Recent Photos From Tom Bray

Current Hospital

Craig Hospital Room 210 West

If you want to send cards...etc. the address is

Craig Hospital Patricia Schmidt 3425 South Clarkson St. Englewood, CO 80110
(303)789-8254

E-mail's, cards and notes will all go in Pat's new scrapbook.

We know your love is here. Debra

Mailing List Subscription Information The Aunt Pat Mail List

Today I attended the 2nd team meeting concerning Pat's progress at Craig. I'll try to summarize the reports. Quick overall summary: Healing continues, but Pat still has a lot of deficits.

Dr. Chang: Medically she's doing well. Continuing to improve. For now she needs to keep her "Craig" bed, but high on the list of short term goals is to get into a regular bed. Right now there are still some safety issues regarding a regular bed.

Jennifer, speech therapist: "Lots of improvements, but still a long way to go." On a functional level Pat has made great improvements. She would still be considered severely impaired in terms of any formal testing she would do. She has a combination of Wernicke's aphasia (difficulty understanding what she hears and what she reads) and some oral apraxia. Wernicke's: Her auditory comprehension is still unreliable. (This might be somewhat masked to us on an informal basis because her automatic conversation abilities are improving.) She's still having trouble consistently verbally answering Yes/No questions accurately. (50% in therapy class.) She does better pointing to answers written down. (80%) Best improvement has been in reading comprehension. She is responding better to simple words written down. The difficulty she has expressing herself is related to the auditory comprehension problem. More automatic expressions are happening, but still has a lot of what is called "paraphasic errors." Stuff like "words" that aren't words, or using different words. Some of her best improvements have been in being able to practice speaking in unison with the therapist. Counting and such. Oral apraxia: Pat has trouble programming the movements of her mouth. Even imitating sticking her tongue out, or smiling a certain way. That would indicate that she is having trouble programming the movements for speech too. Writing: some improvement in being able to copy letters and words.

Sue, occupational therapy: Pat has some motor apraxia. Muscles don't always do what she's trying to do. They call it motor planning... being able to do what someone asks her to do. Adding objects to the mix complicates things.. like dressing, brushing teeth etc. She has improved though. Initially she needed maximum assistance. Now on her worst days she needs only moderate assistance, and usually only minimum. She does better when she tries to do only one thing at a time (like in the kitchen, just concentrate on one task.) Big goals are toward increased mobility, getting outside the hospital more, making safe transfers from standing to wheelchair, over bumps, etc.

Jean, physical therapy: Been testing leg strength. not too bad, some weakness though. She still needs supervision on movement, mostly because of impulsivity. She can walk 600' with the walker, cueing for safety is still needed. They've been working alot on correct walking, strengthening different muscles, paying attention to where she's going and what she's doing. Still trouble with some motor apraxia: "I'll show her what I want, tell her what I want, and I still don't get what I want." But she's doing well, getting better.

???, recreation therapy: what a surprise! Pat likes the sociability of recreation, crafts, in-house activities, interactions with others.

Dr. Schraa: One of the things they did with Pat is to play with environmental sound recognition - noises, alarm clock etc. She was very successful at pointing to the pictures relating to the sound. He thought that her rate of success was partially a function of the fact that it wasn't a verbal task. Language is difficult.

He stressed the importance of making things at home easily successful and safe.

Bob, Family Services: It's going to be a huge transition to get into a safe, structured routine at home. They'll be working on strategies for that transition. Right now they're looking at a Christmas discharge. They're beginning to identify the resources in Summit County for home care.

Dr. Weintraub: Reviewed a bit of neurology again, in light of best time for discharge. Have to put a safe 24 hour routine in place for Pat, get her into a regular bed, and let her struggle a bit with confusion and language so she can learn her limitations in order to learn to be safe. Another big stumbling block to her independence in the next 3-6 months will be her deficit in comprehension. She has a hard time programming new things to brain. He gave an example: for him to automatically get up from a chair and move to the blackboard takes just two connections in the brain. Not hard. But to do the same thing because someone told him to would take 100 different connections in the brain (comprehend command, do on demand, sequence and program all the steps necessary to execute it.) He believes that getting back into her old environment will stimulate the old, automatic circuits in her brain. That will be more important than trying to learn stuff in a "fake" or outpatient environment because it won't necessarily transfer back into the home setting. So.... getting 24 hour home supervision will be an important task now.

That's alot of info in one short blurb. Some of it may be a bit sobering. Remember that the brain may take years to heal. As Larry said, time is our friend. Enjoy your time this weekend! Love, Debra

NEWS FROM LARRY 11/19/99

Good day to all - it's a weekend.

I hoped to get a quick note posted before I leave for Denver. I want to get to the hospital early enough to have breakfast with Pat; I try to spend the whole weekend with her because she doesn't have any school. This weekend we will use the walker as much as possible .

Thursday I asked Pat if I could spend the night on Friday with her which was just fine with her "oh yes" was her answer.

Friday am Chip Alt calls to inform me that Very Sound is working the World Cups at Copper Mt. Resort and next week at Beaver Creek and wants to see if I might be able to join himself and Duffy Wilson for dinner in Frisco. I need a hall pass ! What are the odds Pat will remember I asked to spend Friday night, just 24 hrs later (she has brain trauma right)? I guess she processed all of that conversation as well as retained it. It was about 5:15 , Betsy Cuthbertson, Pat and I were returning from dinner , Pat starts of the conversation while on our way back with "I though ---salad----" , she stops and starts over "you mean --salad----, but I though ---salad ----" . Pat you mean to say "I thought you were going to spend the night"? YES Would it be alright if I meet them in Frisco at Golden Annie's for dinner and spend the night Saturday? YES Chip called at 5:30 right on cue to see if I got a hall pass. Aunt Pat raced for the phone, she greeted him, they talked for a while and she handed me the phone, after confirming the time and place, Pat wanted to say good bye to Chip and then proceeded to hang up.

What a great evening saw several old friends (the Curry's , the Tuso's and the Amico's) along with those Duffy brought with (Bruce Cocharn and Sylvia). Sylvia was the chief de village at the Copper Mt. Club Med in 1983-84 and now works for Copper Mt marketing.

Betsy stayed a little longer with Pat and I under stand there were several Friday night phone calls, sister Patty said she got a hold of Pat around 7:30, And the Huffman's were to call around 7:00 p.m.

Deb has done a great job at posting the team meeting updates in a very timely fashion (at a girl). It sounds as though it is full steam ahead to get Pat ready for the transition back to our home; projected date is December 23. The big challenge will be to find and hire 24hr care. If anyone is interested or knows of someone that has a couple days a week to schedule in please call.

It's time to get on the road, don't you know. Have a great day

Your friend the MacSchmidt's