Monday Update

August 25, 2008
By Judy

Today was another moving day, but this one was a move to a lot more independence! First, Doreen and Judy made the trip in her Honda. Nurse Sally wheeled her to the car and helped her into the passenger seat. Everyone said goodbyes. The seat belts were fastened, and Doreen held a small jar of flowers in her hands during the whole trip (almost half an hour).

After arriving at Covington Manor, a nurse from Covington Manor transferred her to a wheelchair again, and Doreen entered the rehab center. This center feels much less like a hospital and more like a place to work and socialize. The therapy room was full of people working hard on large and small muscles. When Judy left at lunchtime, residents were seated (many in wheelchairs) around square tables, waiting for their meals to be served.

The meals come on trays, but the staff serves the food to the residents like in a restaurant. Doreen’s concern was whether someone would help her eat. The lunch attendant assured her she would get help. It appears, though, that the participants are expected to do as much as they can for themselves. Apparently Doreen was expected to transport herself to and from meals. That is great exercise, but she may need to have a little more supervision at this point. At supper she had spilled some tea on herself. When she got back to her room, she fell from her wheelchair as she tried to change her pants. She didn’t get hurt, but the procedures will be a little more supervised for a while!

Doreen is in a semi-private room, but she does not have a roommate at this point. Visitors are welcome, but it would be good to coordinate and make sure that there are not too many visitors at once. And some of the visit may consist of watching therapy sessions, because much of her day will be spent in that way. Meals are at 8, 12, and 6.

Over the next couple of days, Carl’s younger brother Dick and wife Barbara will be visiting, so that will another fun distraction and also a reminder about the motivations for the work. Next weekend many families will be together for Labor Day and wishing Daniel a good send-off to Manchester College.

Sunday Update

August 24, 2008
By Judy and Linda

My, my, my! What a whirlwind of emotion and activity this weekend. Mom's sudden improvements meant finding a new "home" after the acute care hospital that she no longer needs. She is more alert and conversant than we have seen her in a lo-o-ong time. Several skilled nursing facilities were toured so we could make an informed choice about moving Mom to more extensive rehabilitation and therapy services. We settled on the rehabilitation unit at Covington Manor at 5700 Wilke Road off west Jefferson in Ft. Wayne. It was difficult to decide from many wonderful options. We realized we could search and search for the perfect match forever. We opted to make a decision that was as good as possible in the time we had and relied on input from many sources before choosing a very respected facility for the next stage of Doreen's therapy. Covington came highly recommended and feels like a good next step. Judy will move her in (by transporting her in her car!—another first) on Monday morning.

We are excited to hear what the next accomplishments will be for Mom. At Covington Manor, they will not let her get away with asking to go back to bed. They do therapy 7 days a week, they expect residents to eat together in the dining room, and Mom will not be able to just ask to go back to bed without a lot of prodding and encouragement to keep working. They even have a Wii that is used for therapy!

We thought at first that this would be a step toward a more complete rehab facility, but this program is called Homeward Bound, and the expectation is that residents will go to their home setting after therapy here. So we hope this is the final address change before a final home that will bring Mom and Dad to the same address!

Dad has been enjoying Timbercrest. He has attended choir practice, has made a number of new friends and connected with many old ones, and is learning to negotiate the rhythms and routines of the Timbercrest community. There have been a few bumps in the road, but we hope to smooth those out.

One more thing we have done is to engage the services of a geriatric care specialist who will advocate for us and help to coordinate all the myriad services and agencies we still need to negotiate. Now that we all need to return to work and school, this specialist will also be able to be present when we can’t and can be a local person in case of emergencies. We wish we would have had this help earlier!

Let us know if you need more information about finding the new facility. And thanks to Jim Garber for helping to manage all your generous offers of help to carry Dad to see Mom!

