It's Good to be Back!!

I confess I have not been online the last couple of days other than verrrry briefly, but with good reason. After being gone so long I have enjoyed getting back to "normal."

This week Patti got her hair highlighted, cut and styled on Thursday. It looks great and I'll publish a picture in the next couple of days. Afterwards, we went to dinner and spent some time at the apartment just visiting and catching up.

Friday I came over to the rehab center and had lunch with Patti and then spent about 30 minutes in her physical therapy session before I had to leave to tend to business. Here is what I can tell you about her "floor exercises." She is able to move herself down and on to a large mat from the wheelchair with little or no assistance. The therapist straps Charlotte to a styrofoam board to keep her spread out and the palm flat. Patti then does several exercises on all fours that stretches muscles and forces the right arm and leg to support her. She can also walk around on her knees frontwards, backwards and shuffling side-to-side. All of these are great coordination and response building exercises.

Also, I was told later that about five minutes until two o'clock, when the session was about to end, that everyone started preparing to put up equipment and get ready to go to the 2:00 PM session. Everybody, that is, except Patti. She told the therapist "nothing doing! I've still got five minutes so give me something else to do!!" She certainly intends to get Blue Cross's money's worth!! And you've got to love the attitude.

Saturday was shopping day primarily for new sneakers. It was great getting out on a pretty day and spending time together with no time pressures. Patti's speech continues to come along very well, but she is still frustrated at the pace. She is wanting to talk normally and just can't quite get there yet. But she is thinking about and working to get out very long complete sentences. We spend time in the car reviewing names, places and other information to help work on her speaking and mental associations. She's pretty much working on stuff one way or another about 14 hours a day.

Sunday has been a really great day! FIRST SUNDAY CHURCH SERVICE SINCE THE STROKE TODAY!!! I spent the night at the apartment last night and we got up early enough to enjoy breakfast, on a very rainy and cold day, and then drove out to Prestonwood Baptist for church at 11 AM. Today was a wonderful day to be there because their music department just completed a new album and they presented it this morning. So we got to enjoy a service 100% oriented to worship and praise and it was PERFECT for Patti! She sang, hummed and cried with enjoyment through the whole thing! We got to go to lunch afterwards with the family I'm staying with now, John and Carol Ferguson and another family as well. It was a really precious and enjoyable time!

Afterwards we took it easy at the apartment sleeping through football and working on her homework and chores.

As I said, we worked hard at getting back to normal this weekend! I mentioned the special splint for her right hand that she will get to use either at the end of this upcoming week or the first of the following week. If you would like to see what it looks like highlight and copy the link below and paste it into the address line of your browser. It may take you there if you just click on it, but I don't know for sure.

http://www.saebo.com/seaboflex.html

Prayer requests:

1. Continue to pray for Patti's patience, particularly with her speech. This is a time when she needs to keep pressing forward without discouragement.
2. We are trying to get her heart procedure scheduled as soon as possible. The nursing staff at CNS is trying to get the doctor to move her ahead of other patients. We would like the surgery as soon as we can get it and we would like for the arrangements and insurance coverage to be seamless!

Thank you for taking the time to read Patti's blog! Thank you for your prayers, thoughts and support! We are still getting cards and e-mails and Patti dearly loves to hear from all!

We love you in Christ!!

Forever in Him,

Mike