My Christmas Wish

On Saturday, December 20, I got my Christmas wish! I went to visit Mom, and she knew who I was! She was awake, still confused and she was frustrated. I was able to use her traych attachment to let her talk. And she talked!! All she wanted to do was get out of bed to use the bathroom. No matter what I told her, she insisted that she had to get out of bed. No matter how I tried to change the subject, she wouldn't let it go. I posted some more cards, went over our "plan" again, and tried to keep her in bed. According to Mom, it was 2009, she had eye surgery in May, and that was how she wound up where she was. I didn't argue.

I called Cathy, and she was surprised to hear Mom's voice! Mom told Cathy how mean I was - yelling at her and "sitting on her" to keep her in bed. Cathy then found Grace for me. She was on her way to visit Grandma, so Mom was able to talk to both of them! By that time, she was falling asleep on the phone, so I left before she was able to talk to anyone else. Later that day, Dianne and Larry went for a visit, too. They were thrilled with how Mom was doing too, and they helped Mom to call Eileen. All in all, a good day!

On Sunday, Mom had some extra visitors. Chris, Christopher, Victoria and Ann joined me for a visit. Mom was happy to see them. Once again, she insisted on getting out of bed. Once again, she complained about how mean I was. I'll take it! =) With Chris's help, she picked on Christopher and Victoria.

On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, we were able to take Christopher and Nicole to visit Mom(Victoria went to Jacksonville to visit her other grandparents). I should mention that kids under 12 are not allowed. So for this week, we aged Christopher 2 years, and begged to get Nicole in. This time, Mom was good about not asking to get out of bed, but then again, she was tired from the moment we got there. They had her sitting on the edge of the bed for about 15 minutes earlier that day!! Go Mom !!! It was a short visit, but very sweet.

What's next?
Mom has been off the ventilator for 11 days now, so they took the machine out of the room! The next step is to start reducing the size of the traych tube. However, Mom is still coughing up a lot of secretions, so they tell me they will need to wait to start that process, and that it takes several weeks. For those of you that like details, she has a size 8 tube now. They will reduce it to size 6, wait for the hole to heal around it, change to size 4, wait, change to size 2, wait, and then remove the tube altogether and cover with a bandage until it heals completely. During this time, she will continue physical and speech therapy. However, all this will probably happen at the next facility in line... which I have to pick. Looks like I need to do my homework! Thanksfully, Mom narrowed it down for me to 2 places, but both are far away. I think I know what I am doing on Monday!

Merry Christmas to us, every one!

Postnote - this picture is from our first formal night on board the Radiance of the Seas, somewhere off the coast of Alaska.