Hi All,

Your update reporter is now, me - Joanie. I arrived on Saturday and will be staying for 2 weeks until Bob and Judy come and take over for a week. Today was the first time that I saw Mom since the stroke. To me, it was  rather emotional. She seemed alert and I think she recognized me, but she is not the Mom that I am used to seeing and that was sort of hard. I have to get used to the new Mom.

I don't think that they did any therapy with her - for she was in her pajamas all day. When we came back for the second visit, the aide was sponge bathing her and we had to wait a while. Mike Noesen and the family came today and Mom seemed to recognize them. She had this little smile on her face and she just stares. Sonja who is a nurse was really talking to her and sort of examining her. She said her color looked good and she squeezed her hand when she asked her to do so. Sonja recommended that we tell the nursing staff to take the catheter out. She said it is a bacterial magnet and she is not going to be able to live the rest of her life with it. So, she said to ask them to get the doctor to write the orders to take out. She said it is more work for the staff, but...  She suggest taking the staff little gifts to "bribe" them to give her extra attention. So, we have a whole tree of navel oranges that I can pick and take as starters. I will feel the staff out tomorrow since I don't have any clue as to how the place works yet.

So, it was a non-productive day as far as therapy goes. I wish  they would work 7 days since Medicare only gives them a limited amount of time to be in therapy.

Aunt Dolores and Uncle Bob are packing to go. They have done a good job taking care of Dad. He is fine. He doesn't like to see her sleep and tries to wake her up. He also took his drool hanky and wiped her face with it after the nurse had just bathed her. We suggested he stop, but he did it again. Whatever...

Keep Mom in your thoughts and prayers.

Love, Joanie