Ups and Downs

The Roller Coaster

11pm Saturday 18 December 2010

We never know what a new day will bring. Some days Michele is almost like her October 2010 self, other days she has very limited communicative ability and only wants to stay in bed all day and sleep. On those days, we must cajole her to do anything else.

She has lost about ten percent of her body weight in the past two months. Add that to the ten percent she has lost in the last year and a half and she is down to 85 pounds.

She still enjoys short visits from friends and has done a complete turn-around concerning therapists. Now that the evaluations are completed, they ask her what skills she wants to develop.

The speech therapist is working on a picture book. It is similar to foreign language traveler’s cards. Michele can simply point to a picture to show what she wants to discuss, say one of her grandchildren or a doctor. Food items are also included. The book gives us high hopes.

On her good days, she moves around the house with her aid and the walker, and is able to stay up for about an hour and a half each trip. Her driving is improving, but she is not ready for traffic yet. After last week’s trip to the doctor in her walker, we got a wheel chair for trips outside the home.

We have two or three routine doctor trips planned for next week, but we do not expect anything exciting to happen.

Next posting next weekend.

RKS