I began yesterday's blog/e-mail and Claudia finished it. In doing so, we forgot a great story to share. Last night, Claudia and I were at work late together. I finished up my office work and went down to her classroom. I found her there with 2 students. Class had ended long ago, but there was my sister dedicated and concerned about the students to the end!! She had one student up front with her and she was explaining how to construct a lesson plan geared toward special education students. The topic the student was planning for was Thanksgiving traditions past and present. When it came time to talk about how to close the lesson (the student wanted her kids to compare and contrast past and present Thanksgiving traditions), Claudia told the student to create a book about her own Thanksgiving traditions that she and her family share. Claudia gave this example:
"You know," Claudia said, "You can say something in the story like: Every Thanksgiving my whole family gets together....brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, nieces, nephews... and we eat dinner and clean up and then, after dessert, we all sit at the dining room table and play board games together young and old! And we laugh and have fun..."
"Wow," the student said, "If only that were real. If that could really take place."
"It does. It is real. That's how our family celebrates every holiday," I said. (I had been sitting at the back of the room waiting for Claudia to finish and heard the whole thing).
"Reeeeallly???..." said the student. "Wow."
We take so much for granted. We do. We are so blessed and lucky to have each other...in so many ways. I felt badly for the student so I invited her to our house for the holiday!!! hahaha! You just never know where the events of each day will bring you. Seize the day!
Dad began the day with mom at 6:30 a.m.!!! Mom had her EEG done today in light of the "fidgetiness" we have seen over the last few weeks. We will get the results in about a week or two. I met dad and mom at the doctor's office at 7:45 a.m. Mom was comical as always! Cracking jokes with everyone, making everyone smile or laugh. The CNA and I brought her into the examination/testing room and helped her get from the wheelchair to the test chair (a recliner). Mom did really well following our commands to stand (though she still tends to look/bend down rather then up straight), take a few steps and then sit. She couldn't really pivot to sit for us though.
I stay in the room with mom while she is tested. She tells me it makes her feel strong to have me with her. She joked with the technician and asked me more than once, "So why am I having this test done?" I told her it was to check on how well her brain is working (a half truth--I didn't want to alarm her then and there about the concern over the fidgetiness--my goal was to have her get through the test to the best of her ability). While she is tested, mom has to lie perfectly still. No moving, blinking, eye opening (eyes must be closed). I usually hum to her or gently stroke her arm or face to calm her. Though mom and I have done this together so many times before over the last 17 months, for some reason, it bothered me today. I remembered the first time mom and I did this....so many months ago. She was barely awake. She had just begun to come out of the coma but still slept for days on end--giving us only a glimmer of awake, alert time back then. Back then, you never knew when she would be awake so, if you wanted to work with her cognitively in any way, you had to just sit there by her side and wait for her to wake up...you had to sit and wait for the "moment" to happen. If you weren't there constantly, you would miss it altogether.
What hard work mom has done to get to where she is today. It is truly amazing. And though her recovery has been an answer to prayer and a miraculous event and just what we all have hoped and wished for...our focus was never on what we wanted, but on making mom's life better. Making each of her days better than the last one. Making each moment fully count.
"My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor." Ecclesiastes 2:10
~Kathy
I arrived at mom's after work and dad and mom were sitting together watching TV with her roommate. I brought Chinese food for dinner for us. We sat and talked and dad told me about how he is preparing for mom to come home and who he has called to do what (ramp, wheelchair, etc.) I waited to eat because it was too early. After we visited for awhile, I set up dinner. Dad left and mom and I ate Chinese food. She loved it! After dinner I gave her the journal and she wrote the following:
"I am writing something nice about Jean. He is the most wonderful man - so thoughtful. Claudia brought Chinese food and I loved it. I hate going to bed because everybody goes home and it's very lonely."
We played with "crosswords." It is a little game that has lettered die that you throw and then spell words in a crossword fashion. After that I took out a book of "cutting" worksheets so she could practice cutting on a line. I took out the first one and she had to cut a picture in half and then I had her put them together to make the picture. She didn't do this as fast as I thought she would. She was able to do it, but it wasn't fluid. One of the pictures was a picture of a house and you cut the door so it opened on a fold. Mom cut it out and opened the door and commented that no one was there. I took dad's photo that he left and a piece of construction paper. I taped the door over the photo and then taped the whole thing onto the construction paper. I wrote on top, "Open the door to see the stud muffin!" I then gave it to mom and she opened the door and cracked up!!! I taped it to the TV so everyone can get a good laugh. Next I took out a word search and mom was able to do all the horizontal and vertical words but had a great deal of difficulty doing the diagonal words. I gave her another word search but crossed out the words that were diagonal. THis worked out much better. There were times, though, when she didn't circle every letter in a word. She would either leave off the first or last letter. We then did a crossword puzzle and mom's roommate asked me to open the curtain so she could hear us do the puzzle. Mom and I finished the entire puzzle. She did 3/4 of the puzzle herself. She is great at crosswords. I then put a dvd of one of the shows Ava and Jean were in and her roommate watched as well. Mom asked me to replay a few of the songs over and over.
The CNA's came in the room and put mom to bed. The evening staff has a difficult time transferring her form the wheelchair. I had to help by telling them common sense things like her feet need to be under her knees and completely vertical to the floor instead of stretched out in front of her. I also had to let them know that she has to use "BOTH HANDS" to grab the bar or the wheelchair arm rests. I sat next to mom and held her hand as we watched one last show before I left. I said a prayer and kissed her and left.
This was our fortune cookie from our dinner:
He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough!!!
Peace and Be Well,
~Claud
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