Day 13 – Powerfully Positive – Tuesday, April 18

We are calling today a total win. Sue did a lot, and good news (eventually) came through. But that is jumping ahead, so let’s start at the beginning…

Cyndie and Wade spent the night, and Sue slept through most of it. She fiddled with her CPAP off and on throughout the night, but never took it off and didn’t even ask to take it off (or want it off) until after 6AM this morning. That alone is a good thing, and shows some signs of positivity and hopefully better rest.

The results of her CT scan also came back, and there was no concerning signs of a brain bleed any longer, so we can hopefully put that behind us.

Speech therapy came in and worked with Sue to make sounds, and it went okay. She is still very weak on verbalizing, and really needs to work on her vowel sounds and making true noise (and not just mouthing words).

Then PT/OT came in and worked with her. There we got some great advancements that continued throughout the day. First, they sat her up on the edge of the bed. She balanced herself better than ever before (not totally independent, but pretty good), and she had good head and neck control. They worked with her on standing, but that was a little too much for her right now. She sat in a chair for a couple of hours and that was good as well.

The biggest deal with the PT/OT was the writing (which continued after they left as well). She wrote Cyndie’s name, as well as her name, Kim, and Chad. Later she even wrote the Korean symbols for “nah nun”, or “I am”. She didn’t finish the statement, which was going to be “I am tired”, because she was too tired. 🙂

I will spare you all of the details on the back-and-forth that raised everyone’s blood pressure (why can’t anything be easy?), but the best news of the day is that

Sue got accepted into Health South!

Health South is the acute rehab facility that we were hoping she would get into. It is close to our house (which will make our lives considerably easier), and it is a great facility as well (according to several nurses and rehab people that we have spoken with about it). She will get three hours a day of rehab. That is 6x as much as she is getting now. That is incredible and will move her along much faster. I know she is up to it, so we just need to get it going. Apparently she could be headed there in a matter of days – like two or three.

This whole thing is crazy. Half of the time it seems like nothing is moving fast enough, and the other half it is going so fast that we can’t prepare or even think about what is happening. It doesn’t matter though, as long as it keeps Sue moving forward and getting better.

Cyndie and Wade were there this evening as the rest of us attended to other activities in our lives (still trying to find that hospital/life balance). While they were there, Wade worked on Sue’s arms and legs to keep them mobile, flexible, maintain some strength, and most importantly, work the neurons in the brain to help her regain use of her limbs.

Cardiologist was there late this evening, but everything appeared to be fine. Cyndie and Wade are spending the night again, and will keep watch until morning.

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