Sunday September 23

Its been a week of change, stability and a few exciting bits of normalcy.  Donna has settled well in Galveston and we have both become very comfortable with the staff and the help they can provide her. Most of the week has been evaluations in preparation for activity and Donna has appropriately said that she can do more.  She will get that chance starting this week.  Her days during the week are busy rising early and having nonstop planned activities from 9 to 5 (after breakfast at 8 and then dinner at 5).  Its a nice setup as she needs to move between 3 different buildings so she gets outside a good bit.  She gets great support and the community is small enough that she is getting to know everyone and a comfort feeling is developing with all.

This past weekend was special.  Up until this point, weekend has meant that time when therapists were absent but not much changed for us.  Since Donna is no longer in hospital we can do some weekend things.  Saturday I picked her up and we spent the day at my apartment in the med center.  We cooked, visited, laughed, napped and watched football.  It was great and will be part of our plans for a while.  Sunday I brought Donna to church in Galveston, we had lunch out with her brother and visited the local yogurt shop as a treat.  This may seem simple to you but it was huge for us.  We could feel our real lives inching a little closer.  We still have a journey but these things reassure us that eventually we will get back to our lives in normal ways.

To give you an update on Donna, her brain continues to heal.  Her cognitive function is good and her therapists were very pleased with her abilities during evaluations this week.  More to go though but pace is good.  She progressed to humor this weekend where she cracked several jokes that sure made me smile.  Right now there is a lot of emphasis on the physical side.  Mostly right arm and right leg as relates to Donna's ability to use the arm for a lot of things and the leg for walking.  Her occupational therapists tell us they drool over a patient that has her arm movement as the potential for major improvement is great.  Right now Donna uses her right arm for very little.  Muscles are currently weak and motion is limited but it can all be improved.   Donna's leg is stronger but the problem is different.  One of the muscles is very tight and her walking efforts have created a pressure bruise on her right foot.  We'll be talking about options this week.  While there could be setbacks to the improvement process, we are optimistic that these physical issues are ultimately repairable.  We'll understand the roadmap a little better in the next week or two.

With the great care she is getting and the desire for her to operate more independently, after a few days of familiarity, I started Friday not showing up till the afternoon and leaving at 8 pm (the end of visiting hours).  If she does well tomorrow, my plan is to start working 1/2 days as soon as Tuesday.  Another step on the normalcy journey.  It will be good to see so many people that have supported us so much and hopefully dive into some work.  We'll see how it goes.  She remains priority 1 but she is doing well.

Regards
Bob