Saturday update per Elaine…

This was my weekend with the girls, so I did not get to see Raena at all since she was transferred up to LA. However, just before she was transferred Elaine visited and had this to say…

Dad, Josh, and I were able to go see Raena tonight before she was transferred. Originally, Raena was going to be transferred to Kaiser LA today. Nikki said they didn’t have a bed for her in PICU, so she was going to be transferred to Fontana instead. Then the Kaiser neurosurgeon wanted a ct before having her transferred. Then while we were there, they scheduled her for a ct at 9 tonight. We left just before 10 and there were no signs of her getting a ct yet. So, it looks like she will not be transferred tonight. The Kaiser neurosurgeon is going to evaluate her ct and then decide when to transfer her. We don’t know if LA is still a possibility or Fontana.

As the past couple nights, when we arrived, Raena was agitated. Pulling different things, swinging her right arm, kicking her right leg. At 8, they gave her more methadone. She was still moving around, but less agitated. She played a game of thumb war with Nikki, which was really cool to see. Nikki stepped out for a little, and Raena kept counting 1-5 with her hand. She would put up the number of fingers we asked. She was quickly running 1-5. I had her try to count backwards. She hesitated a little at first, and then did it.  Forward and backwards. Backward and forward. Forward was fast, backward was a little challenge she conquered. She did that for 30 min at least.

Nikki had been doing identification earlier, and she grabbed Josh’s thumb when asked. Then she was grabbing the number of fingers we asked her to grab of my hand. Then she started counting with my fingers. She’d grab all 5, push one out, then push the next one out, and so on until 1. Then she would go back up and grab each of my fingers in her hand until she had all 5. I was really happy and excited that she was having such great cognitive function, and seems like she was getting creative with her counting games. She played a couple games of thumb war with me, and no surprise, her right thumb is super strong!

We saw minor movement of her left arm and leg. Nikki said Raena gave a light squeeze with her left hand today.  She also had PT and sat on the edge of the bed. Nikki said she seemed to like it.

I was in really good spirits when I left tonight and so proud of Raena and all of her hard work!