Hey Y'all,

I got back from staying with my Dad last night and wanted to give you an update.  (I had some of your address in Fl, so you may have heard some of this)

Things in FL are good, that is when I left.  Mom seems to be doing pretty well.  She still cannot speak or walk, but she is trying to do some vocalization.  She was given a bath on Friday, well, more accurately, a shower.  The nurse aid said they were assisting her and Mom did a lot herself. She was able to wash her right side, her chest, abdomen, legs, and face.  The only area she need total assistance was the left arm.  She also made some vocalizations during the shower.  The nurse said that she was crying, she wasn't sure if it hurt, or why she was crying, but she was making some noise.

On, Saturday, the Stroke Club had a little party at DM for Mom.  They had cookies and punch, and gave Mom a wonderful plaque honoring her ten year reign as Stroke Club President.  Mom was pretty alert during the party and loved seeing all the people there.  After most everyone left and only a few of us were there, Mom picked up a punch glass, held it up to her mouth and drank some of the punch, straight from the glass.  We didn't know she could drink without a straw.  That was great.  Aunt Dolores and I were on the other side of the table at the time and couldn't get over to Mom fast enoght to get the glass out of her hand.  Well, she showed us and didn't spill one drop.  Yea Mom!

Mom is eating pretty well and is just about totally feeding herself.  Some times they give her the wrong utencil and I have to help her.  But who can eat a tator tot on a folk with out stabbing the tot and get to their mouth without it rolling off.  Not too many of us.  So what I would do, is stab the food and give the fork to her and she would grab it and feed herself, if it was a funny food.  Grapes too rolled off the fork, and I had to stab those too.  But overall she is doing well with the eating.

I found out that Mom is not seeing at all out of her right eye and parts of her left.  She only has a small "window" of view from her left eye.  This is because the brain is not recognizing the signal from the eye and that part of the brain must be damaged.  So you have to get things in her correct view for her to see them.  So what happens when she eats is that she moves some of the food (while trying to get it on the fork or spoon) to the right side of the plate.  If you turn the plate or move the food to the left side, she will then see that she has more to eat and will continue eating.  She will push her tray away when she is full and then she will start to clean up the area.

Dad is trying his best to get Mom to react to him.  So he pokes at her, stuffs tissues up her sleeve, puts his hand up her sleeve, musses up her hair etc to get a reaction from her.  She will get mad at him and make a face, then she will take her left arm (the good one) and either push his arm/hand away or smack him.  The speech therapist said my brother, Tom, said that Mom's first word is going either be, NO or STOP to Dad.  He is bothering her so much, you really want to keep him away from her so she will be in peace.  I tried blocking his access to her and he will bypass me every time.  Aunt D and I were laughing at how I would try to block and he would get around it.  He is persistent.

On Sunday, I got some energy and picked a few buckets of oranges and got the stuff out to make orange juice.  I asked Dad to help me pick oranges, and he said "no, that's work" and went back to the couch.  So I got a couple of gallons made and took a big cup to Mom and she loved it and was looking for more juice.  I told her the juice was from her tree and she smiled.

We are planning to take them to Houston on the 8th of Feb.  They will be living in a very nice assisted living apartment and you buy the extra care that are needed from the home health group that has an office at the facility.  This place is only 1 mile from my house and .7 mile from Anna's house.  So we will be able to check in on them daily and help them out as needed.

Well, that is about all I can think of at this moment to update you.

Thank you all for all the prayers and help that you have given our family.  We love all of you and want you to keep on praying.  We still have a way to go.  It is slow going, but there is some progress made.

Love,  Mary