Sunday Update/Aromatherapy

Well, just when I'm starting to flag, and my spirits are down, Sam seems to shine through. Yesterday Sam and I spent most of the day looking at her photographs, looking at pictures in magazines and sketching/writing. In the morning I had brought Sam some Iris's that were growing in our yard and which were very beautiful. Sam appreciated them and even their musty perfumed aroma. When we then started looking at her photo's and we came across a picture of a rose that was quite beautiful, Sam turned to me and said "do you want this picture?". It was very touching, since this is how Sam could give me flowers. - I accepted with pleasure. A little later on I asked her how she was feeling, and her answer was "vulnerable"....., "yeah", she said, "I'm feeling vulnerable." Again, it is sometimes remarkable how accurate Sam can be in describing her situation, and even a couple of her therapists have commented on this ability of hers. She once told the recreational therapist that "her circuits weren't connected, but otherwise she was fine." Yesterday too, when she asked if she could come home soon and I told her she needed to stay in rehab. just a little bit longer, she said, "yeah...I'm still shitty with memory...." Amazing how on target again she was and aware of what's wrong. She then asked that I bring in what she called "memory pictures" for her to look at and which could help her with her memory. Also, for the first time yesterday, when I asked her what day it was, she answered correctly..."Sunday"...then, when I asked her the month, much to my surprise, she answered correctly again..."May"..., I then pushed it a bit, and asked her to identify the year, and she started off slowly by saying 2000...something .... and then thought about it for awhile and ended up saying "2008". Sam has always been saying 1999 or 1998, so this too was progress. When Sam was sketching, I asked her if she could write her name and, much to my surprise, she not only wrote her name, but she signed her name in script, both as Sam Morris and then , without any prompting from my end, as Sandra Morris (her official name). Wow! In the afternoon, Wendy and Aileen arrived and brought a variety of herbs from their garden for Sam to identify. It was fun and Sam came close to identifing some of the herbs, but mostly we ended up chewing on the mint and basil leaves and laughing a lot. All in all a very good day.