Encouraged

I was able to spend about 3 hours with Lisa today. I was pleasantly surprised to see her without her neck brace, sitting taller than she has been in a wheelchair. She was talking to the nurse and was doing really great today. I was encouraged!

I talked to some people at Champion Fitness, here in LeRoy, who explained to me abit about Lisa's stroke. It is very good that it was a blood clot and not a hemorrhage. They were concerned about the meds and told me to check into that. They also told me to physically stimulate Lisa's right side whenever I am there. So...whenever you go to see her, pick up her hand and massage it and bend her arm to her shoulder...the more stim she gets in these early months of therapy, the (much) better she will recover...and faster. Bend her fingers and do range of motion with her right side.You cannot hurt her. Stand on her right side, to make her work to look at you. I showed Lisa how to bend her wrist with her left hand and told her that that will help her wake it up, so whenever she thinks about it, she can reach for it and help herself get better. Can I tell you how much she did??? She grabbed her hand and started to work her wrist and stopped after a few minutes! She picked it up again, without me telling her to, to work it again. I was so proud and told her that she is so awesome to keep it up!

Joe and the kids came up and Ron, our brother-in-law came up to see her. She was getting tired but carried on conversations with us. The therapists at Champion told me that when a stroke patient is recovering, their nerves hurt and when they are doing simple exercises that hurt them, that is good because the nerves are waking up again.

This will take a long time, possibly 1 1/2 years to be recovered from a stroke...our family will not be able to do it alone, this is where everyone who knows her and comes to see her will come into play. She CANNOT get discouraged. She will be doomed! Every single small step she makes will need to be encouraged. She thrives on physical and verbal praises-who doesn't-I suppose. She has received 75 plus cards and she remembers each one she sees. She has received some repeat cards from different people and told me today that she already has a card like that one...Ha! When asked if we should stop giving her cards she replied, "No"  We read them to her and she still replies how sweet it was of so and so to send them.

Lisa will continue to need everyone. Any one who has ever known her plays an important role in her life, even if you don't think so. Your visits are so important, no matter if she remembers them or not. Please know that it is not in vane...Dad, Amy, Karen and I are not able to be with her as much as we would like and when we are not there, we thank you for stopping by...well, thanks for stopping when we are there too:) The sign in notebook helps us to know who was and reminds her that you were there too.

Thank you for your prayers too. Lisa is starting to get better and stronger each day. It is only in God's grace that I am able to be encouraged (for) today.