She says she feels pain...

    Priscilla is doing very well. Today she had her staples removed from her back, a day earlier than orignally planned. The very long incision, which spans about a 12- 15 inches long is healing very well. She is still suffering from problems with her speech and short term memory, but she is remaining optimistic that they will return to normal with time as she heals.

       She is performing well in physical therapy and has twice said she felt pain in her hip joints when having someone perform her leg excercises. With this development, my curiosity led me to do some research and see what I could find out. I discovered that many people with complete spinal cord injuries (like hers) experience pain and tingling, although they can not move their legs. They say doctors don't understand it, but it is happening, but is no reason to get too excited. My thought before doing some research was that pain receptors in the brain were still intact, but because of the injury to the spinal cord, in Scilla's case the severance, the brain is not able to send message's to the legs to move, but is capable of feeling pain or what we think of as pain.

        In addition to my research on pain, I have also been researching women with complete spinal cord injury and sex and I am happy to say that research has been done and the results are promising. I know some people may feel that is too much information or something they don't want to read about, but the reality of the situation is that we are all human beings and sex is a very important part of life, especially for my sister considering that she is a married woman.

         On a lighter note, I had the opportunity to wheel Scilla to the cafeteria today, she knows a great short cut! She asked me to buy her dinner and then asked for a free pie from the worker, she told them she deserved it, because she survived her accident (glad to see her personality is still there)...lol!

I have picture of her in her wheelchair, but she was kind of drowsy and I don't think she will like the way she is looking, so I will try to get another one tomorrow, but I do have 2 wheelchair pics for you, it is of my beautiful baby girl sitting in Scilla's rehab chair, she will be getting a lighter and better chair of her own soon!

Mommy caught her in Aunt Scilla's chair, she took off her shoes and made herself comfortable!

She is really relaxing now, so much so that she has repositioned, propped her leg up and gotten comfy on a pillow.

Mommy always makes it better....

     THIS IS GOING TO BE VERY SHORT AND SWEET...
    I must first start this entry off as instructed by mother. My mother wanted me to express the gratitude of my family to everyone who has been there for us through this very tough time. Thank you to everyone who has and is continuing to pray for Priscilla. Thank you for the flowers, cards, balloons, phone calls, facebook posts, emails or whatever you have done to reach out to our family. We are truly grateful and so blessed to have such wonderful friends, family, and co-workers.
      Priscilla is continuing to do well and progressing. We are hoping they remove the line of staples going down the center of her back this week. I think that she may be feel a little better once they are removed, seeing as though they are starting to pull at her skin. She is trying really hard and is determined to get well so she can get home to her family.

        Today, I had the pleasure of witnessing a very touching moment. Scilla was sitting in her wheelchair and her back was hurting, so she wanted my mom to rub it. So while mom sat in a chair, I took Scilla's legs down from her chair and my mom held her hands as she leaned foward and laid her head on my mom's shoulder. While she laid on mom, I rubbed her back on one side and mom the other. It was so relaxing for her and she really enjoyed the embrace of mom.
       
   No matter how old we get or how grown we think we are, sometimes mommy is the only one who can make it better!

Walking in Faith....

WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS, THEY NOT ONLY SAVE LIVES, BUT THEY PREVENT LIFE CHANGING INJURIES

Wearing your seatbelt is one of the best and most important decisions you make whenever you get into a car. Please wear your seatbelts!!!  
   I really dislike wearing my seatbelt. I always feel as though it is choking me and is uncomfortable. I have learned how to ignore the warning light in one of our cars, but in our SUV, I have to put it on because of the annoying dinging. Yesterday, I leanrned some new things about the accident. Scilla said that she remembers getting up early and going to get her hair braided, she remembers getting into the car and feeling a little tired, but that is it. She remembers nothing else about the accident or what happened after getting in the car.
    
    We do know that she was NOT wearing her seatbelt, which is out the norm for her, because their bmw annoys the heck out of you when don't, but she was not driving the bmw, she was driving her daughter's volvo. (I think if she was driving the bmw, which is a 2009 and has all this new technology, that her injuries may not have been as severe and that the car may have even shut down or something along those lines).

     We also learned that during the accident, the car cut across traffic to the other side of the road and went down an approx. 40 foot embankment before hitting a tree. I am glad that no other drivers or cars were involved. Below are a couple of pictures of the car and from the pictures, which I got from Greg, it appears that most of the damage to the car was on the passenger side and I think that HAD SHE BEEN WEARING HER SEATBELT, her injuries would not have been as severe and that she would have walked from this accident with little or very few injuries.

front headlight/fender on driver side

 Interior look from driver side

Another interior look, center console detached

this photo and the one to follow is of the passenger rear side of the car

Wearing seatbelts not only saves lives, but it prevents life changing injuries. Had Scilla been wearing her seatbelt, her injuries would not have been as severe.

3:43 am start to my Friday...

 My friday morning began with a call at 3:43 a.m. with what else, but a call from Scilla! I was tired and enjoying my sleep very much when the phone rang and the hospital's number showed up on the caller id so I had to answer! So I answer "hello" and it's Scilla saying "what are you doing" and of course I reply "sleep" and then she says "Oh, I just wanted someone to talk to, but ok bye". Please note this call was not important because if it had been I would have talked with her, she was actually bored.

   On Friday, a lot of things were learned and are experienced. So where do I start? I guess I will begin with an update on her health condition.

