An update on mom.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. I have a couple more entries of my dads that I would like to add. Mom is better. Not 100%, but she never will be. We are thrilled that she will hopefully be coming home on Monday!

August 16,2011
Continued improvement on all fronts so much so that Debbie was up and walking today. As much as I'd been prepared for how that would go I found it very difficult to watch as she took small tentative steps and struggled to maintain her balance much of the way. She was happy to be up and although very tired after 10-minutes is raring to go again to get back to some semblance of normalcy and independence. Tomorrow she'll be moved to an acute neurological rehabilitation facility for several days of intensive work to ensure that happens. They will also work to improve her hearing and vision. True to her fighting spirit Debbie is confident she'll be home again within a week. Thanks to each of you for your notes of support and love. They have certainly helped both of us cope through the darkest of moments.

August 20, 2011
After a day's delay caused by a major blood pressure meltdown (since ascribed to medications) and another day working out insurance issues Debbie was moved to the neurological rehabilitation unit at UCLA on Friday afternoon. Today was devoted to thorough evaluations and consults with doctors and rehab specialists. For the many years Debbie and I have been seeing doctors we've heard different variations of the word amazing from just about all of them as they talk of her situation. I can't count the number of times I've heard that in the past two days. The stroke impacted her in four major ways - facial paralysis, vision, hearing and balance. There has been marked improvement in each. Continued improvement on all fronts so much so that Debbie was up and walking today. As much as I'd been prepared for how that would go I found it very difficult to watch as she took small tentative steps and struggled to maintain her balance much of the way. She was happy to be up and although very tired after 10-minutes is raring to go again to get back to some semblance of normalcy and independence. Tomorrow she'll be moved to an acute neurological rehabilitation facility for several days of intensive work to ensure that happens. They will also work to improve her hearing and vision. True to her fighting spirit Debbie is confident she'll be home again within a week. Thanks to each of you for your notes of support and love. They have certainly helped both of us cope through the darkest of moments.
Even though she's only been on her feet since Wednesday, today she and I went for a walk hand-in-hand, something I wasn't sure would be possible for a long while. We are grateful for your thoughts and prayers. In combination with our faith, we know they have made a difference. In a few days she'll be home again and we'll tentatively move forward day by day and week by week.

August 24, 2011
I'd hoped to report that Debbie had returned home by now but that hasn't happened and isn't expected now before next Monday or Tuesday. Physical and occupational rehabilitation therapy are both going very well, but only when Debbie's heart cooperates. She had a phenomenal day on Monday followed by a horrific one Tuesday when her heart went into atrial fibrillation again with blood pressure dropping to the point where she couldn't raise her head off the bed. We're slowly coming to realize that ups and downs like that may be our reality from now on. And unless the "a-fib" continues unabated for more than 24-hours at a time the doctors prefer not to intervene. Theory being the medications should help manage the situation effectively as time goes along thereby not having to rely on defibrillation to do the job. Today her heart went in and out a couple times but she did manage to get more than 3 hours of rehab work in. Tonight she's exhausted again (still) and hopefully will get some quality rest. Tomorrow's another day in what's becoming an awfully long ordeal.

My dad is physically and emotionally exhausted and I think this comes through in his writings. I talked to my mom yesterday and she sounded great. She knows that there is still a lot for her to learn and that it is not going to be easy, but she is up for the challenge and ready to come home.

I know that it is through the power of faith and prayer and the gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ that we still have my mom here on this earth. All of our collective prayers have been heard and I am beyond grateful.