Jean's Progress

Hello Family & Friends,

Thank you to my family for all the caring attention you have given me every day since Jan. 6th and while I have been recovering! I would not be this far along without your help! Your work in making my memory return has been invaluable!

Thanks for all the visits, phone calls, cards, pictures & notes; to Nathan & Brienne for 2 bouquets, the Dean Petrie family and Joyce & Jim for their plants, and to Julie & Ray, the Westlins & the Bucks for their bouquets. From many others, we have been blessed to receive prepared meals that have all been delicious!

I hope I have thanked everyone who helped me in any way as I recover from this incident. Thank you all!

Love, Jean

Post from Diana - Thursday, Feb. 10

Just a short post to let you all know Mom continues to show improvement! She has overcome so many obstacles in just a month! Changes from day to day are harder to see now since she's doing so well...so I probably won't be posting quite as often as before. (That's a good thing!!)

There is still work to be done and we feel fortunate to have some really good resources about Aphasia...as well as a very good speech therapist at Azer. Also, Dick and Lynn Alderman were here this week and Lynn (another speech expert) had some ideas and resources for mom too. Thanks Lynn...(and we're kind of hoping you can continue to be our "home speech therapist" for awhile if/when it works for you!"

Mom is writing in a daily journal, and has written and sent some thank you's on her own which is wonderful! She hasn't done much on her laptop yet, however, when I went over this morning...to my surprise...she was on her computer doing some online bill paying! I helped her a little...but she knew how to do it! And fortunately, Di and I, who had to figure out her system and pay some bills in January, didn't mess things up too much! Ha! She's adjusted to being home very well and we are just amazed at the daily things she is able to do when we think that only 3 weeks ago, she could hardly string any words together to carry on a small conversation. As I've said before...the brain is an amazing thing...it's fascinating.

She's enjoyed her visitors...and thank you, thank you for all of the food and meals that have been provided since Mom came home. It's so nice for me to not have to worry about their meals and it gives me more time to work on homework with mom too.

God Bless all of you who have helped us in so many ways this past month. We'll keep pushing on and continue to pray for a full recovery.

Post from Diana - Tuesday

I don't have too much else to report from Sunday after Jamie & Di left. Mom and Dad did stay here for another game of cards, football food, and the very exciting first half of the superbowl game! (I know mom got a kick out of Greg's excitement over the game.) Go Pack Go!! They left at halftime but watched the rest of the game at home.

On Monday, I picked up some crosswords, word searches, and another puzzle variety book. I made mom do a word search while I worked on a crossword. We both helped each other. She is not a big fan of doing any of them...but I'm going to push to keep her doing them and work her brain. There's all kinds of games and puzzles we have been encouraged to play with her...however...we're finding cards is her favorite, of course. We'll be mixing it up. The girls and I stopped by for just a little while after supper and I noticed Mom had written out a few thank you's. She had addressed and sealed them...and Dad didn't know she had done it until they were all ready to go. We're curious, of course, how she did in writing them? Very encouraging that she thought to write some thank you's all on her own. Getting ideas down on paper and journaling are something she's really supposed to be working on.

Dick & Lynn will be visiting today and I'm sure Lynn will be anxious to see how mom is doing and offer some of her ideas and expertise.

Sunday..Jamie

Short post for Sunday....mom had another really good day. We played some cards in the morning Di, Emily, Dad, Mom and I. Dad kicked us all, but mom was right in there!

We all went over to Diana's for lunch and watched the pregame prior to my family heading back to Oswego. We had a great lunch and visit there before we had to leave.

This will be a very busy week for mom, which is great. She has therapy on Wednesday and Friday in Galesburg. In between there, she has a couple out of town visits planned from Dick and Lynn Alderman and Harold and Norma are planning to make it over from Peoria as well.

Thanks for keeping mom and dad in your thoughts and prayers.....perhaps Diana can add some more from Sunday....I'm not sure if mom and dad watched some or all of the Super Bowl at their house, but I would imagine they did at least watch some of it there.....I'm pretty sure mom was rooting for the Packers based on Greg and Andrew's support! The grandkids always have the strongest influence. HAHAHA!

