"Hurry up!"

Hi Friends,

Today was a day comprised of many laughs...those are few and far between these days so it was a nice change...my idea of funny is very different now, and many times if I don't laugh I'll cry, so bear that all in mind. But they say that laughter is the best medicine, and even mom laughed today, so we've got to hold on to what we've got...ha, now I've got Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer" running through my head.

Anyway, when Betty and I arrived today, mom seemed to be in good spirits...she'd already had her speech therapy and some of her occupational therapy, so she was resting in between. The occupational therapist Laura said she did really well...they got her up in the chair to the sink and she brushed her teeth and washed her face with a washcloth...yay! Shortly after our arrival, Laura came back and it was time for mom to go to the "gym" for the rest of her OT...when Laura explained what we were going to do, mom listened and then proceeded to say "Alright, hurry up!" Of course we all cracked up about that...she certainly seems to be in a hurry to do things at times! So, she sat on the edge of the big padded table in the gym and put colored cones onto a table next to her...doesn't sound like anything much, but it was a big deal, took coordination and focus, and lots of encouragement. Her attention span is lacking right now, as is her patience, so we just had to keep her focused as best we could and give her lots of coaching. But she did it.

Then it was back to bed to rest until her physical therapy session, which was around 3pm. She got back up into the chair, and we returned to the gym and the parallel bars...it was time to stand up. Mom was very apprehensive, very irritated, and again admonished us to "hurry up!" We had to tell her over and over that we wouldn't make her do anything we didn't think her physically capable of, and the difficulties she did have I think were due all to her fear. She didn't enjoy it at all, and it took even more coaxing for her to try standing over and over. But she did it, she supported her weight, albeit only for a max of 30 seconds at a time at the most, and with much protesting ("I don't wanna do this anymore!", "I can't!", "Stop doing this to me!", "Alright, I'm done, I'm not going any further!"). But the entire time, she kept her attention focused on the task at hand, which is absolutely stellar, incredible, and a fantastic sign...even the therapist said so.

Her ability to do any of what she did today was amazing when you take into consideration that she has had extreme difficulty sleeping (she literally hasn't been able to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time in days and days despite three separate medications to address that) and that her blood sugars have been running on the low side while they try to titrate her insulin dosages and feeding schedule. Those things alone ought to put her out of commission, and yet here she is making progress in therapy. Imagine the strides she'll make once they are able to regulate her circadian rhythms and get her metabolic processes back on track!! Oh, the places she'll go...

She even cracked a sarcastic joke today, which tells me "she's" definitely in there...she doesn't own a pair of sneakers (aka tennis shoes) currently because she had been in the process of trying to find comfortable ones for her knees and had recently returned a pair that wasn't working out for her. But when she was being admitted, on the list of things I was supposed to bring for her was a pair of sneakers. I happened to have just bought a new pair for myself but had inexplicably kept the old pair, so I brought those in for her to use in a pinch. I told her she'd have to use mine since she didn't have any of her own...later, after the therapy sessions, she turned to me and said "Hey, thanks for the new shoes...." I thought she was serious and was about to correct her when she smirked, shook her head and said "Come on, I was being silly." Oh, mom.