What a Wednesday!!

Today was a leap of a day!
You actually think about the timing...this Saturday will be one month since Mom's aneurysm. She has gone through so very much. Healing begins with resting your body and this woman has not experienced uninterrupted sleep for almost a month. Here at Whittier, the standard of care is high. She tries to get some sleep, but in between the small chunks of time,  they change her position every 2 - 3 hours to avoid bed sores, check her blood pressure manually, scan her stomach for waste, check her blood/sugar, assess her food intake via feeding tube, give her all her med's via IV, all the bodily checks, and in between 3 therapists comes in to re-teach her. A-mazing woman.

Be encouraged!

Finally, since Friday, Mom's had high blood pressure, which has really exhausted her body.  However, as of yesteday afternoon, with the right concoction of meds, her body is in greater rest and healing mode, hence, she did well in her therapy sessions. In speech therapy, after getting her upright, Alison asked a bunch of questions, using the beautiful 180 page book Ray made, she said all of her children's names and some grandchildren's names. On the telephone later, she said hello to Al and Alex and I'm better, so for them to hear Mom speaking, was so awesome! This evening, as Reta walked in the room, she turned and asked...did you eat dinner yet?....

In her Occupational Therapy this afternoon, they had her sit up with help of course, and shift her into the chair and she sat for 3 hours. The Physical Therapy nurse worked on her range of motion for her upper body as her right side is tighter than the left. Rena and Reta were able to get permission to open up the salon, and we wheeled her in, washing her hair with warm water. Rena then dried her hair with a blowdryer, while mom looked at herself in the mirror. She looked a thousand times more herself and we know that she FELT FABULOUS. When Rena left (to celebrate Jeremy's birthday today), Mom said, "Thank You", which were her first words to Rena, in person, so Rena's eyes welled up in complete joy and gratefulness to the Lord! :) Big leaps....

Another Speech therapy round occurred this afternoon, as she works towards the strengthening of swallowing, so Mom can begin eating, and when that happens, she will be able to take in additional calories using the feeding tube.

She viewed photos with Ray this p.m,, and was up, alert, amused and pretty much stuck, unable to respond to Ray's comical comments and assessments of all the photos in his IPAD......

Additionally, Mom spoke - again minimally, but again in Chinese, to Auntie Wendy, Cousin Rudy, Auntie Diana, Uncle Ron and Auntie Pamela!...To Uncle Ron, she said, how are you doing? (in english) We've always admired the incredibly tight bond and love that Mom's siblings and cousins have for one another.

We received a beautiful and awesome singing card from Danny and Helene Kennedy's ohana - THANK YOU GUYS!!!, another Goobie fun and loving packet from the beautiful Chloe, Tessa and Goobie, and a lovely card from Uncle Rocky's family. THANK YOU for taking the time to send Mom your love with the cards, and allowing us more opportunities to turn it into a therapy moment - we make her take it from us :).

It's funny how the last couple of days, I've (Reta) personally correlated the weather with Mom's healing. Yesterday was dreary, raining and cold, and Mom slept much throughout the day. Today, was sunny, warm and beautiful, and Mom spoke, moved, and connected with us greater than she has in a week.
But the reality is, that God is healing her then, now and always. 

Thankfully, He is in control and has her in His grip!
And we know His hand is upon her and moving in each one of us as we journey together.

Mahalo nui loa.
God bless you all!