Saturday--Jamie

Quick update here on Saturday...mom is in playing a game of Shanghai (rummy game of cards) with Diana, Greg, Kimberly, Dad and I rotating, and Di and David rotating in and out. We are cooking dinner while the game goes on...tonight it's Mexican chicken (Di's) and marinated chicken chunks (David)--I can't wait for the HOT ones David has made. Marinated in a firecracker hot sauce we gave him from Galena! YUM!!! It's so great to see mom play and name off the suits with no problem at all.....just a few days ago she was still getting them confused when we asked her to name them.

Mom, Dad, David, and Greg played last night.... as they were tallying up their scores--Greg, who had come from behind, gets ready to tell mom his score and she says so mom says "and then there's Beetle Bomb." She says some funny things that really make us all laugh....including herself!

Tomorrow the church is bringing communion down to house for mom and dad....not quite ready to go out to church, but probably thinking by next week.

Thanks for following everyone....she is doing well.

Diana's post - Friday Feb.4

Hello Everyone...

Mom is very happy to be home...and we were very happy to get her home Monday before the blizzard hit! She is enjoying having some visitors. For those of you who have followed this blog and have seen her now...you're probably amazed (like we are) at the progress she has made. She looks great and seems to carry on a conversation pretty well. She still has problems with finding and getting out some words and ideas...and for those of you who would like to visit her...just be patient and give her time to think if she can't get the words out. We'd like for her to find those words and get them out on her own...however, we don't want her to get too frustrated either...sometimes it will come to her with a little bit of time. Speech therapy is working with teaching her to "talk around a word." If she can't think of a word...she thinks about other things relating to the word: category, function, properties, association, etc. and then it helps her to find that word.

We went to both out-patient OT and speech yesterday and formulated some goals for mom to work towards as well as got some new "homework" ideas to work on at home. She has been doing a little laundry and helping get food out for meals as well as helping with clean-up which is all good in getting her back to feeling more "normal" at home. No cooking yet...and she has been advised not to do that for awhile. Strangely enough, she has shown little interest in her computer so far...but we're hoping before long she will be shooting off some emails to some of you! We will be working hard on getting her to think of things to formulate sentences about... and then writing those ideas down. She is to start a daily journal and try to get some things down in writing. As she progresses in doing this, hopefully she will want to start doing some emailing again. We still see progress every day...Jamie said she was reading some things from the paper this morning...and then telling him about what she read. Very important that she understands what she is reading. That is something else we're working on...making sure she understands what she reads and what we're talking about in conversation. We've felt all along she understands what we talk about with her...but we forget that there are times when a word or words sound like a foreign language to her and she just might not completely understand. We might just rephrase it or repeat it for her and then she'll get it. The more I learn about the brain...the more amazing it is! The therapists have prepared us that now that she's home...we might be seeing some more frustration as she wants to be doing everything she used to do and can't. So we again ask for your prayers for patience and healing and thank you all for your support in so many ways.

Monday-Jamie

Well...we missed writing yesterday because we were very busy....getting mom home. Actually, she was pretty anxious. After sending quite a bit of items home with us Sunday night, she met us at the door when we got to Bounce Back yesterday morning. It was very hard for her to sit around for an hour and a half or so before the nurse was ready to come and release her. I think 20 days in Bounce Back was enough for mom. ")

After a short ride to Galva.....she was finally HOME!!! Didn't take her long before she was exploring around....taking in the "damage" that dad and I had done....haha---not really....she found it in pretty good shape and fully stocked, thanks to a late night shopping trip the night before by Diana. Mom did help arrange the items we brought back from Bounce Back.

David came over (took a half day off of school as he expected the storm, which is here tonight, would keep him in Galesburg for a couple days) as he wanted to be here when mom got home. We took a ride over to see Grandma Lil, who had yet to see mom since her stroke. Grandma was so relieved to see her...she had been so worried as you might imagine. It was a very happy reunion. We had a very nice visit with grandma--mom, dad, David, Diana and I.

The rest of the day was spent just settling in at home....doing a little speech therapy....and enjoying having mom home.

