Wednesday-Friday, March

Shar has been making good progress with all her therapy.  She has really improved the strength and control of her right hand and has even started to trace letters.  Her signature is a mess and would've been so easy to forge if it looked like this when my sister and I were in high school :)!  In OT, she has been working on getting a shower by herself and other daily tasks like getting out of bed.  Her strength has been coming back, but the process is slower than we would like.  She wants to be up and moving right now but she still deals with exhaustion.  

In PT, Shar is also making good progress.  She has been working on using her walker and has started to work on steps and curbs.  Some of the work is done in her room, but she does typically go to the gym almost every day.  

This weekend Mindy is coming down from Connecticut again.  Hopefully Shar is prepared to work, since Mindy is the ultimate task-master.  When she was down last weekend and Shar was getting tired, Mindy reminded her of the countless hours that she would sit next to us making us practice the piano.  So you know what they say about paybacks...

Tuesday, March 15

Tuesday was good day!  Shar did great in therapy and even started going up and down a step in physical therapy.  She said that she didn't do great at speech therapy but we explained that right now her physical health is more important than restoring her brain function.  Her speech therapy will take time to improve, so we encouraged Shar to be patient with herself.  Today she crushed it in physical therapy going up steps and walking.  In addition, she spent a lot of time outside her bed, sitting up in a wheelchair.  Jerry once again spent the afternoon and evening with Shar.

One exciting change at the rehab is that they are now letting their patients order their own meals.  Because of staffing issues and Covid, up until today the rehab prepared the same meals for everyone (with some substitutions for dietary restrictions).  However, today Shar was able to order her meals for Wednesday and the menu looks good!   

Monday, March 13

Today was another rough day for Shar.  She was exhausted all day, but still powered through all her therapy.  In addition, Shar was part of a stroke management group where the individuals involved were educated about stroke recovery.  She did work on walking a few steps down the hallway and getting in and out of her wheelchair.  

Jerry spent most of the day with her and Steph came in later at night.  She also had a surprise visitor - her granddog Coco.  We got approval for Coco to be a visitor at the rehab because she is a certified therapy dog and is up to date with all her vet appointments and vaccinations.  Coco did a great job guarding Shar's bed and cheering her up. 

Weekend of March 11 & 12

Sorry this update is so late.  Got caught up with family this weekend and the beginning of the spring sports season...

This weekend was up and down for Shar.  Overnight from Friday to Saturday there was an issue with her bipap breathing machine.  This resulted in her being very tired on Saturday.  But with Mindy home and spending the day with her, she had no time to be tired.  Her insurance only pays for 5 days of therapy per week, so on Saturday she had Mindy therapy (which was undoubtedly harder).  Mindy worked on her getting out of bed and moving, as well as serving as a surrogate speech therapist.  She showed Shar magazine articles and quizzed her on all the pictures.  

Sunday was a better day.  Shar was much more alert and oriented.  Mindy and Lauren spent the morning with Shar and they were laughing and telling stories.  At one point, Shar was asked what Mindy's middle name is.  She answered "Latoya" which made the three of them crack up laughing.  Shar then asked what Mindy's name was.  Mindy told her it was Irene and Shar scrunched up her face in disgust and replied "It's not Irene.  I would've never named you that."  Needless to say, the three of them were laughing even harder!  It truly is fascinating how the human brain works!

At noon, we arranged to have a family lunch to belatedly celebrate Shar's birthday.  The staff at the rehab were very accommodating and let us use a private conference room.  We had Panera takeout and Shar had mac and cheese and broccoli cheddar soup.  She fed herself and didn't spill any of it - which is pretty noteworthy since she was known to spill on her upper chest (which she calls her shelf) before suffering a stroke.  Following lunch, Mindy and Laur drove back to Connecticut and Shar had physical therapy.  The rest of the day was spent with Jerry in the afternoon and Steph at night. 

 

Friday, March 10

Today there were more steps forward for Shar - literally and physically.  In the morning she got a full shower for the first time.  It was exhausting for her, but she hung in there and felt great afterward.  In addition, she had 1 1/2 hours of speech therapy where they played a game with her - and we all know that Shar loves games!  They showed her a flash card of a common object and then she had to describe it to the other speech therapist.  It was kind of like the game password, which she made her children play when they had to wait for an event to start.  

 In other exciting news, Shar took 15 steps unassisted with her walker today.  This was the furthest she has walked since the stroke over three weeks ago.  In addition, Mindy and Lauren got to the rehab around 1:30 pm and spent all night with her.  They laughed a lot, but of course, Mindy provided her own therapy.  Shar certainly slept well because of the 3 hours of therapy coupled with Mindy therapy (which is probably a lot harder).  Lauren also taught her to make the "rock on" hand gesture so don't surprised if she does that the next time she sees you!

Thursday, March 9

A sentence I never thought I would type...Shar went to the gym today!  She also did a good job at OT working on standing up and down repeatedly.  She's working on taking a few steps with the walker and pivoting.  Shar is making slow and steady progress which is great to see.  It's also amazing to remember how far she has come in a relatively short time.

Shar is looking forward to tomorrow.  Her granddaughter, Lauren, is on spring break and is flying home from University of Kentucky.  Mindy will be picking her up at the White Plains airport and then will be coming down for the weekend.  

Special thanks to Saranae for stopping by to visit Aunt Shar the other day.  

Tuesday, March 7 and Wednesday, March 8

Shar has been making slow progress in all her therapies.  In OT, they work on self-care tasks like bathing and dressing, whereas PT is working on building her strength.  In PT they have her working on standing up unassisted and taking steps.  Speech therapy works on identifying pictures, answering questions and overseeing her eating.  They make sure she eats safely by taking small bites and chewing thoroughly.  They also emphasize taking a sip of drink after a few bites.  Even though she gets exhausted, Shar has been doing a good job following all instructions and working hard.

There have been questions about mailing a card to Shar.  Since we don't know how good they are with distributing mail, if you do want to send a card it may be best to send it to her house and then Jerry can bring them in for her.  He has been visiting her every day and staying for several hours.