• Priscilla is doing very well with therapy, with the exception of the fact that they believe the medicine they are giving her for anxiety is causing her drowsiness and therefore she is falling asleep in her sessions, so they are going to cut down on the currect dosage.
• The biggest health concern for me is that we learned that she did experience some head trauma in the accident, a concussion. This is the reason for her slightly slurred speech mentioned in the previous post and as well as for small, but noticable change in her handwriting and a loss in some short term memory. The doctor thinks that the trauma to the head has had an effect on some, but not all of her motor skills and we are hoping that as her body heals, so too will any problems resulting from head trauma. 
• Keeping with her health, something they are giving her in the hospital is causing high blood sugar levels which are a concern to the doctors because high blood sugar levels can interfere and slow down the healing process. Before the accident, her levels were normal and under control. She is going to have a visit with an endocrinologist to see if they can determine or help gain control of her BSL's.
• She also has Strep in her blood and her doctors at the R.C.P thinks it is from her PICC line, so my question is how? Was someone who put it in sick? Did someone with strep touch it? How is what I want to know!

Now to experiences. Scilla insisted that she and I go for a walk. So we had the task of transfering her into her chair, without having any training or never seeing a nurse or therapist do it before. Let's just say that the transfer had a couple of glitches and did not go as smoothly as I would have hoped. Two things worked against us:

1. We did not have the sliding board and
2. She did not want us to use the sling

  So in the process of trying to get her into the chair, we missed and she ended up on the floor on her knees and it took 4 of us to get her in the chair FINALLY! I think I am going to have to start working out and build my muscles, because I know that have no muscle strength and I am really going to need it now and also once some of the swelling goes down, she may be a little bit lighter.

Mimi, my 3 year old daughter and I pushed Scilla around and took her downstairs and she tried to convince us to put her in the car and take her for a ride, of course we refused! She also wanted Mimi to ride in her lap on the chair, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that, so I did not her get in Scilla's lap, although Scilla insisted several times.

   On another note, Scilla had a good day; for the most part. During our walk, she reassured me that if she never walks again, it is ok! She said that to me several times and I am glad that she knows whether or not she walks again, life still goes on. Life will be different, but she can still have a fulfilling life.

     I also must mention that she received a visit from a childhood friend who was in a car accident 6 years ago and is now paraplegic also. Scilla had some questions for her and wanted to touch her legs and asked her to show her how she tranfers from her wheelchair to a regular chair. Her visit was a God-send and she said my sister could call her with any questions and that she would come to one of Scilla's therapy sessions and help her out as much as possible.


"Walking in Faith"

When it rains, it pours...

    It has been just over a week since the accident and we are learning new things daily. Scilla is doing very well with her therapy, but the possibility of a collapsed lung and her blackouts are causing some concern for us. When I asked the nurse today about the blackouts/falling to sleep, she said it maybe contributed to the medicine she is taking for anxiety. Also causing concern for me is her slightly slurred speech and I am just hoping that these are all things that will improve with time and that are not permanent, but just small side effects of the accident that will improve as her health continues to improve.

Scilla requested that I come to the hospital today to talk to her about some things. ( I don't like R.C.P's look and I didnt like seeing her there and had many mixed emotions upon arriving and leaving) Once inside, we talked about Shakelle and how she was handling the situation and the toll the accident has taken on everyone emotionally and mentally. She told me that she would love to walk again and she believes that God does perform miracles, but he may not want her to walk again, which is ok, but for right now her goals are to
1. dress herself
2. shower by herself and
3. drive again

    Today her rehabilitation doctor and therapists had a conference about her and concluded that she will need around the clock care, I am not yet sure what led them to come to this conclusion, but we still hope that she will be able to have her independence again someday.

     The last update is that she expressed to me she would like to live with my mother, which is going to be something very hard to accomplish. We are hoping and praying and trying to put our heads together to see how to make this happen. My mom's current home does not even come close to being
      1. Wheelchair or handicap accessible or
      2.  Large enough to house my sister's family and my mom and sister (Angelic)

      Beside accessibilty factors and home size, financially my family does not have the means to provide the home that she will need. I know that with God all things are possible and I am praying that we can somehow raise the money or get someone to donate a handicap/wheelchair accessible home for them. I have a pretty nice size property in the back of my house and as an option to cut down on cost, I am willing to let them build in my backyard ( SN: I guess it is good that I haven't had the pool I have always wanted, put in yet).

    After everything I have had to digest today, she did give me a reason to smile and laugh by saying she was not going to be rolling (picture her moving her arms in a circular motion as in turning the wheels of a wheelchair) but she was going to get her an electric chair so she can ride her babies around...lmao. So I told her when she gets her chair I would buy her this shirt :

Walking in Faith...

     

Nothing major today...

I had planned not write anything today, but I am up late. I have nothing of importance to say, but I would like to ask for prayer, which I know you are all doing. My mother and I talked tonight and she informed me of some things going on with Scilla that I will share very soon.

On another note, my mom met a lady today whose son is paralyzed, but through accupunture, he has gained bowel and bladder control and does not have to Cath, which is something I am going to look into for my sister.

Today, I am uploading a pic of Scilla and I taken on thanksgiving 2009. I don't like the way my eyes look in the pic, but oh well.

"walking in faith"

Reality Stinks....sometimes!

Today was the first day of Scilla's intense schedule of  3 hours of daily therapy. After her first 2 hour morning session, I think the reality of Priscilla's paralysis hit her. She called mom and was very upset. Her therapist said she did very well; an excellent job this morning, but Scilla was trying so hard to move her legs and couldn't. The reality that she was paralyzed and her legs were not going to move, hit home!

   If you read one of today's earlier posts; you will note that I mentioned the topic of reality and giving false hope and I think I may have been on the correct path about deciding that I would no longer say she would walk again, but instead to be a positive supporter.