Thursday Update

August 21
by Karen

We have had quite a flurry of phone calls over the last several days and lots of information has flowed between the professionals in Fort Wayne and the 3 Myers daughters! Last week (Aug. 13) we were told that the Progressive Hospital staff expected Mom to need about 3 more weeks of care in their facility before she would be ready to move to the next step in her journey. Yesterday (Aug. 20), when they called to update me about Mom's progress, they indicated that she had made remarkable progress over the last week and is ready to move to another facility now. Wow! We felt a bit of whiplash with that news. We are not ready yet! Where will she go?! How do we know what is best for her?!

We are currently investigating the options available for Mom's care. We have been advised that she needs to go to a skilled nursing facility for awhile in order to build her strength and stamina to the level needed for her to return to a rehabilitation hospital. (Of course, we are having to pay CLOSE attention to the Medicare rules and regulations now that Mom has been in care for 84 days!)

Linda and Judy will both head to North Manchester and Fort Wayne this weekend to visit the potential next homes for Mom. The choice needs to be made as soon as possible, because Mom needs to move by Monday or Tuesday next week at the latest.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Search for (Doreen's) Tomorrow...

P.S. I apologize for all of the exclamation points. I guess that communicates some of the intensity of the emotions we are feeling right now.

Saturday Update

August 16, 2008

On Friday, Carl had traveled to Progressive Hospital with good friends Dorotha and Joe Fry Mason. One of the positive aspects of the trip was that the doctor who had given such a gloomy prognosis several days before made a point to talk to Carl and say that he felt Doreen was doing very well and was making good progress. Carl wasn’t sure how much weight to put on that statement, but he appreciated the effort.

Judy and Dick traveled to North Manchester on Saturday to see Carl and to take him to see Doreen. They spent some time in the apartment to help get things arranged in a helpful and useful way and also did some shopping to get some helpful aids. After 3 ½ days in the apartment, Carl had an idea of some things that worked well and some other things that felt more awkward. It is challenging for someone who has not lived alone for decades to figure out how to manage schedules and spaces. Staff members at Timbercrest and all the family members have worked to find ways to accomplish that goal. And now that Carl has a phone, he feels that he can have contact with the people who are important to him. Contact a Myers family member if you would like his number. (And he has an answering machine, too.)

The trip to Ft. Wayne brought some new and welcome surprises. First, Doreen was behind the nurses’ station in a wheelchair when the family arrived. They said she had been singing for them. Apparently, she was singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, Amazing Grace, and some other selections. Although therapists do not come to the hospital on the weekends, this adventure served a therapeutic function. Singing exercises the vocal cords, and those muscles are closely related to muscles that control swallowing.

Another surprise was that Doreen had eaten two bowls of soup overnight. She couldn’t tell the family what kind of soup it was, though, because she didn’t remember eating it, but the accomplishment was clearly documented by the nurses. They also told the family that Doreen is now at the “one-person assist” level when getting in and out of bed and when using the bedside facilities. They said that she could almost do that alone if her balance was better. So she is getting stronger and we are moving ahead!

The family helped Doreen with supper, and the eating was not as good, although one nurse challenged her to eat two more bites after she thought she was full. This was a step up from the old challenge to eat one more bite. Actually, Doreen ate three more—of apples with peanut butter. And the wit was still sharp. When Judy asked the question she used to ask her children—“Do you want me to cut your sandwich into triangles or rectangles?” Doreen answered “Hexagons.” No, Judy did not do that.

One of the things that Judy and Dick had brought along was in response to an earlier request. She had asked if they could bring a copy of a video of Aaron and Amanda (Judy and Dick’s children) singing “The Prayer.” They had done that as a duet at Amanda’s senior recital at Manchester in 2003. After Doreen watched the DVD on a laptop computer, she said, “I will use the same statement my father used [after his great-grandchildren gave a Christmas program for the family]—It’s as close as you can get to heaven without being there.” Family means so much to Doreen, and so do friends. Thank you for being there for her and for Carl.

