word salad

Things at Good Shepherd are moving right along. Andie's still talking in what a friend of hers called "word salad" what a great description it really fits because the sentences start out with one thing and end with another and there could be a little bit of anything tossed in there. She's still not getting her own birthday correct all the time but knew my dad's birthday today.

Since there's still not much meaningful communication from Andie I'd like to ask that if you do go to visit her get the big calendar in her room and write on it who was there and at what time so we can all refresh and help with rebuilding her short term memory. While you're there also discuss things like significant dates and maybe even things like which therapies she's had that day or which are still to come. There's also a blue "homework" folder from the speech therapy department that we can all use to go over things with her. I left a note book there too for longer notes about visits but don't know what happened to it. If she's struggling with a word you can offer her paper to write it down or sometimes if you remind her to slow down she'll try a different approach to get out what ever she's trying to say.

She is using a walker to get around now as opposed to the wheelchair and they're talking about taking the trach tube out as well. There was talk of her leaving GS in about two weeks, where she'll go after that is still up in the air - there's a meeting planned for this Friday for my parents to talk about that with a case manager.