Susan's update on her mom 9/13

Hi all,
Thanks for all your lovely sympathy notes. I will
answer them individually as soon as I can.
I'm doing okay. I think the wake and funeral
were very lovely. Most people told me they thought
Dad would have been pleased with what we did.
Mom has been having an awesome week! She's been
awake, alert, talking, and actively participating in
her therapy for several days now. She's sitting in
the cardiac chair several hours a day and now doing
back exercises besides arm and leg ones. She also has
done her four hours of CPAP (independent breathing) a
few times so we're making progress on getting her off
the vent. Slowly but surely.
It does seem that she has some visual impairment,
but that may heal somewhat in time, too. Plus a new
prescription for glasses may help. We'll have to wait
and see. She says everything is "furry" and "fuzzy"
and that it's "Like looking through a window". The
therapists tell me she may have something called
"hemianopcia" which means that parts of her visual
field are blanked out, probably her peripheral vision.
Apparently this is common in stroke patients although
I wonder if some of her problem isn't from the
code...it seems to me that lack of oxygen to the brain
impairs vision. Whatever, we'll have to give it some
time to heal and then get an ophthalmologist to check
her out and get some new glasses.
Otherwise she's doing wonderfully well. The
prayers are helping.
Love,
Susan