Monday

This morning (Feb 1) mom had another really good day. She went up and showered and prepared for the day on her own, with us close by in case she needed us for anything......which she didn't. Dad and I worked with mom this morning on her speech therapy, but I gotta say....she has mastered so much of the things we were given to work on with her. We are being challenged ourselves to know exactly what areas to work on at this point. If the storm allows, we will have our first outpatient therapy in Galesburg on Thursday and will look for some new direction.

Mom had visitors this afternoon along with food rolling in for lunches and dinners. Tonight she watched one of the shows she enjoys....NCIS. She looks very comfy sitting over there under her down comforter watching a show on Yellowstone Wolves right now. So comfy, one might say she is dozing now and then...haha! Thanks for continued thoughts, prayers and support. We know we still have much to work on in order for mom to get back to 100%....and this is a great place to do it. Pretty nice to get up this morning and not have to drive over to Galesburg for a change, but rather get right to "hanging out with mom" right here! ")

Sunday..by Jamie

The word--WOW, is a great way to sum up today. I was back in Oswego for Friday night and Saturday, and returned to Galesburg middle of this afternoon. When I arrived, I was so happy and surprised to see Pam Edwards, our former vocal teacher from high school, at Seminary visiting mom. I had just been thinking about her, again, as I passed by the Geneseo exit while driving down I80 en route to Galesburg. After saying "hello" for a few minutes, Pam continued to visit with mom. It took a few minutes for me to realize that mom was carrying on the conversation with Pam, pretty much just as any one of us would. She was stringing sentence after sentence, answering questions, carrying on a normal conversation. It's like a light bulb went on, or a switch had been flipped. You miss some little "aha" moments or little improvements when not there for a day and so I expected to be see a little difference....but this was MAJOR!

David had done some work with mom this morning using some of the open ended questions and other exercises we have to work with her on, so she was showing signs of another really good day. Pam had come to visit then in the afternoon, and was asking mom questions that we have not even been able to ask mom because she has not been able to verbalize well enough for us to even attempt the questions. Questions such as.."did you feel anything coming on before your stroke", "how did it feel", "what do you remember"....etc.....and although I wasn't there yet when she asked those questions, mom was answering clearly about what she does and doesn't remember.

She does remember some of the things she did the day it happened. Other things she isn't real sure if she remembers from that day. She does kind of remember the helicopter....although doesn't remember when they "came to get her" to put her in the helicopter. Remembers very little about St Francis in ICU, at this point, but does remember that they came and told her (us) she was going to have to move or leave at one point. We are thinking that was the Sunday afternoon (her 4th day in ICU) when they came in and sent us all into a panic by telling us she was being discharged that night...this being 3 1/2 days before she was actually discharged and not anywhere near a state in which she could go anywhere. A Sunday afternoon on top of everything else. Mom definitely sensed the panic we were thrown into.....and we all feel very badly that she (or any of us for that matter) were put through that totally senseless scare....it obviously registered enough for her to remember it.

What a day today has been for everyone. Just incredibly encouraging.

Tomorrow is discharge day from Bounce Back and mom is ready. She said 10:30 is "her" target time....they won't release anyone until after 10 a.m. and we weren't sure if she'd want to stay around for lunch and do some therapies on her own in the afternoon....but we have our answer.....10:30 a.m. is her goal.....I think she is ready to get home! ")......and we are ready to have her home.

Saturday news from Diana

A very good day for Mom today! Did some great work with David this morning...and passed all the tests Dad & I put her through this afternoon too! We had some great laughs today...mostly over things that came out of Mom's mouth unexpectantly! She laughs as hard as we do when it happens...and for those of you who know David well...he continues to keep us all laughing even harder until our stomachs hurt or we're in tears. Great therapy for all of us...laughing! Mom got a little visit from a cute little "therapy" dog today who sat on her lap for awhile. She liked that. What a nice thing to do for the residents there. She had a nice workout in the PT room. She doesn't have to have physical therapy anymore, but can go down and use any of the machines anytime she wants. Thankful for a very upbeat day today!

Diana's post - Friday

Hello Everyone...
I have some catching up to do with all of you...

