28 July 2007

7/28/07
Today mom made even more progress. Here are a few highlights.
- The Doctor in charge of the Rehab ward is the son of one of mom’s good friends in Alpine. (What are the odds that mom would know his mom and be good friends with her? Rather high actually. Mom cannot visit a new city for one day without making a handful of good friends.) He asked her some questions in order to evaluate her condition. One of the questions he asked was, “If you had 100 pennies and I took 12 of them from you, how many would you have left?” Lisa quickly informed the doctor, “Hold on. You need to understand that mom couldn’t answer that question before this condition. :-) What you need to ask her is this, “If a cute blouse was on sale at Target and it was originally $29.95 but was marked down by 30%, how much money would you be making Herb?” :-) :-) :-)
- Mom met for 2 hours with rehab therapists today. The first was the speech therapist. She said that mom is communicating very well (no tumor could steal that from mom) but that her cognitive functioning needs work. Her short term memory is improving but is still in need of work. The second therapist was her physical therapist. She was amazed at how well mom is doing. She took a 15 minute walk and did stair steppers. Lisa said to mom that the cat is out of the bag. The therapist proved that she can do a lot more than she has been doing.
- Mom wants a family picture! “You have to cherish your family because you never know what will happen.” So tomorrow we are all gathering at the hospital to have a family picture on the patio. We will also eat Sunday dinner together.
- Mom listened to Andre Bocelli today and loved it.
- Mom is completely off of Percocet and OxyContin. She is only taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen. This is a great thing because she is more herself. However, she is still taking steroids to help with her brain swelling. These make her worry and antsy. It will be good to have her off of these too.
- Mom will be home from the hospital next Saturday most likely. She is doing very well.

We are eternally grateful to you for your fasting and prayers. We know that the Lord is blessing mom as a result. Please don't let up.

The Christensens