h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thoughts with you.

Here's wishing Baba well

She seems to be doing better and better... apparently, last night they tried letting her go to bed without the jacket. As it turned out, she felt well enough to get up and go wandering around looking for a bathroom (Beware of grossness)* She asked my mom to put it on her before she left tonight!

















*while she left her catheter bag on the bed. I warned you!

nice one
Give a realy big hug to her from me when you visit again!

*perhaps I shouldn't*

But you have to admire her asking for the jacket! Lucid enough to realise she gets loopy in the night! Big hugs and

Oh Scandrea,

I am so pleased that she herself is determined to get well. Well done to you all and thankful prayers are continuing.

With affection

Christiane AR1

OK...

So I went home to visit this weekend... was the right thing to do. I broke speed records on the way there.

Mom was really tired, but glad to see me. She had been spending the last couple nights at the hospital with Baba. They all kind of decided that because she gets confused at night, it would be best if she had a familiar face to see when she woke up. She sleeps in a recliner next to the bed, and stays until breakfast.

My brother came home from Akron, too- a lot less of a drive, but still a haul, and he broke speed records too. We went next door to see Gido (grandpa). He's taking this pretty hard- up to this point, Baba had been perfectly healthy for years.

After we ate lunch and Mom rested up, we all went in to the hospital. She's in the long-term care place now, the one I'm trying not to remind myself Grandma was in. They have a whole wing dedicated to stroke victims, and they do rehab- so it wasn't like Grandma's condition. She was supposed to be in one of the public areas with the windows, but she was in her room with Gido. As soon as she saw my brother and I, she started crying, and it took a few minutes for her to stop. Don't get me wrong here- she was crying because she was so overwhelmingly happy, but it still scared the living daylights out of me.

Overall, she's good. She knows who we all are, she's still got her personality, she can talk, and her memory is getting better. Sometimes though, she drifts off in the middle of a conversation, but all you really have to do is speak up and she'll come right back. And she really does have trouble with her left side. She's in a wheelchair in the hospital, and sometimes you have to put her left foot back in place- other times, she lifts it herself when you tell her to, and other times she just needs a little bit of help. Sometimes she can use her left hand to squeeze yours, and other times when you ask, she'll put your hand in her right hand and squeeze. But this morning I guess she was in the bathroom standing up, wringing out her washcloth. When the nurse came in and asked her to squeeze her left hand and lift up her leg, she did it.

I think she'll improve faster if she's allowed to come home- be around people who she knows, and see all her things, and do things in her own house. In any case, Gido will be there, and Mom won't have to sleep in that recliner.

good good, shes on the mend!

I'm glad she's making such good progress

Jack, how long did it take you til you were out of the hospital?

14 days in all. but this is no reflection on "how bad or good" the stroke is, its to do with the person, there was someone with a much worst one than me but she left the day before me to go home and there was another who had been in there for at least 3 months, and he was not good..... so all i can say its up to the indevidule, hope this helps!

RJR

Not much to say, by now...

Continuing best wishes.

I just got a call from my dad this morning. They've set the release date tentatively for tomorrow!

Keep thinking/praying/whatever you've been doing!

Woohoo

Will do my dear Scandrea,

It will be very much better for her at home - less frightening.

So lots of good thoughts and prayers for Baba and Gido,

Christiane AR1

She's home!

Sorry I didn't write yesterday- but she's home, and doing well enough to stay. She had a bit of a rough first night getting used to it again, but my mom's staying up at their house now to help in case she has another bad one.

On a sad note, my mom just lost one of her friends to breast cancer- she had been sick for a while, and fought to the end, but my mom's still upset. She's the one that can't catch a break...

I'd like to at least give her a day off, meet for some shopping or a quilting class- something. I'm going to need help from my dad to pull it off, and he said he'd try.

Good luck with your plans for your mum, and well done to Granny