Mom was up early working on standing, walking and language. She was doing well with simple yes or no questions when she rolled her eyes at the silliness of them. Then she said "skip." "skip." until the speech therapist moved on to the next exercise.

The staff didn't realize they dressed her in her pajamas today and she got a lot of compliments on her pretty pink outfit.

She was resting and watching television when this volunteer came around to play a game of catch with the patients. Everyone was so tired after therapy that she mostly just hit people in the face with the ball.  The ball landed on mom's lap when her eyes were closed, so she rested her head on it and used it for a pillow. When the volunteer moved on to the next person, mom said "she isn't very good at this".

Today there are 15 finches, by tomorrow there could be 20!

Not much to report, mom has been eating more and getting stronger every day. 

Aunt Jean sent mom these hydrangeas and everyone else was jealous.

Gem likes to visit because the Walker Gift Shop sells candy for less than anyone else in a five mile radius. 

I try to get the girls to visit at dinner time, it's the most entertaining place in Minneapolis. Rosie, another patient, asked me what grade mom was in. Then she asked if she could come home with me. She said there were lots of jobs she could do at our house.

I told her no way, I am taking Joe home. He offers to pay for every meal and he cleans up after everyone at his table.

Mom ate her lunch by herself today and then said she wanted to go home. It is 78° in Minneapolis today so Gemma and I took her for a walk around the neighborhood. I will meet with the therapists on Friday to discuss her progress and a discharge date.  

Mom's room overlooks a park and tennis courts where the girls spend a lot of time, it's great having her so close.

Mom was transferred to Walker Methodist Health Center yesterday for rehab. She took the fork from my hand to eat her own breakfast today, but she's still weak and tired. She will get speech, occupational and physical therapy twice a day until she is strong enough to come home. It will most likely take ten days to two weeks. The Walker is a block from our house, so the girls and I can drop by any time.

I will wait to post a photo of mom, she still has adhesive in her hair from the EEG wires. The staff said they would wash her hair tomorrow.

The large finch cage in the common area.

Mom will continue to be monitored with the EEG until the seizure activity stops completely. It's a process to get the right anti-seizure medication at the correct dosage. The video in the center of the EEG screen allows the neurologists to compare the seizure activity to mom's behavior. Right now there is no correlation, she has the seizures without any outward signs. She will stay in the hospital until Friday, maybe longer. 

Volunteers came around to hand out blankets to anyone who needed one. Mom is always cold, so they left this one with her. The silly hat is actually a headband. It is placed over the EEG wires to keep mom from picking or scratching at them, but it keeps popping off.

The MRI showed no signs of hemorrhage or tumors in mom's brain, but she has had minor seizures since the stroke. She does not have any visible symptoms while they are happening, but they could be the cause of her sleepiness. Her neurologist is trying another anti-seizure medication. Mom will stay in the hospital for a few days to make sure she tolerates it and to make sure she perks up a bit.

She was funny and had a healthy appetite today. Here she is hanging out while she gets a new air mattress. The constantly circulating air will keep her from getting bed sores.

On the advice of mom's homecare team we admitted mom to Methodist Hospital yesterday. Her therapists felt her weakness was too dramatic to be attributed to a bad day. It was also a way to move up mom's neurology tests so we wouldn't have to wait until May 16th.

She has "a little pneumonia". I am assuming we caught it early, she had no symptoms other than the weakness. Her CAT scan yesterday showed a stroke in the past six months. No stroke showed up in her records from Marinette or Green Bay, but we were sometimes told her "events" were strokes and sometimes seizures. If I remember right, the doctors and nurses didn't agree. Whether it's caused by stroke or seizure, spontaneous recovery from aphasia is unlikely if the aphasia lasts longer than two to three months. Mom recovered within days after her past events, but tomorrow will be the three month anniversary of the most recent stroke.

She is feeling better this morning and recognized me right away even without her glasses. 

I will post more after I speak with the neurologist.

Mom was getting weaker on Friday and Saturday and was quite sick by Sunday morning. She stayed in bed most of Sunday, sitting up only to eat and take meds. She had no signs of a cold or flu. Heidi and I took her to a previously scheduled appointment with Dr. Miller, a pulmonary specialist, yesterday. There are several issues with her lungs including volume loss on the left side. The loss may be caused by a blockage in the airways which provide air to the lower portion of her lung.

There is also mild to moderate fluid build-up in her lungs which is relatively new. There are many things that would cause volume loss and fluid build-up, including lung cancer. Dr Miller does not recommend invasive testing to find something we wouldn't treat. Mom is too fragile to survive surgery or chemotherapy, so we will not test for cancer. The fluid build-up could be caused by heart failure. It could be determined through a painless ultrasound and managed with medication, so we will move forward with that.

Mom also has a 4.7cm thoracic aorta aneurysm. The doctor did not seem concerned about it, even though mom was pressured to have it operated on two years ago by her Marinette doctors. Unlike an abdominal aortic aneurysm, there is no data to suggest it will burst when it reaches a specific size. The surgery to correct it is risky even for young and otherwise healthy patients. Dr Miller said no doctor would perform the surgery, which involves cracking open the chest, on mom. The aneurysm will most likely never burst.