We didn't get you updated on Thursday....Jamie and Dad came to our house to watch the Illinois game when we got home from Galesburg...and I think we were all too tired to write anything once the game was over. There wasn't a whole lot to report on Thursday anyway...pretty much the same thing. Therapy and homework! Mom was released from physical therapy...she is doing so well in that area... which is such a blessing. Good strength and mobility!

The big news is that we will be bringing Mom home on Monday. She will be released from Bounceback but will still continue with outpatient speech and occupational therapy. We will go to the Azer clinic in Galesburg for the outpatient therapy...probably 3 times/week. We're still working on those details. Mom has been a little more emotional this week...for many reasons, I'm sure. One...is that I think she's just getting better and is emotionally starting to deal with the reality of what has happened to her a little more. While the goal is to get her home...and I know that's where she wants to be...I think she might be feeling a little overwhelmed. We're all a little anxious about how she will handle coming home and I'm concerned that she may be starting to worry about things that she feels she might not be able to do when she gets there. We just keep reassuring her that she is doing great and everything will be fine...and it will be! She still has a lot of recovering to do...and I know she feels things should be moving along faster. We all have seen great progress these last 2 weeks...but it's probably harder for her to realize how much better she is...and it just gets better and better every day! She's really worked hard! We're so proud of her. So...good news today...she's coming home soon!!! Pray for patience and continued healing!

We thank you all once again for all the cards and prayers! She really looks forward to getting those cards in the mail! Keep them coming... and now they can be sent home to 318 N.W. 2nd Ave. Galva, IL 61434. Hooray!

Diana's post-Wednesday

Mom and Dad are taking a walk, so I thought I would do a quick update on today so far. More words are coming out! Complete sentences are coming out! Last night when Katie & Kimberly and I were leaving...Mom went to the closet to get our coats out for us...and then said "somebody's coat is over there behind the chair..." It was Katie's. She helped Kimberly with hers and then proceeded to pull out her laundry hamper and tell me it was time for me to do some laundry for her!! I've never been so excited about doing some laundry! Dad and I worked with her this morning on her coming up with things she likes...and saying "I like _____." This was hard for her...but her speech therapist wants us to work on questions like this along with using gestures to help work her brain. So, we pretend to ride a bicycle and she will come up with "I like to ride my bike." We're really supposed to work on getting her to talk with her hands...which in turn will help us to understand what she wants if she's not able to get the words out. Jamie is back this afternoon and we just played some charades with her. I think she's laughing so hard at us and how we look...it's hard to concentrate on the word she needs to get out! Ha! Imagine my Dad as an ape...me as a dog, and Jamie flying like a bird! I also worked quite a bit with her this morning on sorting things and naming things. Sorting is easy...naming them is hard. We did flashcards with shapes and colors and she did very well. (Better than colorblind Jamie who couldn't get the colors right!) Makes mom laugh...she knows she's right...he's wrong.) We're encouraged that little by little more words are coming...but we still have a long way to go. Writing is getting better...occupational therapy has been working on writing out checks and today they worked on looking up phone numbers in the phone book. She does great at card games...crazy eights and UNO so far. Her main problem continues to be finding and getting out the word(s) that we know are in there. We push her pretty hard and she has shown little frustration. I know it's because she is determined to get better. Someday, she will tell us how annoying we've all been asking her so many questions and making her do so much homework all the time! Personally, I can't wait for that day! That's all for now! She and dad haven't come back to the room yet...Hmmmm...wonder why? Maybe because she knows we'll be asking her what she's been doing?

Monday 1/24 posted by Di

Monday began another busy week with therapies and continued progress. We noticed when we arrived in the morning that Jean seemed very tired, so getting anything out of her was straining, however once we did our "warm ups" and got her brain working, words started coming much easier. Jean did her OT in the morning and PT in the early afternoon and she worked hard. After that, we started working on flashcards and Alan decided to take a nap. He laid down on Jean's bed and pulled the curtain (Jean was laughing at him the whole time-can't you just hear her say, "what in the world is he doing?") and a moment later she said, "why don't we go down to the big room?", turned off the lights, closed the drapes, gathered her homework, and we left the room to let Alan sleep! It was so good to see her nurturing self taking care of him!

