Well it’s been several months since our summer update and we hope you and your families are doing well.  For those of us in Minnesota it’s been a surprisingly mild winter and you won’t hear any complaints from me.  

Our family is doing well as we inch closer to spring.  Nicole and I just got over COVID for our first time and luckily for both of us it wasn’t too bad.  Nicole had it slightly worse than I but for the most part we’re good outside of an occasional cough.  

Nicole’s moved on from her OT at Essentia and is now in her second semester working with students at the College of St Scholastica in their new facility off of Woodland Ave.  She’s enjoyed getting to continue to work on her right hand fine motor skills and right hand and arm mobility. One of the things she’s been working successfully on was learning how to tie a ponytail again by herself.   No more need for her to settle for Cale’s “less than stellar” ponytail assistance.  No matter how many times I tried I could never get it tight enough for her even though I gave it my best effort.  I’m a guy so that’s my excuse.  😀

Additionally, she’s been working on different ways she can adjust her grip so she can push and turn a shopping cart which is another struggle for her.  If it’s a small trip to the store she can manage but anything too heavy is still too much for her to handle but she will get there in time I have no doubt.  

Outside of the OT work at Scholastica, she continues to do speech therapy at UMD and really enjoys her students there.  In her second year there they began to push her harder and challenge her with slightly more advanced exercises.  Nicole also continues to attend the UMD Socialize support group for stroke victims and last year their group put together a brochure to educate the public on aphasia titled “All About Our Communication.”  I attached a picture of the article for anyone interested in reading it.  

She’s been able to get back to reading now and doing several read to me audio books where she will follow along with a hard copy of the book reading along as she listens.  Nicole has taken some further steps on her speech apps on her iPad and started working on repeating longer sentences and improving her verbal accuracy.  Just this past week she pulled out some of her old 4th grade lesson plans and started to read them out loud as practice and she thought it went pretty good for her which was nice to hear.  She’s a tough critique of herself which is probably not a surprise to anyone who knows her.   While progress is still slower than she would like, she continues to improve her speech with every passing month.  

Outside of therapy Nicole has taken on the full duties of picking up the boys from school daily.  She’s never liked driving but is now comfortable enough driving to places she is familiar with.  This has been the perfect winter for her to get reacquainted to winter driving making it easier on her nerves with the better than usual road conditions.  She’s a trooper and has made the best of it.

Nicole has continued to volunteer at school helping where she can.  She will try to pick up an additional volunteer day when she’s ready for it, but for now 1 - half day a week seems to be her comfort level.  

When not doing therapy she likes to work out at home and at the YMCA prior to picking up the boys at school.  She also has gotten back to doing a little crafting here and there as well and doing some outdoor walking when the weather is right.  This weekend she had a girls trip with some of her work friends and enjoyed getting away even if it was only for a few days.  

We are looking forward to wrapping up another winter here but we know it’s certainly not over yet.  Thank you all for checking in and we’ll look to share our next update over the summer.

Take care everyone!