Hi Everyone,

I had a meeting with the staff at DM today, and learned about the "incident" last week.  The official diagnosis is a second stroke (CVA), not just grand mal seizures or a ministroke (TIA).  This was from the report on the CT scan from the emergency room.  Her entire left side of the brain is "gone," particularly the parital and temporal portions.  I have no idea what those do in particular.  The DM staff did not know what caused the seizures.  They requested that the doctor either meet with me at DM tomorrow or Friday, or at least call me if we are not at there at the same time.  The staff will try to give me an estimated time he will be there, but they say this is sometimes very not accurate as if emergencies come up, it throws off his schedule. 

The decision on when she can travel is the doctor's also.  Right now she is very tired and recouperating from both the second stroke and the seizures, which are both hard physically.  So the regression in her progress was due to a stroke, which makes a lot of sense. 

Right now she has the desired therapeutic levels of dilantan in her blood with taking 200 mg 2x per day.  They are still adjusting the coumadin.  The dilantan may or may not be for the rest of her life.  They will probably try to take her dosage down and see how she responds, but that would not be for at least 6 months.  She will be on the coumadin forever. 

The physical therapist has terminated the therapy, as she had plateaued before the second stroke.  He has shown the nursing staff how to manipulate her bad leg and arm to keep the muscle tone up, but he said that she will probably always need 2 people working together to get her in and out of chairs and beds.  They will teach us how to do this before she leaves for Houston.  She still is receiving occupational and speech therapy. 

Joan,  Medicare Part B will pay 80% of her therapy costs, so you will receive a bill for her daily rate plus the 20% of the therapy costs from DM. 

Frances Brown came to visit Mom this afternoon, and as soon as Mom saw her, she gave Frances a big smile and waved to her.  That's the first time anyone has seen her wave to anyone.  Frances also brought a bouquet of flowers which Mom found very interesting.  She took the bouquet in her good hand, looked it all over, turning it around to see all sided and smelled it.  Thanks so much, Frances. 

Later I also offered Mom a Woman's Day magazine.  She took it, laid it in her lap, and went through it page by page.  She was turning the pages herself until she got too many in her hand.  She was also trying to manage it not falling between her legs at the same time.  Then I would start to turn each page lifting the corner about an inch or two, and she would take it and finish opening it herself.  She would then indicate when she was finished by jerking her hand up and down a bit, kind of a tremble. I would offer her the next page's corner, and the process would repeat.  Some pages she looked at longer than others.  The impression I got was of someone scanning to see if there was anything interesting and going on to the next page.  She was moving her head appropriately also as she was scanning the  pages.  She wasn't interested in the print, but seemed to be focusing on the pictures.  She got through about 3/4 of the magazine when the nurse came to put her back into bed. 

This was 3:30 pm, and she was beginning to look really tired and had slumped down uncomfortable in her wheel chair.  That's also the longest she has stayed awake after lunch since the second stroke. 

Daddy is doing better about not bothering her so much.  Unfortunately (or not) on Monday I lost my temper and lightly slapped his hand when he was bothering her with his dirty handkerchief.  She absolutely hates that and screws up her face and pushes his hand away with her good hand, but he doesn't respect that.  He is very loving with her and he bothers her to get a reaction from her, but the reaction he gets is not what he wants.  He wants her to talk to him like she used to, and she can not any more.  So when this happened yet again for the umpteenth time that day, I lost my temper, slapped his hand, and said sharply, "Don't do that. She is telling you no."  At the time I was kind of mortified that I'd done that, but you know, he's been much better since then.  He doesn't even try it nearly as much, and when I tell him to stop he does.  I'm trying to educate him that she can't talk, but her pushing his hand away means no.  He seems to be catching on. 

Well, that's about all for today.  Take care and many thanks for your prayers and support.

Hugs, Anna