received a visit from Sarah, a former rehab patient who was able to learn to walk after breaking her back paragliding 4 months ago. It was very encouraging to see how well Sarah is doing, and it gave Sydney a chance to ask her a lot of questions about what she was doing to adapt at home.

Tomorrow is Sunday, which is a day open for visitors. We look forward to seeing some of you tomorrow! Thanks again for your prayers and support! We are grateful for Sydney's miraculous recovery!