HI, Today is Monday, October 27th.

I am using theWord Perfect feature to see if I can type a message off line and then send it on line. It should not be difficult, but I will see if I can do it. I d of hate to be online and composing while I am tying up the phone line.Dad and I got the hospital a little bit after 9am and Mom was looking very wide awake. She seemed very like she was following us around with her eyes. She was furrowing her eyebrows too. I took some pictures off the wall and handed them to her and she took them and moved them closer to her eyes, like she was trying to get it in focus for her trifocals. When she was finished with one she shook it pretty hard and I took it away from her. That seemed to be what she wanted to happen.

I had a long talk with Glen the head nurse for the SNU. He was very helpful and he gave me the name of the neurologist. He strongly suggested that I call him and find out what there is to find out. He said there was not a whole lot in the file at this point and that was pretty typical as they don't do the final write up until the end. I will try calling the neurologist today. I also met Naimi, the tech. She is a Jamaican and is very talkative. She wanted to know about our family. I also met the physical therapist, Jan. He was going to take Mom downstairs for a therapy session, but Mom was asleep. (Around 10:30-11). He said he would come back at 11:45. Mom woke up around 11:20 and as Jan was coming in it was time for Naimi to give Mom a "sponge bath" and for her to get meds, so we left. Naimi said she would check on the meds that Mom got overnight.

Jan was very helpful in therms of the PT. He saw a whole lot of difference in the way that Mom's left leg was working versus her right leg. The left leg is purposeful while the right leg is more like a reflex action. He said it was better than nothing, but it was not a purposeful movement. He did say that she was going to have to start at essentially square one in terms of using her body, like a baby. He also said that if the cognitive section of the brain is still intact that nothing is impossible. Also Glen said that in terms of recovery from a stroke we are really talking a year before the plateau is reached and improvements are not made.

So, I got a general upbeat feeling from them. The social worker, Annette, will not be back until Wednesday so I guess that I will be seeing her then.  I also got the feeling the that the 7-10 day stay is hard and fast. I don't think Annette will say, well today (Wednesday) is day 6 so tomorrow is day 7, so where do you want her.

Dad has been saying, "I don't know what I will do with Mom" so I am going to take this as an opening to take him to the rehab centers so that we can check them out together.

Speaking of Dad he was sitting in the recliner and it tipped over and he got a small cut on his head. He was watching TV (History Channel about B 17's) and he was dosing in and out. He just was over on the side of the chair and he just must have tipped over too far. I guess we will have to try to get him used to the couch.

Tom