We worked on some abstract ideas like putting items that go together (chair-table, tree-apple, bowl-spoon, rain-umbrella, kite-windy), and describing what is happening in pictures I showed her. Her speech therapist arrived just before dinner but Jean gave it her all and was reading short paragraphs and answering comprehension questions.

I am inspired by Jean's patience with herself and her ability to laugh at the silly things that sometimes come out of her mouth by accident!

Great weekend!

Just a brief report:
Mom continues to have "aha" moments!
She continues to make us smile and laugh with her smiles and laughter!
Mom exhibits more independence every day!
Her mail basket is full! Thanks!!!
We are getting a bigger one tomorrow (hint)!

Diana's post

Hello everyone!
To continue on with Jamie's post from yesterday (Saturday)...as the day went on we continued to see good things. Jamie's kids arrived while Mom was eating dinner...and my kids arrived shortly after that. Mom came back from dinner thrilled to see the Oswego clan, and after the Larson kids got there...she stood up and told us she wanted to go out to the "great room." It's nice out there, more roomy, and there's a piano! Emily immediately went over and started playing a little on the piano, and soon Di joined her as we found some piano books full of Hymns. They started playing them and Mom, Dad, Jamie, David, and I started singing along...in four part harmony, I might add. While we didn't draw much of an audience (because we were competing with Lawrence Welk on TV...) I think we sounded pretty good! Mom sang away not missing a word or a note...many Hymns, many verses. It was wonderful! Although reading and singing is one of those things we call "automatic" ... it was still very good therapy for her to just get so many different words to flow easily out of her mouth. What a great way to end the evening! And, as always, I will end with thanking you all for your continued support in every way!

Saturday 1/22--Jamie

Hi all,

We didn't get anything written yesterday and I couldn't wait to get on and write today, because mom (as usual) made another breakthrough this morning. Diana and I were working on her to tell us what she had for breakfast.....difficult for her to get the words out. As we struggled to get it all, we put a pad a paper in front of her and she was able to write out what we hadn't gotten, as well as her name, our names, grandkids names, etc....in perfect legible handwriting!!! That is such amazing progress!

David and she just finished playing a couple card games where she kicked his behind!!! LOL--David started playing Crazy 8's with her last night after she did some work in Occupational Therapy with some cards putting them into order by suit and number. She is definitely working her way towards Shanghai already! ")

She is going through David's calendar he brought over right now.....Connie made him a calendar from our family trip to Hawaii this summer....as much fun for us to look at as it is for mom.

Mom got to see Joyce and Jim and Nathan and Brienne yesterday....and that really lit her up!

We are looking for a great day today! Happy Saturday all!

Thursday 1/20--Jamie

Well, it's hard to believe that it's been 2 weeks since mom's stroke. It's just as hard to believe she has come as far as she has in that short period of time!

Every morning we walk in the room, looking at mom you wouldn't know there is a thing different. She is rested, fresh...looks like a million bucks! We worked again with her on the speech exercises we have been given by the therapists....I'm sure mom gets tired of us asking her all the same questions time and time again, but it's necessary and we believe she realizes that as well. This morning Diana did some picture pages with her where she had to choose between two words, one of which matched the picture. She did really well on them.

The break through event today was when uncle Harold had twisted around in his chair to say a few things to dad, and mom just out of the blue said: " move your chair around to talk to him, Harold". That was huge.....she has not been able to initiate or carry on conversation, and those are the breakthroughs we are so wanting to see. Improvement every day!

Her theapies continued as usual today...she is doing really well with her physical therapy.....she is pretty good and strong in that department.

That's about it for now....sometimes it feels like there isn't a lot of new stuff to write on the blog...but that's kind of how it is...a slow process. Thanks for keeping up with us....the cards mom has been receiving have been amazing!

Wednesday-post by David

Mom is continuing to improve daily! She is much more independent than she was a week ago. Jamie said that she was very alert this morning, and responded well to tasks such as pointing to objects in the room and identifying people in one of her photo albums. Diana worked with some word associations and Mom was successful at those. Since she was doing so well, we all bombarded her with vocabulary-building and thinking-skills activities all day. We usually give her a break from those activities between supper and bedtime, but not tonight! Mom seems to realize that the constant questions are helping her condition, and we are glad to report that she is always upbeat and we have seen little frustration. Near the end of the evening, after an intense day of therapy from her family, she laughed mightily at this knock-knock joke.
Jamie: "Knock, Knock"
Mom: "Who's there?"
Jamie: "Orange"
Mom: "Orange who?"
Jamie "Orange you glad we're not staying all night?"

