The Incredibles

Saturday with Sam this weekend was pure pleasure. I noticed right away that Sam seemed very comfortable and when I commented to her about that and told her that she seemed quite calm inside and out, she said without missing a beat "that's because you're here". At lunch time, although Sam can feed herself, she usually gets distracted or tired, so I sometimes help her out if she wants/needs. This Saturday however, she took the food and asked me if I wanted some? She was trying to feed me, which was quite sweet. She also was much more awake on Saturday than I was, and after giving her a photograph book to look through, I promptly fell asleep in the chair (this is quite unusual for me). Meanwhile Sam had been paging through the book one/by one and I could tell had been really focused on the pictures. I had fallen asleep leaning on her a bit, and when I woke up about a half hour later, she just gave me a little smile as she continued to flip through the pages. It was as close to normal that we've come at the facility, knowing of course, that nothing is normal. After looking through the book of photographs, Sam said that she wanted to take some pictures. I quickly took out my digital camera and she shook her head and indicated that she wanted a real camera...you know, one with proper lenses and such. I tried to compensate by taking out a drawing pad and some crayons, as she was obviously inspired, and so she did some drawing for awhile. I was impressed with her energy. This weekend, I also noticed a nice change. Sam's repeating had slowed down a bit and gotten better. On Sunday, Sam actually had a speech class and her occupational therapist came by as well and both therapists talked with me for awhile. I was told by both of them that the tools they had given Sam to control her repeating was working and they were pleased. I asked them about the fact that she mouths things now, and no words come-out. Sometimes...like on Sunday, she did this most of the day, and it is actually very hard to understand her when she is acting this way. She also had never done this before at Park Terrace. They explained to me that it is a way they are working with her repeating issues. The speech therapists, both Amy and Meghan tell Sam to "turn off her voice" but now they see that Sam is doing it way too much, and so they are trying to have her "turn her voice back on" . I was relieved, because it is a kind of new tick, that developed, and although I tried to look at it as a sort of Zen like state for Sam, the fact is that I was a little worried about it, but now I know it is therapy. Sam does continue to have issues with eating and on Sunday, spit out most of her food. She wasn't as aware as she had been the day before, and she said she was very tired and wanted to go to bed. Therefore, right after lunch, I had the CNA's help Sam into bed, and she feel right asleep while I watched the "Incredibles" on TV. The nurse brought in another mighty nectar shake for Sam, for later, for when she awoke.