Sunday August 5

Well I know that I said that updates may be less frequent but the pace of activity and the desire for info has compelled us to maintain a daily message at least for now.  Lets see what is possible with upcoming changes.

As we have learned over the 7 weeks of this journey with Donna, Sundays are a day of rest and a great time to reflect on progress.   Donna had a rare Sunday speech therapist session as they are trying to complete her evaluation.  Despite the fact that she does well in answering questions, she gets so frustrated that they keep asking simple questions and even more so that sometimes the answer alludes her.  Despite our assurances that this is the way to progress, she remains unconvinced.  We’ll get through it.  She wants it all to happen faster and we understand and agree.  She continues to get better but as she becomes more aware, impatience shows up.  Imagine me trying to console her on the subject of patience??  Never thought I would see the day.

The Sunday calm will lead us to some big changes on Monday.  First, her therapists will come at her full force starting tomorrow and our entire support model is changed.  Sarah is gone, and Donna will be down to one primary supporter/cheerleader during the day starting tomorrow, me.  She may not notice as her busy therapy schedule ramps up.  She started the process of sleeping alone tonight.  As she has been a great all night sleeper, this shouldn’t be a big problem.  I expect she will be trying to catch some shuteye between sessions but this may be limited.  Also tomorrow or Tuesday she will have a comprehensive swallow test that will determine her ability to eat.  Indications are that she is ready and this will be a major milestone in her improvement.  The other big milestone comes a week from now when she will see her orthopedic surgeon and will hopefully get a go ahead to bear weight on her left side. That will give the folks here the green light to go full bore toward walking.  That is a way off but we relish the potential challenge.

It was incredibly hard for me to leave her tonight, but an early start tomorrow takes us into the next important leg of the journey.    She was trying to sit up and get up out of bed tonight.  She is chomping at the bit to get there.  We know the TIRR team is up to the challenge.

Bob