Diana's post - Tuesday

Hello Everyone,

Mom had another busy day of therapy and homework with us. Di and the kids have gone back to Oswego today...but Jamie is still here. David started back to school today...but it's so nice that he and Connie are right in Galesburg. Mom is working very hard and I know she is very tired by the time we leave in the evening. I think she's getting some good sleep at night and she's eating good. She worked on going up a flight of stairs in PT this morning and did well. Also worked on doing some writing today with the speech therapist. She read for Emily this morning, and sang and did nursery rhymes with my kids this afternoon...and...yes... she still knows them better than all of us! Great to hear all those words come out when we are doing the rhymes and songs...it's automatic for her. As always, she enjoyed getting all of her cards today! Thanks!

Diana's post - Monday

After not having the "normal" therapy over the weekend, we were very glad to get started today with Mom getting back on a schedule of seeing all three therapists that she needs to work with....speech, physical and occupational therapy. All are very important to Mom's recovery, but speech is what we're really concentrating on. Changes from day to day are small...and we remind ourselves daily to be patient. This will take time and a lot of hard work. I worry about Mom getting frustrated with the speech coming slowly...but she has shown a lot of determination and progress. She has had to "put up" with a lot of the same questions over and over again from us this weekend...and she giggles a bit with a smile that says "I can't believe you are asking me this again!" But this is the kind of work we must do with her to get around that "roadblock" in her brain and get those words to come out. She likes her new room where there's more space for all of us to be there and, of course, has loved seeing the grandkids. We enjoy taking her out to what we call the "great room" where the birds are... and some of the kids have been able to play the piano for her. And I am sure another highlight of her day is when Dad, David, and Jamie rub her neck, head and shoulders...Ahhh...she purrs like a kitten. Thanks again for all the thoughts, prayers, cards, food, etc...we are so thankful for all the support! Keep those cards coming...not only do they lift her spirits...but we also love to use them for homework...she reads them to us! That's all for now...looking forward to another day of possibilities tomorrow!

Weekend--post by Jamie

Hi all....we spent the weekend with mom in Galesburg. On Saturday afternoon a private room opened up and mom was moved to it on a different wing. It's much more spacious and she doesn't have a roommate. She had a wonderful retired school teacher from Alexis as in her first room,(Carol) but it was so cramped when we were there spending time with mom.

We continued to work with mom on her speech this weekend. The facility didn't do any speech with her on Saturday which we need to check into as she is supposed to have it 6 days a week.
Each day there are baby steps....yesterday on Sunday we had her doing associations and she was spitting them right out: Jamie and ___, David and ____, Diana and _____, Salt and ____, Hot and _____, etc... She was also reading her cards and some children's books we brought from home.

We are looking forward to the new week and obtaining some more concrete information from the Bounceback facility as far as therapy and other things. We have already found it is like being in the hospital.....you MUST be your own advocate and stay on top of things or it's up for grabs as far as what is and isn't done.

A HUGE thank you to Tom and Laura Ramseyer for helping transport Emily from the Chicago area last night to Galesburg. Emily had been at a church retreat in IN for the weekend, and had not seen grandma yet. We didn't feel comfortable with Emily making that drive as we still consider her a "new" driver. A huge help and so appreciated! ")

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.......mom is working hard!

Friday--Jamie

We think mom had another decent night sleep last night. She was really worn out a short time after dinner and pretty much told us to go, so she could go to sleep. ") Hoping she slept all night long!

We worked on some speech things with her this morning....counting, ABC's, asking questions such as: when is your birthday, what is your name, Is it cold or hot outside-- things of that nature. We also have some picture boards that we use to ask her to pick out objects such as a toothbrush, telephone, tv, boat, etc...... She does great on some, and really struggles on others...it is all very difficult to figure out what she will get and what she will not get, but she is definitely working hard on them and we LOVE it when she surprises herself with "popping" out an answer that just seems to come from nowhere.

