prayer request & update

Feb 16, 2014, 8:55 PM

"Snowmageddon" in Charlotte was a good thing. I got 2 days of much needed rest since mom knew I couldn't make it to see her. I guess her "weather obsession" finally came in handy

Being away from her for 2 days really let me be able to see her progress. She was much more "talkative" and is able to hold her body weight better than before. I helped transfer her from the wheelchair to the bed a few times last week and it was difficult. Friday I helped her transfer and she did much more of the weight bearing this time. I can also tell her core strength is better because she is able to adjust herself in the chair better and is able to sit on her own fairly well on the side of the bed.

I also went to Speech Therapy with her and discovered that she can say : Melissa (her name), Suzanne (me), Byan (Bryan, my brother), Tiger (my dog, got that one all the way!). She can say all the numbers from 1 to 10. If you ask her "cat and" she can come up with "dog" or if you ask her "shoe and" she'll say sock if you point to the sock. Of course, the words aren't enunciated perfectly, but boy she's come a long way! Another activity was to say the names of items in a picture. The image was a camping tent. I said "maybe you remember that last year I wanted you to buy us a tailgating ....." eventually she got out "tent" and I said "hey, if you get better by football season, I'll buy us a tailgating tent!" She said "oooooooooo" and smiled. I know how to motivate her!!

Today was my niece Emma's birthday, and the therapists have been singing with mom (song gets the brain to work better than speech alone sometimes). So, I had her sing Happy Birthday to Emma and recorded it. It was SO AWESOME!! Amazing that it has only been 3 weeks since her stroke!

She will be moving from the rehab hospital to a skilled nursing facility on Wednesday. Please pray for continued healing and patience (for her) as this move will be more "permanent" in nature than she may know. I'm not sure that she realizes it may take a year or more to get back to independence. Right now we continue to use football season as a motivator/goal.