Update 1/18/2013

Many of you may be wondering what is going on with my mom. What are the plans for her return and where will she be going? Well, we wonder the same. So far, things seem to just be falling apart. We find a place that she can go and insurance won't send her there. We find a place that insurance will send her and there is no way we will send her there. That is where we are at right now. Her halo comes off next week. I heard the plan is to get it off up at Craig. Other than that, there are no other plans made yet. I know things will keep changing. I know until the plan is the right one, it will keep falling through. We are excercising patience and faith that my mom is still under a watchful eye of the Master Healer. Until plans can be made and put into place, my mom is getting the type of care she needs where she is at. I will keep updating as plans seem to stick better. Now an update on her progress. I saw many improvements in my mom in the four short weeks I was gone. The biggest improvement was in her eyes and ability to sequence information. When I left, we spent the thirty minute speech session trying to spell a three or four letter word. She needed to be prompted for most letters and help finding them on her spelling board. It was slow and frusterating for her. She hated doing things this way, but it paid off. They are using a spelling board with her. It is basically a letter chart laid out in a specific way. She has learned to tell us what row a letter is on and then to indicate the letter as we go through that row. Her eyes have improved giving to much improvement with her ability to spell. In a session last week, she spelled (without any prompting) pencil, Denver, Austin and her name. This is huge. When I was there, we used the spelling chart frequently. She speaks without a voice. I tried so hard to read her lips, but sometimes just could not get what she was saying. We would switch from lip reading to using the spelling board. Usually if she could just spell one word, I would get the rest of what she was telling me. The importance of the spelling board is to strengthen her eyes in preperation for a computer. She needs to be able to scan and focus on the letters which is how she will be able to spell with the help of a computer. The speech therapist thought with a few more weeks of improvement she will be ready for that computer. This is huge. My mom needs to be able to communicate in an easier way. She told me several times that she just wants her voice back. That has become my specific prayer request right now. My mom still smiles an amazing amount. She finds joy in the small things. She bears the pain she has with an amazing strength. She shows us great patience as we try our best to communicate with her and "listen" to what she tells us. There are times when she says something then before we can figure it out, she just cracks up laughing (sadly a silent laugh). She has been blessed with such a sense of humor. I cannot wait to hear her laugh again.