Saturday, October 3, 2009

My sister stayed last night.  She reported that Angela slept for a middle chunk of the night instead of at the beginning but was most busy (albeit calm) when she awoke.

We tried Reiki.  It certainly brought a calming atmosphere to Angela and to the room.   While she did not sleep a long time, she certainly was much less restless and more ready to engage in conversation.   We will definitely welcome that again.  Thanks, Dace!

We also saw a fair amount of the imp in Angela today.   Our OT guy was being brought up to speed on the wedgie comment from yesterday so he asked Angela if she likes jokes...she replied that she did as long as they were funny.   He proceeds to tell her that on the pain scale from 1 - 10 a '1' is equivalent to a mosquito bite and a 10 equivalent to a woman having labor.   He then asks Angela what an '11' might be.   Angela launches into a quite graphic description of a traumatic labor experience - which caught us all off guard and had us laughing (some out of embarassment, some out of surprise) so Angela laughed too...   Really LAUGHED!  With both sides of her mouth, a twinkle in her eye, and those delightful crunchy cheeks that get rosy and pop right out.   Of course the real answer is:  Having a mosquito bite when you are in labor, which sent us all into spasms of laughter again.

Later during that same session Ted was rubbing her foot (a common request for visitors).   He tickled her foot on purpose and without missing a beat she tossed her water all over him and then laughed again.   Ted said he saw it coming but you really do not know what will happen next!   Isn't that like the Ang you know and love?

She is hardest on herself (as we all know).   Kevin asked her how it was going and she replied, "it feels like I am not doing enough" and burst into tears.   Lovely Kevin (terrific dad that he is) just asked her if she wanted a hug.   It was wonderful and so touching.   Must be so tough being inside her and wanting to just be healthy again.

We seem to have turned a corner however and she seems to be quite certain that she is working to get home, to her home, to life with Josh.   

Ang tolerated almost two full consecutive hours of therapy today.   That is another big milestone and gets us closer to having her ready for in patient therapy at Harborview.   We need her to tolerate 3 hours minimum (and it would be grand if she still had stamina and energy left over to practice what she learned in therapy).   We shall see.    

Things keep moving forward, backward, and sometimes sideways but know that each of you that visits, sends flowers, sends a card, calls on the phone, thinks about her, says a prayer, or adds a note to the Bridge adds to the patchwork that is creating the net for Angela to get healthier and return to "normal".   A big "shout out" to the Zymogenetics crew that held a bake sale and donated a handsome sum to cover all those expenditures that Aetna can't cover.   We appreciate your donation greatly.

Love to all.

Teresa