7.25.11

FLYNNE:

Hard to believe 31 years ago I was in labor to deliver our first baby. I'm so grateful that it's hard to express how proud I am of both my kids. Happy happy birthday Ross and Aynsley.

AYNSLEY:

I would love to leave Mom's simple words alone, but today was too eventful to gloss over. For one thing, I understand now much better why Mom sleeps all weekend. Today was insane and the rest of the week looks to be that way, too. The first "shift" of visitors arrived at 8am. Usually only one person comes at a time to make sure Mom's never alone and to help her with meals, walking to the bathroom, taking pills, etc. This morning, two people came and visited. With mornings being generally busy anyway, Mom had no chance of a nap before 10am. She ate her Cheerios and banana very slowly and took an anti-nausea medication before eating. Ross and I both arrived at 10am and Mom still wasn't ready for a nap.

At 11am, two friends came to do their weekly Qi Gong session.

Then it was lunch time.

At 1pm, physical therapy. And here's where it gets exciting. Mom started off PT as usual: walking to the exercise room, but today she walked without a walker and using her therapist as a "sighted guide" as the sight connections liason taught. She wasn't using a walker and she wasn't as supported from behind as usual, so she was a little off in her gait: not really putting any weight on her left leg. She got to the gym, did some work there, then opened up the white cane to walk back. Instantly, her gait changed. She was walking without a limp, in full control. It's amazing to see how much of her lack of speed and maybe even lack of balance come from simply not trusting what's in front of her. It was very exciting.

After PT, a massage therapist came by and gave both my parents massages in the room. Full on with a massage table and the whole bit. Awesome, but now Mom's SORE and a little nervous that she'll sleep badly due to having been worked on. She intentionally drank a lot of water to flush her system out so we'll probably be up a few more times than usual for bathroom breaks. But I think it was so worth it-she's been cooped up and stationary for so long that her muscles really needed to be prodded and nudged. I'm hoping that tomorrow she'll feel awesome.

And after that, we had a little pre-birthday party for me at the Kline-tomorrow I'll be 31. So, all in all, a jam packed day. As worried as I was yesterday when Mom slept for so many hours, I understand it much better now. She doesn't get nearly as many resting opportunities during the week, so she needs to take them when she can.