Update 11/13/2012 By Michelle

It seems like time is flying by and while I try to set aside time to give updates, sometimes it does not happen as fast as I would like. Yesterday my mom's nurse said we are always in a hurry to wait around here. That is so true. My mom had an MRI yesterday mid morning. This is her second one since the accident. They want to be able to compare the two and see what progress has been made as far as her brain, brain stem and neck (from the stabilization). They also checked for blood clots. They put my mom out for the test since it was going to take awhile and she would need to be in the MRI tunnel for quite sometime. It took about an hour and a half for the actual testing. We have not heard anything yet, but know that her doctors were looking at it yesterday. In the next week or so, we will have a meeting with everyone working on and with her and will know the results then. They want time to give us a thorough update and also a prognosis. My mom was in really, really good spirits yesterday. She smiled most of the morning, took a good nap in the afternoon and was happy yesterday evening. I told her she is a queen. Every two hours someone comes and rolls her and fluffs her 10 pillows that are supporting her and helping make her comfortable. She did not object to the idea of being a queen. She has pretty full days with classes running from about 9 or 10am until 3pm Mon-Fri. She gets a new class schedule posted to her door daily which makes her smile. She loves organization and planners. Most of the classes will be held in her room until she is strong enough to get to their gym area. Health wise she has been doing okay. She has had a temp through the night last night. Her blood pressure has been a little more unstable the past day and a half. She is on less pain medicine, but still takes a cocktail of meds twice a day. I think between the vitamins and meds there are about 20 different things in those cocktails. We call it her strawberry shake since it is usually pink. It gets put in her g tube. The site on her hip where they removed bone is almost all healed. The incision on her neck is still healing but looks really good. With her beautiful long hair, no one will ever see it. They have put her in a low stimulation environment and posted two pages about what we can and cannot do while in her room. They fear she is becoming overwhelmed too easily. Some of these rules are: only 2 visitors at a time (and not during her classes), have only one quiet thing going on at a time (ie. talking to her or music on, but not both), and let her rest when she shows signs of being overwhelmed. We are trying so very hard to create this atmosphere for her. My dad and I are living in her room, so it is sometimes difficult to get done what we need to get done and adhere to the rules. This will be day four of her getting up into her wheelchair. She seems to love it. We push her to a glass "bridge" that connects the two Craig buildings and get some sun. I told her she is like a cat in a window. She seems to enjoy the feeling of the sun on her face. Getting her up in the chair is quite the thing. It takes about thirty minutes to get her dressed, ventilator changed to a portable, leads taken off her and getting her hoisted over. The getting her from bed to the chair is amazing to watch. They slip a sling under her body and connect it to a bar that is hanging from the ceiling. The bar is on several runners and is remote controlled. It looks like she is flying in a sitting up position. She does not seem to mind it. This process does completely wear her out though. The first several times we have gotten her up, she has only been in her chair for an hour and sleep usually the rest of the day and into the night. I cannot imagine how good and exhausting it feels for her after two months of being in bed. Well, they are here to get her into her chair. I need to go help. I will send another update as I can. Please keep praying for her strength and healing.