We are proud of you, Mom!

Coming to the hospital after working several hours is a warm experience. It's a feeling, oddly, like I had when I was little, and my sisters and I would come home from school, grab a Little Debbie (or two) and sit down to watch Gomer Pyle, The Brady Bunch, or Gilligan's Island. Mom would come home from school and love on us, then Dad would come home and do the same. We all ate dinner together, did chores, loved, fought (the girls, that is), loved. Sleep, then repeat.

That's actually not too dissimilar from today's life. We all gather for meals, around Mom, we come into this hospital room at various times of the day but in the evenings we are all together, we love, (we don't fight!), we love some more. We don't watch much TV. Our family has grown, so the room is tight with people sometimes, but we manage and we love it. We don't love the circumstance that brought us here, but we are thankful to be together. It's a lot like the late 1970s, except that it's not.

Mom had a good morning; she had a 1.5-hour nap before lunch, ate 99.9% of her lunch (vegetable soup, chopped vegetables, open-face turkey sandwich, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a chocolate-cherry cupcake), and then zzzzz again. She was in a great mood after her nap, making jokes and laughing at Jennifer's attempts at humor.

Love the PCT this shift; her name is Candice, she's a mom of 2 and a stepmom of 2 more, an EMT, and a volunteer firefighter. Her best friend was one of Mom's students back in the day (probably 10-12 years ago, by my guess). She's very careful with Mom, repositioning her skillfully. It is easy to see that she cares.

A little progress

Last night, right before bedtime, a nurse removed the staples in Mom's incision. Her scalp has healed beautifully, and since the neurosurgeon trimmed only a bit of Mom's hair for the surgery, you'd not know she had a craniotomy just a few weeks ago. The radiation she is taking will cause her to lose some of her hair, but the surgery itself has not; the chemo she's on, Temodar, probably won't cause hair loss, either. After a shampoo and comb-out, Mom looks terrific.

Yesterday she danced with her therapist while standing upright, all weight on her left foot, and swaying back and forth with the helpful support of a gait belt. She also counted to 20 without any problems, several times, while swaying. It was a beautiful sight. Today the physical therapist had Mom sitting up in a chair, accidentally bumped her knee in the process, ouch, but she's up!

Teacher of the Year!

A big reward

The biggest excitement in Mom's life today was an honor for us to participate in. Her school, North Richland Middle School, awarded Mom the Teacher of the Year award for 2011-2012! What an accomplishment! It was truly our pleasure to accept Mom's award on her behalf, to meet all her friends, and to spend some time walking the halls where Mom has worked for 23 years. We heard stories about how Mom serves as a mentor to younger teachers, how she used to work in a portable classroom (sharing with her beloved friend Luanne), how she taught her friends how to become good grandmothers, and most of all how much she is loved by her colleagues there.

After the celebration at school, we brought Mom's award, a giant signed card from her students, a cake decorated to match the one that was served at the school reception, and punch back to the hospital. We held a second celebration in Mom's room, complete with family and friends. It was very special to Mom. She was truly touched to receive the award, she misses her colleagues, her students, and her everyday routine. In her new reality, in the hospital rather than the familiar school hallways, she had a good afternoon verbally and physically, and emotionally. It was a fantastic ending to a good day.

You can see a slideshow of the reception on Flickr, or view the reception and tributes video on YouTube!