Post-surgery, Myers was moved to the intensive care
unit and discharged from the hospital three days later.
She credits the entire care team at WMC with making
her experience such a positive one. And her physical,
mental and psychological recovery began almost immediately.
“Meeting her following the surgery was like
meeting her for the first time,” Dr. Selznick notes. “Her
← Sally Myers
with one of her
sculptures at the
Museum of the
Shenandoah
Valley.
personality was back and she was smiling and joking, completely changed.”
Myers, however, was worried she might have lost her ability to create art,
so she was happy that her work with staff from Valley Health Rehabilitation
Services helped her regain cognitive and creative skill and, eventually,
get back to her studio. Expert care from speech language pathologist Emily
Beckley and occupational therapist Patrice Vossler was key to this recovery.
Because Myers was having difficulty summoning the right words when
she tried to speak, Beckley helped her with word-finding exercises and
offered other tools that improved communication. “Sally was aware of her
deficits and was very motivated to recover,” Beckley says. “We kept encouraging
her, and she bounced back very quickly.”
Neurosurgeon Lee A. Selznick, MD, examines
MRIs of Myers’ brain before and after surgery.
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