This morning, she went down for occupational therapy and I went with so I could see what they want her to work on. She worked with some silly putty where the therapist had mixed in some plastic pegs, buttons, etc.....mom was to "work them out" of the putty. Following that, she worked on rolling small pieces of the putty into balls....I told her it looked like she was making cookies....same shape and color! ") Then she took them and practiced squishing them with her thumb and each finger. Helping with her hand strength.

After Occupational therapy, she went right into Physical Therapy since we were down there. She worked on some leg exersices...leg presses, and side push and pulls. Some balance with foot steps up and back down on a stair to work on balance.

Following therapies, she was able to go take a shower which she really enjoyed and then off to lunch. It's pretty non stop so far today...currently we are sitting out in the "great room" where they have a very large bird cage (10 ft tall) that houses around 15 birds or more...including a new baby. Finches, doves, etc... very nice place to hang out.

Speech therapist just got here......more therapy! ")

That's it for today so far.....cards continue to come in and are so appreciated. She reads them all....we have her read them out loud. Happy Friday everyone!

Visiting-posted by David

Mom had the first uninterrupted night of sleep for several nights. Consequently, she was able to verbalize what she ate for breakfast and is very alert. She met the physical therapist after breakfast. Currently she has a double room, but today or tomorrow a single room should be available.

This is a difficult request, but we are asking that Mom not have visitors for now. She will soon start intense daily occupational, physical, and speech therapy. When not in the hands of the Seminary therapists, we will be working with her. It is imperative that we work on her cognition immediately and constantly. We know that many of you would like to see her, but it's best for her that you wait. Mom loves reading her cards- keep them coming! Thanks for your understanding in this matter.

Wednesday night-post by David

Mom is now situated in Seminary Manor. The facility is very nice and we feel confident that she will have excellent care. Mom, Dad, Diana, Connie and enjoyed a nice meal there. Mom has shown improvement even throughout the day, with many completed sentences and increased use of vocabulary. When Dad and Mom were ready to leave the hospital, Dad started to pull the car away from the curb and Mom said, "Wait, wait, wait" and pointed at Dad's seat belt, which he had forgotten to fasten!

Wednesday, 2:05pm

Mom is dressed and we are ready and waiting for a wheelchair. Should be a matter of minutes before we are headed to Galesburg!

Post from Diana

Mom is much more alert this morning than she has been the past few...I do think she got some better sleep last night. Not quite so many interruptions. I know we were both snoring away for a couple of hours at a time! At shift change this morning about 7:30, the new nurse woke both of us up to introduce herself. Out of a deep sleep, Mom was able to communicate with her some as she was running her through the drills...but the best part was when I stuck my head in there and said "Good Morning" and without a pause she responded "Good Morning!" She surprised herself! What a great smile and look on her face as she did so. Slowly things are coming out. It will be a big day today with moving and I'm sure she will be very tired after getting settled into Seminary. It's nice to see the sun came out today...should be a pretty drive for Mom with the fresh snow! We'll be leaving as soon as we see the Dr. and get the discharge orders...just not sure when that will be. Thanks again everyone for EVERYTHING!

Wednesday, January 12, am

Jean just received her mail. She opened the first card and proceeded to read the message! She read several more cards with little difficulty. She had a restful night with fewer interruptions. Diana stayed with her. Today is moving day, which Jean announced by saying "moving day" this morning. Her new address will be:
Seminary Manor
2345 N. Seminary St.
Galesburg, IL 61401-1296

Thanks for all the cards!

Today, 3:30pm, post by David

Today Mom was very sleepy in the morning, since she was awakened about 8 times last night. But she was more alert at lunch, and after that we (Alan, David, Jamie, and Diana) decided to have some speech therapy with her. We are starting with very concrete ideas and words and will be working towards more abstract connections. The therapy is intended not only to work on her ability to get the words out, but also to improve her cognitive skills. We recited nursery rhymes and sang simple songs. She remembered and sang nearly all the words to approximately 10 rhymes and 10 songs. Her favorite was The Galva High School Fight Song. That's because she was the only one of us who remembered all the lyrics! That brought a big smile to her face.

