She spoke a few words....

Mom has continued to impress her therapists this week. She goes down to the physical therapy room daily, it is full of windows with views of the mountains, and lots of sunshine coming in. When I was there a therapist was working with her and he asked her to bend down and take off her sock. Well Mom moved her foot around and slipped her sock right off, and then lifted her leg in the air and wiggled her foot to show the therapist. The therapist, Dad, and I laughed! Brillant Mom!

We've taught her to answer questions by one finger (pointer finger) means yes, and two fingers means no. That way when the therapists ask if something is hurting they watch her hand and she can signal and then they backoff a bit. When they stretch her head, neck and shoulders she really seems to like it. She continues to improve on her core strenth. She holds her head up very well and has even answered questions with a slight shake of her head for yes and no. She is also sitting up very well.

They switched her mattress this week from a regular one to an air one - the reason I think is to help prevent her from getting sore from lying down all the time. Although on this mattress she slides all over. The nurses give her pillows to try and make her more comfortable, and yesterday she kicked all the pillows off onto the floor.

Mom has passed her swallow test 3 times! Hooray! They put a little ice with blue dye in a spoon and put it in her mouth and ask her to swallow. She has struggled with this in the past, and they have to suction out the water because it ends up in her airway. Well apparently they tested her yesterday and she passed 3 times, she does have a little dye left on her lips, which will fade.

Last night Dad was putting lotion on her, she loves lotion on her hands and feet - especially with a good massage, she was curled toward him, and Mom picked her foot up and put it next to his arm, and then next thing we saw she stuck her foot his shoulder right in dad's face. We got a good laugh! I think she wanted more foot rubbing!

After getting a new trac tube in yesterday she was able to speak a few words! "Help Me!" My mom's friend was with her at the time and she called and told us. We were thrilled with the news of her speaking. We know she has been frustrated trying to communicate with us. We are hopeful that this will continue, and that soon we may get an ear full, and that would be wonderful! Love you Mom! Keep up the good work!