Thanksgiving Smile

Vince sent me some pictures of Thanksgiving with Karen and our Dad; apologies to EK who had to be cropped out, but the layout on this site kept cropping KAREN out which sort of defeats the purpose of this ^_~

Karen's Thanksgiving

Hi guys, happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone had a good holiday :)

Thought I'd do a quick blog post on what little I know about Karen's Thanksgiving. Dad informed me earlier today that he ran out of minutes on his cell phone, which is a bit disconcerting, so I won't be able to really get in touch with him much until Dec. 7, I guess. Anyway, he wasn't able to take Karen to our aunt's house like he had hoped, but from the cacophony I heard in the background, I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. I suspect it might have been really confusing for her; I am pretty sure most of the grand-kids were there.

I was able to call later (after bouncing around the nurse stations a couple of times) and talk to her about 9 pm; I was bad and didn't call her back earlier like I'd planned because I kind of fell into the internet for a while. Any way, at least I got to talk to her and say Happy Thanksgiving :)

She didn't have a whole lot to say on her own, although she did say something that is sort of funny (although it's also an indication that her wires are still crossed): she told me she was lying in the 'art museum', and that they'd just given her an amoxycillin (I cannot spell drug names, sorry) 'speckled heart'. I think she meant they'd given her some sort of pill, although I don't know what for; possibly just follow up anti-biotics or something. Anyway it was sort of amusing, hopefully she'll think so later and I'm not just being callous.

I asked and she said that dinner was ok, and she was happy to have dad, Vince, and Sherry there. I told her about our dinner, which hopefully wasn't too torturous, but she got sleepy near the end, so she said good night and we rang off. Sadly I guess Melinda didn't get to talk to her earlier, but I told her she said hello also.

She is sounding pretty good, even though she's still confusing words. I just sent her a big package of photos (from Kodak, so she's seeing them even before I have, other than in digital form), so hopefully those will give her something to do.

A lot of the pictures are just kind of random stuff I've taken pictures of on vacations and whatnot, and a lot of them were stuff where Karen was there; I'm hoping that she can kind of use them to jog her memory and word associations, so depending on what the doctors say about that, visitors might want to ask her if she wants to show any of them and maybe explain what they are :) (I'll have dad check on that, but I bet they'll think it's a good idea.)

Anyway hope everyone had a good day, and keep on troupin' :)

Greetings

Hi folks,

Just a small update again, but since I hadn't written anything in a while I figured I should do that.

Yesterday I got to talk to Karen for the first time in a couple of weeks - mostly because I either kept calling while she was in a therapy session, or Dad would call me when he was leaving the hospital. So it was good to talk to her for a while and she's definitely a lot more herself than the last time I talked to her.

She said she's pretty comfortable in the hospital, and that the food is ok, and that she's really been enjoying all her visitors. I'm really glad so many people have been able to be there with her, I'm sure it's helped a lot. She's also enjoyed all the pictures people have sent. I plan to go upload a bunch of stuff later today and send prints to her, since I guess she'd like to have some more.

We also talked about Morgan and Sage, and I'm betting she really misses her kitty, but she was happy to hear about them both. Lastly, I told her we were close to closing on our house, and she was pretty excited about it. She tried to ask me about our mortgage, but she couldn't quite get the words right. I was able to figure it out by asking a couple of questions though.

Overall I think she's made a ton of progress from the last time I talked to her, even with the return to the ICU, and I am very happy to hear how much better she sounded. I've heard from Ed, Mike, and Vince as well from their visits, and everyone has been so supportive to her and Dad and I. It's really awesome how everyone has come together. Thanks guys!!

-Ro

For those needing the RHI mailing address

Karen's room is 401 Left, and the RHI Mailing address is 4141 Shore Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46254, and the phone number to the hospital is 317.329.2000.

Dad and Ed both said Karen has been doing well with her rehabilitation therapies, and that she's doing particularly well with the walker - I guess she was able to go 80 feet on her own a couple of days ago. Dad also said they've got her on a combination of Ritalin and something else to keep her more alert, which seems to be helping. I guess she was able to talk on the phone with Melinda and used some complete sentences :)

Speaking as a former Ritalin taker-ADD person, I'm intrigued by the fact that they're using that for her. I was never a big fan of that stuff but it does work...

Karen Facts

Evening, everyone;

I was going through some old emails that bounced between Karen's old D&D group (the original!) and I found this, which I thought was kind of cool. It was sent on December 5, 2006.

