Thursday Update

July 17
By Linda

Mom's eyes were open when we entered her room this morning and stayed alert for hours. What a nice surprise. She then sat for 3 1/4 hours in her wheelchair. Her neck and shoulder muscles are quite weak from so much time in bed so it was quite a feat. Everything is focused on getting her stronger and building more endurance.

She worked with the occupational therapist--finding her balance while sitting, handing balls back and forth with a variety of stretches, and persisting on a task.

She visited with her brothers- and sisters-in-law while sitting in her wheelchair--mostly listening but answering some questions and adding a few smiles.

She worked with a new speech therapist to retrain swallowing muscles. She got pills down again for the first time in several days (by drinking V-8 juice) and ate a dozen bites of lunch while sitting in the cafeteria.

She scooted down the hall using her feet some of the way (while the physical therapist pushed the wheelchair). Then she was able to kind of lean/stand/list between parallel bars in the gym with the physical therapist this afternoon.

After all this, she fell into an exhausted sleep by suppertime and could not have been less interested in my attempts to lure her into eating.

With all the participation in activities and the visits from his brothers, Dad feels much better today and his spirits seem renewed. He does certainly wonder what can be done to encourage Mom to eat more but we are trying to take pleasure in the accomplishments of the day. Maybe tomorrow will bring some more healing.