Diana's post

We had a lot going on Sunday with the mention of maybe discharging Mom that day...but that didn't happen and Monday was a good day of communicating with the right people...especially our patient care facilitator who has been great help to us. Medically from the standpoint of the doctor, she is ready to leave the hospital with orders of extensive speech therapy and 24 hour care. She did not qualify for the Rehab. here at St. Francis, so the next step yesterday was to decide what the best plan for mom and dad would be upon discharge. She just can't go home right now. The only way to get speech every day is to have her in some sort of rehab. facility. Our choice was Seminary Bounceback in Galesburg and as I'm typing this...we just found out they have a room and will take her. A prayer answered. She will be moving sometime tomorrow to Bounceback. As far as her condition yesterday...she was very tired all morning but seemed to perk up a bit in the afternoon. She had speech therapy and has continued to have PT. Trying to keep her strong by walking in the hall which she is doing well, and they like to keep her sitting up and out of bed. Communication issues still the same right now. Time and patience and a lot of hard work on her part and ours is ahead. David spent the night last night. She is very tired this morning so we are all out in the waiting area right now in hopes she can get some good sleep (until the next time they wake her.) Thanks for all the cards, thoughts, prayers, food, etc. We are blessed to have wonderful family and friends.

Mon a.m. from Jamie

Mom received some mailed and E-mailed cards today...it made her happy!

I wanted to let every one know that if you send an e-mail card, they print them out and deliver them to the room. I didn't realize that...mom does not have to get on a computer to see them. E-mail cards can be sent via the OSF website @ http://www.osfsaintfrancis.org/.

Monday a.m from Jamie

I spent the night with mom last night and she had a restful night.

At around 6:45 a.m., Brad from occupational therapy came in and put mom through a battery of tests. She did really well on them all in all. With Brad's direction, she was able to sit up on the bed, put her slippers on, walk into the bathroom, brush her teeth and comb her hair.

She is still having difficulty speaking and conveying what she is thinking or knows to be the correct answer when asked questions. That is what the speech therapy will address once we get to that point....we are all VERY anxious for her to get started on that ASAP.

Mom doing well on the occupational evaluation is a double edge sword. In order to remain here at OSF in their inhouse Rehab unit for her speech therapy (3-4 hours of intense therapy per day), she needs to require two of the three areas of: physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. Unfortunately, we are being led to expect her not being admitted to that because she is advanced enough in the physical and occupational areas to not qualify either of those as her second area.

We will see what the rest of the day brings...which will include an evaluation/decision from the head doctor of the inhouse Rehab here at OSF, rounds by her current attending physician (who ultimately is the one who decides discharge), and a meeting with the "patient advocate" who helps with getting you set up with what you need as you go through discharge.

Sunday evening

All in all mom had another very good day. The highlight was the grandkids being here in the room this evening and Steve figuring out that they could play a game with grandma. They would take turns writing a name on the nurse's white board hanging on the wall and then have grandma tell them who's name it was. It was amazing.....she was able to do it.....and I think she was as amazed and surprised as we all were. They played that for quite awhile.

Mom is still not able to communicate what she is thinking. We can tell she is very aware of what we are saying and talking to her about, but getting the words out is still just not happening. Physically she was able to get up out of bed and walk down the hall with us at her side....she continued to eat pretty well today, which is another fantastic thing.

She finally saw her new doctor in Neurology this afternoon very briefly as he did rounds. It is the first time we have seen a doctor in this new room which she was moved to late Friday night. The weekends seem to have challenges of their own when it comes to people being on duty, normal schedules, etc... We got a scare about her being discharged about an hour after her doctor had come through. We were shocked (and still are) given her current condition. With the aid of the nurses on duty and our working the issue, she was not discharged today. Tomorrow is another day and we feel like it will be another full day of battles to keep here right here where she needs to be at this point in time. Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, e-mails, etc.....they are very much appreciated! We will try to keep this as current as we can to let you all know on mom's progress.

Hi, everyone!
We decided to start posting information about Jean's progress so that it will be easy to find out how she is doing. Today is Sunday, and she is doing very well. Her main problem is "expressive aphasia", which means that she is thinking words that she cannot say or express. Physically, she is fine. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks!