Building Connections

If every day was like today, wouldn't life be wonderful? Cloudless, cool morning. Hot Starbucks blonde coffee with cream for breakfast, ice water before lunch. Everyone's appointments and work projects and therapies going as scheduled, smooth as silk. Very happy to have today here with Mom.

Mom's therapy yesterday was thorough and exhausting, exactly as it should be. We are all very happy with the program here so far, speech and occupational therapy are good, and physical therapy is fantastic. Michael, the therapist here, is a slight person, but boy he sure knows how to instill confidence in Mom, and he's strong as a horse! Again, I have to say it's a great thing to find people in professions that they absolutely belong in. Those dedicated to caring for people, and helping them get better, when their heart is in it, you can absolutely tell. It shows through in their every movement, and it's reflected on the faces and in the spirits of their patients.

This morning, as Mom has already completed speech and physical therapy, and is awaiting her lunch, she's working on a word-search book. There are probably 40 words to find, and in 10 minutes she's already found 2. That's as many as someone without a crainiotomy would find. She's having no trouble reading the large print in the book, picked out a pretty 'chestnut' colored crayon (and pronounced the color right!) and has circled the words she's found, and crossed them off the list with zero trouble. How amazing is that? The therapist at Reliant said it might be hard to find a single word, and if after a while trying, you need to take a break, do that. So I think Mom is a superstar for being successful with 2 words already!

Special thanks to Mom's friends at school this week. Brandi had brought by a big basket FULL to the brim of cards and gifts a while back. Every day we're bring a handful of cards to Mom so that she can enjoy them. It's a special treat after a long day of working to read poems and silly pictures, and especially the names of her friends. (It's especially helpful for us when there are first and last names on the cards, hint hint!)

One especially funny card was of 2 Easter bunnies talking to each other. It was meant to be a silly card, but it served many purposes...

1. Mom got to read large printed words, and had no trouble.

2. Mom remembered her wonderful friend who sent it, and told us all about her.

3. Mom laughed at the funny bunnies, very cute drawings!

4. We asked mom the inferred questions, why are the bunnies saying what they are saying? She studied the picture and knew exactly why. One didn't have a butt and one didn't have any ears.

This is a very similar exercise to what her speech therapist has her do every day. Questions, pictures, things we all look at naturally and just automatically understand, Mom can visualize but the meaning doesn't always come out of her mouth correctly. But it's getting better, and the bunny card was so fun, because it was made by a friend, and it was exactly what she needed!

Thank you to all friends and family who are faithfully sending cards, pictures, blog posts, facebook messages, etc. Mom is too tired every day to receive visitors, but these little things she can read, have read to her, or can hold in her hand mean so much, and they connect her to you, and they help her build new connections in her brain as she recovers.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Our days in the hospital are basically the same - eating, practicing speech and movement, radiation, and naps. Yesterday was an anomaly because of the approaching storm. It was kind of fun to watch the radar and guess when and where it would hit. We delivered extra snacks and dinner early to Mom and Dad and skedaddled home around 4 p.m., assuming the high winds and giant red spot on the radar meant the storm was near. It didn't hit until almost 6:30 pm, and it wasn't nearly as bad as we heard it would be, but it still brought a little excitement (and rain) into the day.

Practice, practice, practice

As of this morning we have only four more radiation treatments to go. Mom is having a pretty good day.  It helps that she is sleeping better these days, waking up only once or twice with discomfort. She can't roll over on her own, so once a nurse helps her to readjust she goes right back to sleep. The better sleep may be a result of lowering the dosage of IV steroids, or it may be because she's getting her strength back and is working hard at physical therapy during the day, so she tires herself out and earns a good night's sleep.

During physical therapy today, Mom's therapists (occupational and physical) helped her to stand for a little while with a cane. She was happy to wear shoes for the first time in over a month. Standing was extremely hard work; her right leg doesn't hold her weight, her muscles have atrophied some from disuse, and her balance is loopy. It felt good to stand for even a few seconds, though, and then she was able to move into a wheelchair and go for a short stroll, using her good left foot to nudge the wheelchair along.

When she returned from the stroll, she was red-faced, hot, tired and emotional. We were worried for a brief moment as she complained about chest pains, but her blood pressure was normal; it was just exhaustion, and ice water and a cool washcloth helped.

If the physical toll of pushing her muscles to respond is hard to bear, the emotional toll is even worse. She knows that she's lost a lot of function, even if only temporarily, and it's made more difficult by her foggy brain and short-term memory challenges; when she is tired, she gets teary and wonders why she can't get things to work as they should. We remind her that practice makes perfect, her strength will come back if she continues to work, and we're all here to help her.

Alicia found the perfect analogy. "Mom, do you give your students a final exam on the first day of school?"


"No."


"Right. They don't know enough yet, so they practice. And they don't know it the next day, or the tenth day, or in a month. But you teach them, and they practice, and one day they'll be ready. So you have to practice, too, and one day you'll get it. Okay?"

Our favorite teacher understood, smiled and nodded. She'll get there.

"What the heck is that?"

Today Mom is getting more words out and actively participating in occupational therapy, learning to use her left hand better, stretching her right arm and leg, and improving her balance by sitting up in the bed. (Her muscles are tired after so much bed rest, so she'll have to work on her core strength for a while.)

With all this work, she was hungry at lunch but not thrilled at what was served. Pointing to the plate, she asked, "What the heck is that?"

We thought about posting a photo of her lunch, but really...it's probably best forgotten.