Tuesday Update

August 12, 2008
by Judy

Today is primarily an update on Carl. This is the day when he became a Timbercrest resident. He is now living in B-7 of the community. He had medical exams and packed all the things that he had with him at the Bucher Bed & Breakfast (thanks for all the wonderful hospitality there!) and unpacked them in his new apartment. He found the Rose Garden dining room and began to learn the procedures there, met the nursing support staff, and even emptied his wastebaskets (after a few hours of being there). He has had greetings and visitors, and has already had an invitation to deliver a message at a worship service. This will be a wonderful home for him! We hope Doreen will join him soon.

Now that the Myers daughters are gone from N. Manchester for the next days, it will be important for others to help Carl visit Doreen. We are very grateful that Jim Garber offered to coordinate the schedule of those people who are willing to make that trip from Timbercrest to Progressive Hospital in Ft. Wayne. As we have said, the visits should generally be short. Now that Carl is in his new residential setting, he will need to notify the food service if he will miss a meal, and it is asked that he notify them 24 hours in advance. So a trip in the middle of the morning or afternoon would be fine. Three or four visits a week would be great. Please let Jim Garber or us know if you are willing to help with these trips.

Tomorrow’s update will provide more information on Doreen.

Sunday & Monday Update

August 10 and 11, 2008
by Judy

On Sunday, Carl and Judy attended the Manchester church and then enjoyed being taken to dinner by a friend before going to the hospital. When they arrived, they found that Doreen was being fed the full 75 cc's an hour through the stomach tube. She was tolerating the process well. Her interest in food had not continued to grow, though. She was back to eating a few bites a meal, and she was not talking about cravings. This easily could have been because she was getting fed constantly through the PEG tube, so her stomach was full. Judy asked if the feeding through the tube could be stopped during meals, but the nurses said that the orders were for continuous feeding, and they could not change that. But they did say that they would pass our request on to the doctor, and some hinted that they agreed with our request.

Doreen was going back to wearing more normal clothes and fewer hospital gowns, so Carl and Judy went shopping for some more simple lounging clothes. They also looked for something that would meet the need of the latest request from Doreen--chocolate-covered, peanut-butter-filled pretzels. She insisted that she had found them the day before and that we just need to get them out of the cabinet. Actually, she had found them in May and brought them along on her trip to Indiana. The rest of us enjoyed that fact, and we finished eating those snacks a while ago. (Little did we know that we would get "caught.") But we looked for something simlar.

On Monday, Carl and Judy arrived in the morning shortly before the physical therapist. He worked on rolling back and forth, seeing if Doreen could do that on her own. He said she did much better than before, but that kind of motion is problemmatic for her. It causes her to feel some dizziness and vertigo. But she did not vomit, and she has not done so for a few days. That is getting better!

The doctor was also doing rounds when the family arrived, so Judy talked with him about the idea of stopping the feedings during mealtime to encourage appetite and the eating of regular food. His first response was that he would not do that, because she needed the feeding. He said he had done this many times, and that he knew better than we did. Judy said that he knew the medicine better than the family did, but that she knew Doreen better, and the she had seen interest in food in the past few days for the first time in weeks, and she wanted to take advantage of that. The doctor said that he would do whatever we wanted, but made it clear he thought it was wrong. Judy then asked how long he anticipated Doreen would be in Progressive, and he said she would be there for 25 days. She asked what kind of placement he thought she would be ready for when she left, and he said that she would need skilled nursing care for the rest of her life and suggested that she would not get much better than she is now. He said that she has severe brain damage. Unfortunately, Carl had walked up during this conversation and heard the doctor's statement.

These statements contradicted what we have heard from almost every other professional we have come in contact with. Yes, there was clearly brain trauma, and there will likely be lasting brain damage of some kind. But everyone has said that it will take a long time to find out what kind of damage has been done, and recovery is a very slow process. There is always hope, and hope is one of the most powerful medicines Doreen can receive at this time. Judy was not willing to accept the doctor's prognosis, but Carl was devastated by it and started to second-guess his decision to move into Timbercrest.

