Mackenzie Update - 2024-Nov-25 at 09:08 AM

 2024-11-25 -  Mercy CR IRU - Cedar Rapids, IA -  ~3 Minutes

Not much to report thus far today. Mackenzie had OT this morning at 7:30 AM and I got booted out of her room (to the very comfy family lounge/lobby) for ST a few minutes ago. She has a full slate of therapy (mostly speech) until about 2 PM today, then rest.

I’m here on my own today and expect to sneak in a few hours of work after an early start at 5 AM.

My other goal today is to get my personal blog in order so I can make a permanent home for all these posts, and others. My old iPhone 12 was becoming unreliable and with everything going on I decided to put a new iPhone 16 into service. I think I have most of the settings back (the process was thankfully much easier than in the past EXCEPT for my Outlook, Edge and Duo work settings!), but things like my blog workflow still need to be tweaked.

So, please forgive all the dictation goofs from the past couple of weeks. It’s been an adventure!

My therapy goal for today is to talk with the therapists to renew our conversation about caring for Mackenzie after we go home. At times it can be difficult to understand what she’s trying to say, the thoughts are there but she still stumbles at times with the delivery, at least via speech. The therapists caution that “confrontational speech”, asking questions and such can be especially difficult and sometimes frustrating for Mackenzie, while “conversational speech” comes much easier. Mackenzie has some fear of failure around friends and family so that’s why I get out of the way when the therapists show up. She’s much more determined around them because they have INFINITE patience and she knows they don’t judge. The TEAM here is WONDERFUL!

We don’t judge either but it’s hard for us to convince her to relax and learn from mistakes, hers and ours.

I’d love to come away with some strategies for her growth without undue stress. Just now I’m in the lobby having a text message conversation with her. ST practice I think. It’s going well. I think she can thumb type almost as fast as she could before, like 100x faster than I can even now!

Sorry… got interrupted with a text message from Mackenzie calling me back to her room.

Well, the ST just started that back-to-work conversation with us. It sounds like while her speech is still difficult at times, she gets stuck and a little frustrated searching for the right thing to say, her reading and writing speed and comprehension is very good. In her next session, about 20 minutes from now, I think they will give her a written process to follow with questions included, see if she can do it, and then summarize her work WITHOUT UTTERING A WORD. Certainly not a full work environment, but it will be a good benchmark for an alternative means of comprehension and communication if one is needed.

I find it kind’a interesting that I like text messages MUCH MORE than talking on the phone, my old fart memory isn’t what it used to be so I like to have that written record if needed. It sounds like Mackenzie might be cut from the same mold, and it’s more evident now than ever.

Will post more when I can. Take care.

-Mark M.