Sierra Strong

Sierra update: 4/20/2021

So I know it's been a long time without updates, and I apologize for that. It's been a bumpy ride. We were given a release date officially of May 6th and we were supposed to move to out patient care this Friday. However, there were quite a few medical hiccups this past weekend. So we may potentially be here a little longer. We should have a definitive answer by tomorrow at her discharge meeting. 

So let's start with some of the medical stuff. Last week she had an infection that completely stopped her in her tracks. Just as that was getting better, her left leg got quite swollen. They found out that she has another blood clot. Also she has something called heterotopic ossification which will require a one time dose of radiation to that specific area. If left untreated, she could develop bone in her muscle tissue. However, after talking to the doctors, she is doing so much better. They are changing her blood thinners one last time hopefully. She is feeling and functioning so much better than last week. Still gets a little tired easily, but she isn't falling asleep in therapies anymore. No more fever and her appetite has returned as well.

Because we are approaching her tentative inpatient discharge date, they redid a test that they conducted when we first got here. This test tracks her progress. At the beginning, she was a Complete T10. Complete-This means that that no signals are getting through past the injury level. T10 meaning that the T10 level is the last part on her body that feels normal. They have redone the test this morning, and while we didn't see a ton of progress, she is now considered a Complete T11. And this is better than we thought. We didn't think there would be any progress. So we will take the little wins!

And this morning, I saw the biggest smile on her face that I've seen in awhile. (Apart from the few visits she's had with family and Daniel while here) She was so excited to come home! I'm getting more glimpses of the Sierra we all know and love. I can't wait for you all to see her at home. I know it will be hard when we get home emotionally, but with y'all around I know she will do fantastic. Y'all have been such a great support for her through this. 

Here is a picture of her from this morning. She was thrilled when she transferred herself into this chair. It was the first time she had transfered to a normal chair just because she wanted to. It may not seem like it, but this was huge! Both in accomplishments, the armrests had to be difficult to work around, and in morale. She just left her room to roam around, found a nice chair to sit in, in a quiet place, and decided to sit and read!