Judy talked to Carl afterward and pointed out that she felt those were very irresponsible statements. Some of the staff talked to Judy and Carl to check out how those statements had been received and also to point out that they were seeing real progress and didn't agree with the doctor, either. Kurt Borgmann came to visit, and he also talked about the long recovery and progress with his father after his auto accident and brain injury in March. He has seen amazing but slow and steady progress in his father and reminded us that progress is still be in our future. Later, the hospital administrator and head nurse had a conference with Carl and repeated many of the same reassuring comments. As frustrated and angry as we were with the doctor's comments, the responses and support from the rest of the staff were affirming and hopeful.

All three therapists--physical, occupational, and speech--came while Carl and Judy were there. Although Doreen had her eyes closed again for much of the day, she did very well in all of her therapies. She continues to amaze everyone with her memory. As Judy was filling out forms, Doreen was able to provide phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and zip codes from memory, impressing the speech therapist. During her speech therapy, she was building her speech and swallowing muscles by yawning, puckering, and smiling in succession. She had done that for a while when she called for Carl. He wasn't in the room at that moment, but Judy went to get him. When he came in, she used her index finger to beckon him. He asked what she wanted as he stood next to her, and she said, "I don't want all this puckering to be for nothing" He gave her a kiss, saying the first one was her idea, but then gave her another, saying it was his idea. Doreen did have a couple of food requests again--bagels, and lettuce spread with peanut butter.

Tuesday is the day for Carl to have a physical exam and to move into Timbercrest Retirement Community. It will probably not be possible to fit in a visit to Ft. Wayne. Wednesday, Judy needs to be at work in Lafayette. So we are counting on the loving hands of the Manchester community in Timbercrest and beyond to support and nurture Carl and Doreen and provide them with opportunities for contact. We will share information here in this forum by Tuesday evening or Wednesday about how the support will be coordinated. We rejoice in the way we have been enveloped in this caring community. Once again, thank you!

Saturday Update

Saturday, August 9, 2008

 

Carl was not feeling well today, so Judy went to Ft. Wayne alone and let him rest and recover some level of strength. Other than that, this was a great day! Doreen was alert and very conversant. She complained of a little discomfort now and then in her stomach—especially when coughing and sneezing, but that makes sense after a surgical procedure. We referred to the stomach tube as an umbilical cord, and it serves much of the same function. But, as Doreen said, “they probably wouldn’t want to take stem cells from this one.”

 

The hospital personnel started the tube feeding overnight. They are giving her something very similar to baby formula. They pour it in a bag that that infulses the formula through a tube that looks like an IV tube, but it connects to her stomach tube (also called PEG tube). She was getting 30 cc’s an hour at first, but because she was tolerating it well, it was bumped up to 45 cc’s.

 

The best news of the day is that something seems to have stimulated Doreen’s appetite. Judy didn’t get the full story regarding the oatmeal that was requested yesterday, but Doreen did say that she got oatmeal either for supper or for breakfast. Judy tried to help Doreen eat her lunch, but she didn’t want much. Then she started talking about Chinese food. She seemed really hungry for that. The nurses checked with the kitchen, and they didn’t have anything like that available. Judy and Carl had been to a nearby Chinese restaurant the night before, though, so Judy suggested she make a run to get carry-out. Doreen then said that we should make a list. She came up with 5 dishes that we should get. Judy asked how many people we were feeding, and Doreen said she wasn’t sure. It ended up that Judy got 3 dishes, and Doreen wanted chopsticks, too. The bedside table was set up so that both of them could eat together, and Doreen probably had a half cup of food. She fed herself some of it with chopsticks (although she needed a little help)! When she was done, she said that she just didn’t want any more, but she also said it was very good. Some of the leftover food was put in the refrigerator for other meals or snacks. The daughter of another patient a few doors down had had the same experience with her mother, a woman who was not eating but who ended up eating 2/3rds of her daughter’s Italian carry-out meal. This trend doesn’t say much for the hospital food, but it provides a great strategy!