The speech therapist does not believe mom will continue to improve. Most people with the type of brain damage that mom suffered plateau around two to three months after the injury. Mom's last seizure happened 12 weeks ago Monday. Physical therapy is waiting another week before they determine if she is continuing to improve. Once mom plateaus we will get her a fitted wheelchair that will be more comfortable for her.

We'll continue to work with mom, of course, every case is different.

She had a good night and morning, she was funny and alert and had a healthy appetite. She was surprised that she was too weak to stand now that she feels better. 

Mom's been here three weeks and we are in a quiet routine until the snow is gone and it's warm enough to go outside. The speech therapist has me help mom with simple exercises like sorting playing cards and naming family members from photos.

Here's the first exercise, which apparently was too easy for mom.

Then we tried four cards. Spoiler alert: things move slowly and it's kind of boring.

Cousin Marcia insisted we take mom out for a walk today. I was eager to try the new ramp by myself, the old one required two people.

Mom came here without a winter coat so I gave Marcia my snow shoveling coat to put on her. I blame Marcia for the rest of this look. She didn't want to make mom stand, so the coat went on backwards. Then she thought a towel made sense to keep mom's back warm.

I was embarrassed for mom, but it was good to get out. With one minor modification to the threshold, I can easily get mom in and out of the house by myself.

As I was getting mom out of bed this morning she said "You're such a good girl, I could kiss you!".  I thought I was doing an exceptional job, but in the next breath she talked about the ferrets (there are no ferrets).

I ask mom every day if she's hungry for something special or if there's anything I can get for her at the store. She never asks for anything, she says whatever we're having is fine. 

She was watching shows on the laptop this morning while I was loading the dishwasher. I came back in at a commercial break and mom told me she just saw something she'd like to try. I rewound the video and found the dish she wanted.

It was Crispy Pig Ear & Chicory Salad, Six-Minute Egg, Apricot Jam & Candied Kumquats from the Top Chef finale!

Maybe I'll give her the egg and jam.

Marcia and her family are in town for a visit. Marcia wore mom out and she ended up taking a three hour nap. She woke at 4:00 and wanted to go to back to bed at 6:00pm. 

She ate dinner with me and my friend Sara even though she insisted she wasn't going to eat, she was going straight to bed. I promised her she could go to bed at 7:00. After dinner she asked what time it was. I told her it was 7:05 and she said "you lied".

Mom is having a great day. She slept through the night and was up early. She's alert and chatty and paying better attention to the documentaries she likes to watch. She's still aware that her words are not coming out correctly and she continues to ask "isn't that silly?". I bookmarked a handful of online picture dictionaries that I hoped might help her when she cannot find the right words. I'm sure I will get some tips on how to help her from the speech therapist on Monday.

I found mom's rings in her wallet. She is happy to be wearing them again. 

Yesterday mom did not want to get out of bed. She was weak on her right side and could not walk. She was a little better after her nap. The aide, Meme, came to bathe her at 2:00. Meme is 22 and came here from from a small village in Tibet six years ago. She had never been to school and did not speak English when she was placed in high school here. I told mom she needed to be strong and cooperate because Meme couldn't weigh more than ninety pounds. She said every time she meets a new client they are sure she cannot help them because she is so tiny. But she did a great job and really liked mom. She said most of her clients are crabby. Mom knows how to turn on the charm when anyone comes to help.

Today mom couldn't wait to get out of bed. On bad days I have her stand and immediately sit in her wheelchair. Today she walked to the breakfast table and then to and from the bathroom with her walker and very little support from me. Her days are so routine that it's difficult to figure out why she is strong some days and not others. I think I will leave her to rest on days when she does not want to get out of bed. It might be something as simple as the amount of sleep she's getting.

The occupational therapist comes today and the speech therapist comes next week. Mom was very aware of her aphasia today. She laughed when her words didn't come out right, and kept repeating how silly it was. She said "earlier we were talking and talking and then it all just stopped." She asked if it would get better and I reminded her that she's had three seizures and quickly snapped out of the other two.

The better mom feels, the spicier she gets.

We argued for ten minutes over why she couldn't eat this clip. 

She insisted it was her favorite and I "didn't have to enforce her". She said I was making fun of her when I laughed.

She won in the end.

Then I made a peanut butter banana smoothie and she remembered THAT was her favorite.

I have been waking up at four every morning since mom moved in, it's like having a new baby. Today I fell back to sleep until 8:30. When I checked on mom, her blankets were off and she said she was ready to go outside. I wheeled her up to the table and went to the kitchen to prepare her breakfast. Gemma was at the table eating cereal and mom reached over, grabbed gemma's spoon and stuck it in her own mouth! 

I'm bummed now that I didn't think to take a picture.

The physical therapist came today and mom did great. She is using her right hand to scratch an itch or help pull herself up to her walker. When I brushed mom's teeth, her right hand followed along, going through all the motions of brushing her own teeth, just inches from her mouth. There is still enough tone left that the therapist is confident mom will regain more strength and control in her right side.

Kathy and her family visited and again I forgot to take photos. Mom was alert and chatty for most of the visit and she busted me for failing to understand how much chocolate she requires.

Mom hates exercising, but she's pushing herself to impress the physical therapist who will come later this week.