Milestones

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10/29/08, CORRECTION TO BELOW INFO.: I am told she was wearing a helmet, so the black matter on her scalp is more likely either padding material rubbed off from inside the helmet or just dried blood, but she did have a few sores on the head--nonetheless, it seems lucky that she did wear a helmet!~Mindy
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It's blood from her neck surgery. She looked better before that, except for swelling. They had to put her on her face and the blood ran all over her head. The sores are from her lying on her face. They must have had something bracing her that dug into her head (I mentioned marks in a post but didn't go into details). She looked awful and it was a real mess afterward and took them days to get a little at a time cleaned off. She needs a really long shower! It's hard to wash hair when you're lying in a bed. The helmet came through all of this in great shape. - Diane
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Just yesterday, Mom said she really wished she could scratch her nose and tried with her right arm which has a very heavy cumbersome cast. Well, by this afternoon she was resting that hand above her nose upon the top of her forehead!

Mom could barely sit up less than a week ago. Today she had strength enough to lift her trunk and legs entirely off the bed as well as walk, sit, stand, and lie down with balancing support from John or myself.

This evening, Dean, John, various nurses and I enjoyed reading out loud with her about five days worth of this blog and your loving comments. She smiled so much that her cheeks developed little rosy circles -- she resembled "Mrs. Claus!"

It really began to dawn on her just how devastating the news was in those first few days, and how uncertain everybody was about her prognosis. She's just in awe of this story as we unravel the details for her little by little. It is such a blessing to have it so well documented on Blogger. She still can't remember anything past the fact that she was riding her scooter home that Wednesday. We know she was in much pain upon arrival at the emergency room, so it is probably best that she doesn't remember that. She agrees.

Mom still has drainage tubes connected to her right lung, her skin graft, and booties attached to an air pump to reduce the swelling in her feet. She has dozens of scratches, scrapes and stitches that are steadily healing on nearly every area of her from head to toe. Today, I began to carefully clean some of the pavement that is still imbedded into abrasions on her scalp.
I hope to remember her optimistic spirit if I am ever incapacitated in any way. I believe I would more likely wallow in self-pity for a while. She amazes me!

Linda is anxious to dictate her own comments and posts to this blog as soon as we manage to read it all to her. Ergonomically speaking, it's much too awkward for her to have the laptop in front of her or to type, but her fingers are really very agile and will be ready as soon as the right wrist is freer and her left forearm has healed a bit.

~Mindy