 

Doreen watched several events of the Olympics. Before Judy arrived, she was watching some of the equestrian events and was telling the hospital staff about how her father used to show Tennessee Walking Horses. She also watched some swimming, women’s saber fencing, and basketball. When she wasn’t watching TV or sleeping, she talked about needing a motorized wheelchair to attend the National Older Adult Conference; unfortunately, that conference occurs in two weeks, and she will clearly not be able to attend. Her response to hearing that she won’t be able to go was some frustration and also some puzzlement about the timing of everything. When Judy explained that Doreen really needed to work on sitting up to be able to do all the things she wants to do in a wheelchair, she said, “then I will work really hard on those exercises.”

 

After the dinner in the room, Doreen seemed to be exhausted. She fell deeply asleep. But after two days of her talking about food in a positive light, we are all encouraged and hope to see more steady changes. Once we stoke that engine again, though, we better watch out!

 

One final note—we heard from Timbercrest that Carl may move in on Tuesday after his doctor’s appointment. It will be great for him to be in a place of his own where he doesn’t feel that he is in someone else’s way—even though we have been welcomed with very open arms and treated like family. The hospitality has been genuine and humbling. We feel we have made new friends and have gained new family members. But it has always felt temporary. This move will allow Carl to begin to feel that he is home. And we look forward to continuing the strong new (and on-going) relationships as we move to another stage!

Wednesday-Friday Update

Wednesday-Friday, August 6-8, 2008

 

On Wednesday, Judy needed to be in Lafayette, and Carl spent the day with friends in North Manchester. On Thursday, Carl was able to visit the hospital with Dorotha and Joe Fry Mason. The reports are that the therapy went very well both days.

 

Today (Friday) was the day for putting in a stomach tube to assist Doreen’s eating. Although we expected the procedure to be done at 10:30 a.m., we were told on Tuesday that the time was changed to 8:30. So we left North Manchester at 6:30 to get to the hospital by 7:30 to accompany Doreen. When we arrived, we found out that there were glitches in the plan, because Doreen apparently pulled out her PCC line overnight (although she was sure a nurse had done it—there was no record of that). Because the line was out, she did not get her IV nutrition most of the night. Because the IV nutrition is basically sugar water, it raises her blood-sugar level, which means she needs insulin. Because she did not get the IV nutrition beginning at 1:30 or so, she had gotten insulin she didn’t need, and her blood-sugar level was now too low. This is one of the benefits of the stomach tube—she should be able to get back to normal blood-sugar regulation!

 

After the hospital gave Doreen an injection of dextrose, we headed to another hospital (Parkview) to get the procedure done. When we got there, we ended up waiting a long time, until the doctor came to do the procedure at the time we were originally were told—10:30. But before they did the procedure, they found out the blood-sugar level was very low again, so they needed to give more dextrose. The procedure went very well, but it took a long time for Doreen to wake up. When she finally started to come back to the present, her blood-sugar had dropped again. But an advantage of that was that she did something she hadn’t done for weeks—talk about food! She talked about oatmeal and hash browns. (The hospital ordered oatmeal for her supper. We will ask tomorrow if she actually ate it.)

 

After talking with different doctors and trying other things, more dextrose was given, and Doreen really started to wake up, so after 6 ½ hours we got back to Progressive, even thought we expected the procedure and transport to take 45 minutes. Now we will see if the procedure will help with eating. She will still be able to take food by mouth, but they will provide a steady input of nutrition through the tube. If she takes enough by mouth, they can stop using the tube.

 

Carl and Judy will be able to visit daily for a few days now and will send updates as we see the progress.

 

Tuesday Update

Tuesday, August 5

 

Today Judy, Dick, and Carl continued to deal with some of the business issues with Carl’s prescriptions and preparing for the move to Timbercrest. Then we traveled to Ft. Wayne.

 

It was a fairly quiet day after a very noisy night. Storms moved through North Manchester around midnight, so the Bucher clan and Judy and Dick moved to the basement of the Bucher’s home for a while. The basement is where Carl has been sleeping, but he missed the party and didn’t even realize we had come down. But the storm passed without damage.