1. What is your occupation? Paid: Adjunct Faculty at Ivy Tech
Community College; Bicycle Sales and Mechanic at Bikesmiths;
Webmaster for GradGrants Center at Indiana University; CycleFit
instructor. Unpaid: Writing dissertation in English Literature;
Webmaster for Bloomington Symphony; Musician in Bloomington Symphony

2. What color are your socks right now? No socks, I'm barefoot

3. What are you listening to right now? Dvorak Cello Concerto;
Morgan meowing for food

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Not very well

6. Favorite color to wear: blue

7. Last person you talked to on the phone? Heather D.

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, and I learned
more about her

9. How old are you today? 40

10. Favorite drink: Tea

11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Pro Cycling (a challenge
to find in this country)

12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Only once, with the non-
permanent stuff

13. Pets? Cat, Morgan

14. Favorite food? pizza (homemade or Avers)

15. What was the last movie you watched? Casino Royale (2006)

16. Favorite day of the year? Christmas; any beautiful Saturday for
cycling

17. What do you do to vent anger? Yell

18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Bike (trike when
younger) and my sandbox

19. What is your favorite, Fall or Spring? Fall (good cycling weather)

20. Hugs or kisses? Hugs from most, kisses from that special someone

21. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberry

22. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes

23. Who is most likely to respond? Rochelle

24. Who is least likely to respond? One of the Mikes...?

25. Living arrangements? Morgan the cat allows me and my housemate
Josephina to share her townhouse

26. When was the last time you cried? When I heard about Rob C's death

27. Who is the friend you're sending this to that has been your
friend the longest? Melinda
28. What did you do last night? Graded, watched TV, worked on
Christmas gifts (hey, it was MONDAY).

29. What is your favorite smell? Baking bread

Message from Ed

Good morning everyone,

Sorry I haven't updated much this past week but there hasn't really been a lot to tell until now. This morning however I got a message from Karen's friend Ed, as he had been up to see her yesterday. I am reposting it with his permission :)

"Hi Rochelle,

Kathryn and I went to visit Karen on Saturday. We got to RHI about 10:00 and stayed until noon. Amazingly Karen was awake (and mostly alert) the whole time. We were there for her only therapy session of the day. The session was with a speech therapist. The goal of the session was to get Karen to eat about 4oz. of pudding; that part was a success. She was able to eat and say word or two between bites without aspirating any food. As you know they plan on trying the swallow study again on Monday. I hope they can remove that feeding tube! Her memory is still a work in progress. She is clearly trying very hard. She could not get the date. But she did remember some things about Tiffin. She is/was teaching 3 classes (gotta check that). Tiffin has 2000 students (that is correct) etc. BTW - Karen was definitely happy to get a chance to eat some real food although the chocolate pudding was sub-par (at least according to Karen :)

It was a gorgeous day here yesterday, diffuse sun with temperatures in the mid 60's. The staff allowed (and encouraged after we asked) us to take Karen on a little excursion outside around the grounds. I think she enjoyed being in the sun for a bit. I asked her some questions about the seasons. Asked her the season. I gave her 3 choices Summer, Fall, Spring. She chose summer.

Karen definitely is Karen and I believe that with enough interaction she will come out of this OK."

Dad also said he was pleased with her progress yesterday and that she seemed much more awake while he was there also. Hopefully they will be able to remove the feeding tube and give her some REAL food tomorrow!

For those who've held off on cards/flowers, she should be at RHI for quite a while and while I don't know her flower preference, I expect she would like anything people choose to send.

Thanks again everyone for your visits and concerns; I especially am glad there are people besides Dad who can come be with her. I'm hoping to get back out there sometime in the coming weeks although it depends on what's happening with my house closing.

Back to RHI

Greeting Troupers, sorry for the late update and not posting for a few days, but there really wasn't much to report.

I spoke to Dad earlier and he had just arrived at RHI again with Karen. She has been holding steady on an activity/speech level, although I suspect that she's been somewhat more active later in the evening after he's left. He mentioned that Mike G. has been by lot and that he is grateful for his company for her - he said it sounds like she's been benefiting from the talks they've had.

Dad asked me to ask people to hold off on flowers and gifts for another day or so to make sure her insurance will allow her to stay in Indy, but it looks pretty good for that. I do not know at this time where exactly she is at RHI but I'm sure the staff will tell potential visitors. As before, please call ahead so that you know when she is at therapy.

Dad had to get off the phone earlier and never called me back, because the doctor had just come in, so hopefully tomorrow I might have a better update.

Keep on Troupin'!!