Thumbs up

Hi friends,

Another landmark day! When I arrived at the hospital today, her trauma doctor stopped by the room and told me mom had followed a command this morning!!! They apparently asked her to give them a thumbs up, and she did it!!! Isn't that amazing?? AND, she is moving her right arm!!! Her nurse told me she walked into the room at one point this morning and mom had both hands wrapped around her trach tube!!! I absolutely couldn't believe it and burst into tears once again. One of the other nurses who has taken care of her and has been following her progress came in, gave me a hug, and again told me she'd "always had a good feeling about her!" I really truly will miss all these nurses so much when mom is transferred.

Speaking of which, here is the latest on her destination once she is discharged from the SICU. I would give my right arm to get her into RIC (Rehab Institute of Chicago), which is a wonderful place and I've heard only great things about the place. However, they have very strict admission requirements, and they doctors from RIC evaluated her and said she wasn't quite ready for the rehab yet. So it was looking like she was going to be sent to a place called Holy Family, which is located all the way in Des Plaines (for those not familiar with the Chicagoland area, Des Plaines is a suburb of Chicago about a 30 minute drive from the city in okay traffic). Not exactly ideal in terms of me being able to get there as I don't currently own a car. I was feeling VERY down about this, but in talking with the Social Worker and the nurses, the other options in the actual city of Chicago are not as good for her, and don't have the level of care to get her as far as she could go in terms of rehab. But then the Social Worker called back to tell me about a program at RIC called STEP (Short Term Evaluation Program) that the rehab doctor mentioned. This doctor works both for this hospital and RIC, and in evaluating mom, thinks she is a good candidate for this program which is designed for patients who are not quite ready to actively participate in rehab but have great potential to do so in the future after some more healing and "coma stimulation." So her records have been faxed over to the team at RIC and they should be making a decision early next week, perhaps even Monday. From her doctors' standpoint, she is ready for discharge now, we just have to figure out where she is going to go! So everyone, please please please keep your fingers crossed, say prayers and hope against hope that she gets into this STEP program at RIC. If she does, I KNOW she'll improve and then she'll be able to go right into the rehab program there. Not only is it the best place in the country for her to be, but it is literally right next door to where I work, and it would be just perfect.

So, another good day...tomorrow may bring even more progress, and I can't wait. But if it doesn't, that's quite alright too...she came a long way, and she deserves a day of rest. Patience, patience, patience. Please keep loving and praying, you see now it really is working.