 

Apparently, Doreen had another bout of nausea during physical therapy in the morning, but no other problems with it during the rest of the day. Occupational therapy went very well and included an audience part of the time—the Buchers and two of their grandsons. Unfortunately, speech therapy did not go as well. After starting well with lip and vocal cord exercises, Doreen fell asleep and was not able to wake for the end of the therapy session. She had worked hard in the other sessions, so maybe it was just too much to expect another. Her eating was similar to the past several days—about 10-15 bites per meal. All of the therapists commented on improvements they had seen in the last several days, in spite of the struggles. Slow and steady progress….

 

The final plans were set for the surgery to insert a feeding tube. It will be done on Friday at 10:30 in Parkview Hospital. Doreen will be treated as an outpatient, getting the treatment and moving right back to Progressive. Hopefully, the tube will help to free her from the IV feedings, keep her blood sugar more balanced, and allow her to build more strength to complete her recovery.

 

We will now be moving into a new stage of routines and different levels of support from the family. Judy, Linda, and Karen need to get back to work and other family responsibilities. Judy will be able to be present during the surgery on Friday, but there will be days when none of the daughters will be available. We appreciate the caring from the larger community who have been visiting Doreen and supporting Carl. We hope Carl will be able to move into Timbercrest by next week, but there are still a few tasks to complete before then. We are deeply grateful to Darlene and Gordon Bucher for housing all of us during all of this time, and also for being a support system for Carl when the rest of the family is not available over the next several days.

 

Many of you have offered to transport Carl to Ft. Wayne to visit Doreen. Your generosity is welcome and humbling. We do have some requests regarding how the visiting should be handled, however. First, it is not necessary for Carl to visit every day. The visits can be emotionally exhausting, and growth and improvements are not as obvious with very frequent visits. Also, we ask that Carl not be left at the hospital alone. It would be best for those who are willing to transport him to take him for short time and remain with him during that time. It would be fine to take him along on other errands and activities during the trip. We all need to be reminded that there is another world outside of the hospital! If you are interested in helping with some of these trips, please coordinate those trips through a family member at this point. Later, we hope to have a small group of friends at Timbercrest who can serve in this role. And we sincerely hope it will not be too much longer before Doreen and Carl can be in the same location!

 

Look for the next post on Friday night after the surgery, unless something dramatic happens between then and how. Thanks for all of your continuing care and support!

Sunday & Monday Update

August 3 & 4

by Judy and Dick

(Judy and Dick thought they could bypass me and submit a post without getting their picture attached. They forgot that I'm the administrator of this blog! - Clay)

On Sunday, Judy and Carl went to church in Manchester, Karen and the boys drove back to Kansas, and Linda and Lee brought a truckload of furniture from Illinois. The apartment at Timbercrest looks great with chairs, a bed, end tables, and pictures on the walls (among many other things), and Lee and Linda did a great job of moving it into the truck and then into the apartment by themselves and arranging it as if it looks like it was always there. The Kansas group made it home in great time, and the church experience was very satisfying and included visits with many friends.

After church, Carl and Judy headed to Progressive to see Doreen. She was drowsy when they arrived, but seemed to perk up when the rest of the family arrived. The goal was for her to be awake when her brother Jay and his wife Peg arrived. They arrived right on the dot at 1:30, the appointed time. Actually, Doreen was anticipating the visit anxiously. During the night, she had squirmed out of bed, ended up on the floor, and pulled out her PCC line in the process. She thought she was going to her computer so she could catch up on the details of the visit. (She told us that she understood there was a lot of informaiton on the computer about Jay coming.) So we are still dealing with some confusion between dreams and reality, but she really was excited to see her brother!

Jay came with his cell phone and connected Doreen with her cousin Dot and her childhood and college friend who is also a Dot. He also came bearing gifts--a can of mandarine oranges. He has been reading the blog!

We had a great visit, and Doreen stayed aleart and witty during most of the time. She and Jay are not likely to stay away from teasing very long. As Carl, Jay, Peg, and Judy went to supper, Jay expressed how pleased he was to see how well Doreen was doing. It was a good day!

