Progress?

On Saturday, I was able to be with Sam in Physical Therapy and she walked up 4 big stairs just by holding onto the handrail and with the PT holding onto her! She then walked down 7 small stairs. This was the first time I've seen Sam doing stairs and I was really impressed. Sam is absolutely amazing and is getting physically stronger. The therapists are also working on her balance and so I stood on one side of Sam holding her arm and the therapist on the other and Sam walked the length of the gym back/forth with a number of rests in between for almost a half hour. That too was amazing. Sam also decided to talk with us during therapy. I was surprised because Sam really hasn't been talking. In fact, this week I learned that Sam has not reached her goals in speech class and after two months of changing her goals and changing her medications, the Speech therapist, Meghan, has actually had to stop individual speech class with Sam. I was extremely upset, but Meghan said that this can happen with anoxic brain injuries. She said that Sam has great potential (unlike some of the other patients) and so might be back working with her in another month or so, and that they are monitoring her. Sam in fact still has her group speech therapy class along with all the other therapies and other type classes, such as tai chi/breathing class. It is true that Sam has been speaking very little on the weekends, but I just assumed that she was speaking more in her classes. This obviously was not the case. Sam also has developed a really bad problem with eating...or I should say not eating/spitting out her food. This problem has gotten worse over the last few weeks. I've asked the head nurse to see if the recent change in medication might be causing this, since it all seems to have happened around the same time. However, with all this said, Sam was speaking-up a storm on Saturday and even did karaoke on Sunday during the all day radio request show. The person in charge asked Sam to pick-out a Queen song and she picked out "Bicycle" . When the song was playing, Sam sang the chorus out loud every time..."Bicycle, Bicycle, I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike...I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like......We also were able to spend time on Saturday at Joan and Bill's apartment and Sam sat in the lazy boy chair, legs stretched out watching the big screen TV....she was so relaxed. It was wonderful to see her like that. We were able to be there for three wonderful hours and then returned to the facility. I do think Sam needs to get out for awhile and next weekend, Memorial day weekend, I will be bringing her home for a couple of days. After a really nice weekend with Sam, when I went to say goodbye to her on Sunday, she hugged me briefly and then pushed me away. I asked her if she was mad a me... and she said "yes". I said are you mad because I'm leaving you and she said "yes". I told her that if I could, I really would just want to be there with her and spend all my time by her side...she gave me a big smile and I gave her a big kiss.
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New computer

This weekend I finally got Sam a computer and she is very happy to have one. Thanks to Wendy and Aileen, who visited over the weekend, Sam's computer got set-up properly. She now has her own email account at samorris1961@yahoo.com For those who wish, please send Sam emails directly to her and then she and I can read them and can respond together each weekend. When Aileen was setting up the computer she asked Sam if she already had an email account -and without hesitation Sam said yes and recited her old MMA account. Sam can type a bit on the computer but needs assistance to remember how to turn it on, how to use it in general and even to remember it is there. However, she was excited to watch msnbc clips of Rachel Maddow's show - especially the cocktail hour clips and was just very generally engaged. We went outside Saturday afternoon and strolled around the grounds. Wendy took lots of great pictures. As Sam's stamina becomes better, I've noticed that her daily schedule has been filling-up. Besides from her physical, occupational and speech therapies every day - Sam's schedule also includes the following:
8:00am- Breakfast
9:15 - Preview and Plan
10:30 - Information Processing
12:00 - Personal Best
1:00 - Lunch
3:00 - Mind and Body Arts
4:00- Creative Engineering
6:00 - Dinner

No wonder she is tired when I see her on the weekends! She works extremely hard during the week. On Sunday when I came in the facility, the aides stopped me right away and told me that for the first time, Sam almost went missing this morning....apparently Sam took the elevator downstairs by herself and went onto a different unit. She has never done that on her own before. When I asked Sam why she had gone downstairs, she told me that she just wanted to go "exploring". It's a good sign.

Our 16 Year Anniversary

This past Wednesday, April 28th, 2010, Sam and I celebrated our 16 year anniversary together. This was the first time since we met that we weren't together on our anniversary. Not knowing what Sam's state would be during the week, I had decided not to visit on Wednesday, but instead to talk with her about our anniversary over the weekend. It is thanks to all of our amazing friends that I was able to get through the week and a special thanks to Wendy, who celebrated her 50th birthday on April 28th as well. Wendy gave Sam and I a very special surprise present for our anniversary. She coordinated and gathered over 20 people mostly from our neighborhood, but all who either knew Sam and I before this happened, or have been involved in our lives in some way over the past year and a half. Wendy gathered everyone last Saturday and had them all work on our house, our deck, side garden, back yard, gutters, everything. It was a total makeover for the outside of the house. Everyone was told to bring a plant and had their job to do during the day. I arrived home late Sunday evening and was so overwhelmed by the transformation and the overflowing of flowers, that I couldn't stop crying for awhile. This is what Wendy wanted for her 50th birthday present...to give Sam and I a special place. to come home to. Yesterday, when I saw Sam I couldn't wait to tell her about it all, and right away I started crying again. Sam very lovingly, took my head in her hands and pulled me to her, comforting me. When I got myself together, I then told her I had been very sad during the week, and again, she pulled me close, but this time gave me a big hug. she looked around for a minute and then pointed to the bed and told me to go lie down. She was looking after me. Later that morning, we went and sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather before it got to hot. We just quietly held hands. The whole weekend continued in this way, quiet but loving.