Mom comes home on July 5th

Thats right, you read that correctly, Sue comes home next Thursday July 5th.

I hope your next question is, how are Mike and Liz going to accomplish helping Sue and living their own lives?  How will they maintain 2 homes and keep mom safe and still keep their own jobs?

Ok, ok, as you can see we don't have this all figured out yet, but we are looking to her friends to help out.  Liz and I thought about bringing her to our home, but that did not seem to fit too well.  All the bedrooms are upstairs, and we felt mom would do best at her home.  Abbey can come home, we can get her to therapy, but we will need some help until we can figure out how to get/pay/cover a home nurse to come in and possibly stay.  So, I m asking for your help.  Could you help us maybe 1 day a week, or help us get a set schedule going so that we can get mom some good coverage?  My plan is to stay the nights, but would need someone there in the am and day’s to watch mom and help out.

Mom gets funky in rehab!

Yesterday, Liz (my wife in case no one knew that yet) spent all afternoon with mom during her rehab period and she said Mom did awesome. Her PT person said Mom is making great strides and hopefully another week will help her even more. Here is a pic of moving some rings back and forth on a curved wire

And here is a pic of her eating solid foods for the first time!

She doesn’t each much and I cant blame here, its puree'd and tastes none to good.

Solid Foods!

Mom has finally gotten solid foods! She has passed her swallow tests and now can start to be weaned off of her tube feeding. Until she can eat better, she will have the peg tube to help nourish, but she does get semi solid foods now. Yesterday we had puree'd chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy! YUMMY I think!

A week in rehab brings big changes

Well, the move to Wyandotte rehab has been good. Its been a while since the site has been updated, but I was off on a minor vacation.

During my absence, Sue has made some great progress, and appears to have regained some motor and cognitive skills. She has also been helped along with some anti sleeping drugs, such as Provigil and Ritillin. These two drugs appear to have put mom into a mode of being more alert and able to have conversations. She does use yes and no quite a bit, but longer more thought out sentences take a bit more time. She does quite well now in therapy and can walk with one person helping. She was given a cane and can use that with some limitations.

She was approved for another week in rehab which puts her there through the 28th of June. If she does well again this weekend and during the week, she could be there one more week. If you plan to visit Sue during the week, please go after 6pm in the evenings. She is in rehab from 9:30am to 4pm most days and is very tired for about an hour after. She does get therapy on the weekend but its not posted or the same each time of day. Its not as intense so weekends are ok. If you feel up to it, wheel her outside, she does like that.

Sue leaves the hospital!

Today's news is the best in a long time, Wyandotte Acute Care has accepted mom into their program, and now the fun really begins!!! This means that Sue will be getting some pretty hefty therapy and our goal is to get her back home and taking care of herself and Abbey.

Thanks to all of you that visited her and kept her in your prayers. I really think all that encouragement is what is keeping her motivated!

Abbey makes a visit!!

I must give credit where credit is due, and this time it goes to my wife Liz. On Sunday night she visited mom and decided enough was enough, on Monday Sue was going to get up and show people what she could do.

And Liz did it

On Monday afternoon and after laying in bed for 9 days and fooling everyone she was a bump on a log, Liz got mom to stand, walk, shower herself, wash her hair, comb her hair and lastly brush her teeth, all on her own. The nurses and the aides were amazed, and said, we didn't know she was capable of doing this. Funny we thought, we have been telling them for 10 days she could do this stuff. We will have to put this in her chart so others will know too, was what they said. Finally affirmation of what we knew was possible.

Liz got Sue to also sit in the wheelchair, and go down the end of the hall and watch out side. Then another idea set in, maybe Liz could take mom down stairs and bring Abbey to the hospital and see how mom does. Liz asked the nurse if it was possible and she said, just bring the dog up here to the floor, so I did.

Later that evening I carried Abbey in the halls, up the elevator and into her room. The look of surprise and happiness on Moms face was amazing. I have not seen her talk or interact so much in 3 weeks, and she was very happy to see Abbey, and vice versa. The I told mom, this is why you must do therapy, to come home and take care of your dog again, and she agreed by saying yes.

Then again on Tuesday, Liz got mom up again, and her wash her face and comb her and brush her teeth again. This time more un-believers saw her, including the neurosurgeon. This time he made notes. Again people could she was more than a stroke victim laying in a bed.

Please stay tuned till Thursday, I think we will have more good news to share with you. Thanks again for all your prayers and thoughts.

Mom is still sleepy...

So when you go to see Sue does she seem sleepy? I get the feeling she is playing a cat and mouse game sometimes, like you look away and then she looks at you. Then when you look back, she closes her eyes.

All the nurses and Dr's seem to think she is "out of it", but I know better. She can hear and she listens, and can even respond sometimes, then she goes away again. Anyone who knows mom, knows she is not a quitter, and is very fiesty when she wants to be, so I am at a loss for why she is this way. Up to 10 days ago she was cleared to go to the intensive therapy unit, but after this infection, now she is acting like a big lump. Because of this, she will now go to a stepped down unit, most likely Rivergate Medical Center in Riverview. Is it like a nursing home, I guess in a way it is, but she will get her therapy, just not as tough as she would have at Wyandotte.

If you go to see her, please encourage her as much as you can, but dont make it easy on her either, its still a long road ahead.

Moms infection gets better

While she still has about 3 more days to go on this stuff, Moms white blood cell count continues to drop down. A normal person has a count of about 3k to 10k, Sue's was at 20k+ when they discovered the issue. As of last night, she was down to about 16k, so as time goes on she should be getting better.

Struggle Continues

Mom has had a minor setback, but she continues to hang on and remain cognitive. A urinary tract and blood infection have delayed her recovery and her transfer to physical therapy. While I know that Oakwood is doing the best that they can for her, I am very concerned that she has been laying in bed way to long now. She needs to recover from this infection so that she can get to Wyandotte rehab as soon as possible.

Yesterday and today visitors continue to see her, so please go and talk to her and make her aware she can leave as soon as we kick this infection. She will interact with you if you hold her left hand and ask her questions. Tell her to squeeze your hand if she understands what you are asking her. In fact she gave me a high five and waved when I left yesterday.

Tell her not to give up, tell her to fight and remain positive.

More tomorrow!

Sue Donakowski suffers a Stroke

On Wednesday May 24th, my mother and friend to many wonderful people, suffered a left Cerebral edema as a result of a stroke. Thankfully this occurred at work and her co-workers were able to get her to the hospital within 30 minutes. Had this happened to her at home it may have been hours before someone would have found her.

Sue has been in the hospital for 11 days now and was been making some progress, but now she is very sleepy most of the time. The hospital cannot do much for therapy wise, but tougher times are ahead, for she begins her physical therapy on Monday June 5th at Wyandotte hospital. Sue can talk, but her speech is sometimes unclear. She can walk with assistance and even can perform simple tasks, such as brushing her teeth or squeezing your hand to acknowledge questions you ask her.

She still fails her swallow tests, so a feeding tube was inserted into her stomach to allow her to receive protein, and she is doing better. After 11 days in the hospital, she is somewhat weaker but her skin tone is still great. She has no bedsores and can use the bathroom if she gets help to get in there.

This website will be used as away to communicate her progress to her friends and family who have access to the interenet. Please keep Sue in your thoughts and prayers, we feel she can make a pretty good recovery, but she is going to need time and encouragement.