On Monday, Judy had an appointment in Lafayette, but Carl went with the Buchers to see his future apartment. He was pleased to see his furniture and to see how well things fit. They also worked on trying to get a physical exam set up for Carl so that he could be approved to move in. They didn't make much progress. When Judy and Dick arrived, she and Carl worked on some other issues with prescriptions, and the three of them stopped by Timbercrest to see the apartment and to get a copy of the form that needs to be completed. Then they went to Progressive to find Doreen fairly drowsy.

Monday had seen some good sessions with OT and PT and a more modest session with speech therapy. Lee and Linda visited when they dropped off the moving truck in Ft. Wayne. Doreen had eaten well--maybe 15 bites a meal and much of her tea. By the time the family arrived, she was pretty tired. Supper was not as successful. The family shared photos of the apartment with her, though, and she seemed interested, but had a hard time picturing it from the photos. A little later, she seemed to be thinking and quiet. Judy asked what she was thinking about, and she said she was thinking about what she wanted to do with the apartment. So she seems to be getting used to the idea of the move.

We also were told this evening that the decision has been made to do the stomach tube for feeding. We will find out tomorrow when that will be done. It feels discouraging, but there could be some positives. It may mean that she will not need the insulin shots that are necessary when she is given the dextrose through IV. And it may help her get her stomach in shape for more food. And it will mean she is not tied to an IV. So we continue with the slow and steady progress--keeping in mind that, though it be slow, it is steady.

Friday and Saturday Update

August 1 & 2
by Karen and Daniel

Friday was another sleepy day for Doreen. They gave her a sleeping pill once again last night; therefore, she could barely wake up throughout the day. Only one therapist came to try to work with her. An occupational therapist woke her up by sitting her on the side of the bed. She then worked with her balance and led her through some arm exercises. Mom/G'ma had a hard time staying awake, but she persevered as well as she could. She showed her sense of humor throughout the session by teasing Daniel -- and anyone else in the room. She did wake up some in the afternoon. She held conversations with us for awhile, but was still rather foggy most of the time. The CEO worked with Mom/G'ma during meals again. She continued to get Mom/G'ma to eat more bites than we probably would have been able to get in her.

Parker came to visit again late in the afternoon. He stayed with Dad/G'pa while we went to Camp Mack to pick up Cameron from his week there. They had a nice dinner together and ran a few errands before heading back to North Manchester for the night. Judy also returned to North Manchester Friday night.

Saturday's visit was made by 5 members of the Myers clan - Dad/G'pa, Judy, Cameron and the two of us. When we arrived, we received the unwelcome news that Mom/G'ma had vomited when taking some medication this morning. (The medicine is a liquid that tastes very bitter. It is intended to stimulate her appetite!?) The good news is that she was awake most of the day! She had her eyes open and rested only periodically for short times here and there. It was great to be with her throughout the day and feel as though the real Doreen was with us. She asked lots of questions of the boys about their camp experiences. She asked Daniel to show her some things on the computer. She talked to us about what has happened over the last two months and about what is coming in the future. She was very playful with the occupational therapist when he visited. She had two more episodes of vomiting, but they were not overwhelming. She was able to control them and they did not get in the way of continuing with whatever activity she was in at the time. She also ate again today without complaining. She didn't consume much, but she ate what she could. All in all, this was a great day!

We got to speak with the doctor on Saturday morning. We asked that he discontinue the sleeping medications and the stimulants to see what Mom/G'ma can work out on her own. (It was frustrating to feel that she was always fighting the effects of one of the drugs - either fighting to stay awake through the effects of a sleeping pill that lasted too long or trying to relax and sleep despite the effects of the stimulant.) He agreed; therefore, we'll monitor how she does without these interventive medications over the next few days.

A note about Dad/G'pa -- He paid the deposit on a room at Timbercrest on Friday. Linda and Lee will bring a truckload of furniture and household items to North Manchester on Sunday. Dad/G'pa will move in to the one bedroom apartment (B7) as soon as he can get the required physician's exam completed. We will try to get that done ASAP so he can begin to have a place to call his own and move on into the next phase on his life.