A new site

Aloha! Welcome to Abbie's new update page. For over two years now I have been working with my dear friend, Michelle, to keep www.prayforabby.com up-to-date. This entails me writing updates in Word, emailing them to her in Florida, and then having her post them. I am hopeful that if I can blog directly I will be more consistent in posting updates. The main page will remain up, and I will be updating much of the information there as well.

There is much to catch up on. I wrote an unpublished update on 7/5, but will wait to cut and paste that later, so that I can give the most current news now.

Abbie did have to start a seizure control medication, Trileptal, on Monday 7/10. I shed many tears as I gave her the first dose, but she needed Diastat (the emergency drug) for waves of seizures on 7/6 and 7/10, so I knew we needed to face this problem.

It's been 9 days now and my greatest fear, that the medication would make her overly drowsy or "out of it" has not come to fruition, praise God! If anything, she seems much better on many fronts. Her muscle tone is notable softer, she is much more vocal, we are getting more frequent laughter (a real joy!), her face is more animated - particularly noticeable changes on her weaker left side, and she is responding to commands even more quickly.

An example of the command response happened in the bathtub earlier this week. I asked her to move her legs in and out - she promptly did, several times. This is a big step because she's been able to move them in for a long time, but moving them back out marks an improvement in her tone--previously she was too tight to overcome the tone to move her legs back out. But, the cognitive function was apparent when I changed my directions slightly, and asked her to move her legs up and down instead. She immediatly changed her efforts, and although the movements were not huge, the understanding and intent were certainly there.

Physical therapy is going well. We continue to work on standing with the tilt table. When we first used it about 4 weeks ago it would take 40 minutes of standing to get her heels to come all the way down. On Monday it took 3 minutes. I have been able to get Abbie "standing" up on her knees (tall kneeling) and lately have been able to bring her body back to almost sit on her heels. This is a huge improvement in flexibility for her, and she enjoys being in these new positions.

But, the special joy lately has been watching the relationship between her and her brothers. In the update not yet posted I wrote about Abbie's latest new word, which is "brother". How fitting. She is still completely enthralled with her four young princes, and the feelings are deeply mutual. More than any therapy, device, modality or treatment their love and attention is bringing Abbie out.

Thank you for your patience and persistence in prayer during these lapses in updates. Even in times of silence, be assured that you are still carrying us!