Friday update

by Linda

10 steps for Doreen, a giant leap for peace-of-mind! This morning
before we arrived at the hospital, the physical therapist and nurse
helped Doreen take some steps (with a walker and their support) to a
chair where she sat for a couple hours! This major activity absolutely
exhausted her but we all felt so encouraged by the move out of bed
where she has spent nearly all her time for three weeks. After a good
long nap, she was eager to spend time with visiting family and several
dear friends from N. Manchester. She has an awkward grip on some of the
time sequences of the past weeks but a sure grip on some quick quips
and comments. "Mom, are you OK? You're making some really funny faces."
"I only have one face," she replied.

Doreen was able to use a spoon to eat half a bowl of tomato soup and
some jello and not one drop fell onto her "bib." I had never seen
someone chew a bite of jello for half a minute but she was savoring the
flavor and texture every moment. Eating takes a long stretch of time
and she exerts a lot of effort but she is taking more and more personal
care of her nutritional wants and needs.

We often need to remind her to open her eyes in order to help her
center her attention on a task like eating or exercising. She finds it
comforting to visually close out some of the things around her when she
is trying to concentrate but looking at what she is working on will
help her reinforce the brain pathways she needs to strengthen.
We are considering next steps----all the who, where, how kinds of
things. Now that we are out of the basic crisis mode, future questions
loom large. Moving from reactive to proactive decisions is a challenge
for the four of us offspring (and extended family) as we are stretched
around the country. We want both parents to be engaged in some kind of
enriching tasks and to be looking forward. Steps along the journey...