January 31, 2011

Mom has done beautifully over the last week. Though she will have to return to the hospital for a few days in the next week or so to replace a section of her leg graft that failed, she is still as high spirited as ever. She managed to walk over one hundred feet with her walker and Dad nearby for support over the weekend. Today got all the way outside and around the corner of the rehab building. If she gets much further, I am thinking that she will try to run home. Her strength is absolutely amazing coupled with the fact that she walked without a prosthetic for balance and still managed to swing her tiny body around. She has done really well maneuvering her self in and out of bed and up and down to her wheelchair and walker. Aside from the general physical fitness, Mom picked up her drawing pad and started working on a silhouette of a nearby nurse. She will be back plasma cutting in no time at all. I, personally, have an order in for a fire pit already on the books.

Mom is adamant about maintaining a positive attitude fueled by and consistently positive atmosphere. She was very happy to see so many faces over the weekend. She played board games and had some family time with her Savannah and grandsons Colten and Chase. As trivial as it seems, playing and laughing together without the constant toll of vital monitors and IVs is an absolute blessing. Her determination and beauty continues to radiate from every pore just as we would expect and she cannot wait to get home. Until then, however, she has the comfort of her "home in a box" from her niece Kalee Lou. She can smell a piece of her mesquites and choose not smell the wonderful horse apples* -though they do resemble the ones that always seem to make it into the front yard in place of her flowers.

To the contrary of Mom's progress, Dad managed to digress a bit. He decided that walking down the fifth wheel steps was far too simple and, instead, tried rolling down. He was very successful in his endeavor and managed to scrape off the newly grown skin that had patched up his elbow and also inflict some rather angry bruises across his knee. Overall, the death of his traveling coffee cup was probably the most appalling after the tumble. Though he will recover from his lack of traveling caffeine, we are in search of a new cup. All humor aside, he gathered himself up and still made it to Mom's morning physical therapy. He is still sore and probably will be for quite a while with the storm that has come in but hopefully he will continue to take care of his new wounds and grow pretty new skin back in their place.

*For those of you that do not know, we live on a ranch and our home is actually located inside the horse pasture hence the horse apples (feces) in the front yard.