Dad and I got the hospital a little bit after 8:30 am and Mom was looking very wide  wake. She seemed very like she was following us around with her eyes, but looked a little tired. They were finishing up breakfast and the PT folks said they wanted to get her cleaned up and to PT early when she was most awake.

Naomi, the tech came in and said that she was going her a sponge bath. Dad and I went out to the day room and sat for a little while. At about 9:45 the PT guy came in and said that they would be taking her at 11.

So I used the time to take Dad to see the DM rehab unit. He has been saying "Idon't know what we are going to do with her" or "I don't know how we will be able to get her home" so I figured that this would be a good time to take him and see where she would be going as an intermediate step between the hospital and the house.

I thought the place looked good enough. The only difference that I could tell between DM and JK is that JK has single rooms and DM is doubles. After we left Dad said "I don't think that she will like this, she has a house." I again said it was a temp situation until she was well enough to live in the house. So we made it back to the Hospital, sat down and no sooner had we got seated they come in to take Mom to PT. They wanted to take her to the first floor unit where they can lay her on a padded table so she can roll over. Dad saw the effort that it took to get her off the bed and into the cardiac chair. And then the effort to roll her down to the PT are and onto the large padded table. He was making commentslike she doesn't move to good. I told him no she does not and that she is not ready to live at home yet, but if she keeps working hard she will be able to live at home. So I think that for a while today he understood that yes indeed she needed to go to the rehab and that he would be staying in the house.

I think that Mom impressed the PT workers today. She was able to follow objects with her eye and to push with her left arm (and with her two hands interlocked.) She is trying to roll over, which is important in avoiding back sores. She was squeezing a ball and trying to give a ball to a PT person. She seems to be able to do things once they help her get started. They showed me things to do when we are alone with her.

Two things did make an impression on me. She is aware and is trying to help the workers, but she has a long way to. While we were in the day room we saw a woman practicing to stand up. It took her a few times and it is going to be awhile before Mom gets to that point. I think it is a case where the mind is willing but the body is going to take some time to get back in shape to do it.

The other good news for the day was after the PT they had her in the day room and she was able to reach out and fix the collar on dads zip up sweat shirt. That was definitely a sign of purposeful movement.

The other thing I will quickly add as dad is ready to go back to the hospital is that Naomi used to work at the DM until about 6 months ago. She had been there 6.5 years and she said that she would really recommend it. The only real difference was the single vs. double room. So we will see.

Later.

Tom