Yay!!!!

On Tuesday, I was heading up to the Lisa's room to do lunch and found her in the hallway with another lady. Lisa was taking her first bite of green beans when I walked up to her and asked if she would like to go back to her room to finish. She replied..."I walked today, 3 times." I asked her "Three steps?" all excited! and she said, "NO, THREE times, back and forth on the parallel bars! "WHAT? No you didn't!"

Lisa's calm and half smile reply, "yes I did." At this, I am alittle wary of if she is confused or is just telling me something I want to hear. The Dr. came up and confirmed it! She walked about 8 feet! Now, we need to get her walking the hallways!

Karen told me that on Monday night, Lisa asked her "Karen, when am I going to get out of here?" Karen told her that "they are saying next week, but you need to get walking...you won't be able to go home until you can walk." Karen said that Lisa listened and understood and Karen then told her what a good job she was doing, to keep it up. Lisa told Karen that she was doing a good job too. Karen said that when she left, Lisa had a tear in her eye. Earlier that day the rehab Dr asked Karen how to get her going...what makes her tick?, so to speak...Karen told her lot's of praise and maybe candy...Karen will need to edit this, to come back to this post later so you get the exact story....

Getting back to Tuesday, I wheel Lisa down to her room and give her another hug, I am so flipping excited about this that I can't tell you how happy I am. Lisa had this huge smile on her face! She thanks me for coming and for getting her out of the hallway. "You're Welcome!" the pleasure is all mine! I talk to her about stuff and find her menu's on the table....She instructs me to fill them out, so she tells me what she wants, she knows it by heart now and does not have to listen to each choice. Last week, she had a hard time remembering the choices you just said. Big improvement!

She is back to her expletives!!!! LOL! Yes, they are offending, but she is back!!!!! Who am I to tell her not to talk that way? We are both adults, and we both can handle it:) She is so funny. PT came at 1:00 so I went down with her. She couldn't wait to show me how she can do the parallel bars. I get my stuff, but before we leave the room, she asked me, "Who gave me that "L" over there?" I told her it was from Aunt Vera, that she gave it to her when she was really sick, and that is why she doesn't remember...Lisa said, "That was sweet of Aunt Vera, I like it!"

Down in the gym, Lisa has 2 PT's working with her...She gets up to the bars and pulls herself up...and she concentrates really hard to get her balance...she's not going anywhere till she gets her balance...and will tell you that too:) They are so patient with her, and she is telling me to watch her! It brings back memories from when we were in gymnastics...Lisa loves to show off her abilities! I, of course have my camera and am clicking away. She is doing great! S.L.O.W. but great! Lisa sat down after her first pass and asked me twice" How did I do Karla?" Wonderful, Awesome, Unbelievable! I tell her. She gives me a high 5 and has this "accomplished" smile on her face. I can't describe it. When asked if she wants to do it again, she says, "yes, let's do it again...my sister wants to see me." She walked 2 more passes on the bars! She needs assistance with her R leg, to lock it and to prompt it to move but it is progress. Last week, she took a step and was done! When asked if she wanted to try again, she told them NO! But this week, she is determined to walk, she wants to get back to some kind of normalcy. As before, she is stubborn, when she has a mind to do something, she does it. Sometimes, that is not so good, but often, it has worked in her favor.

When she asked me 10 more times how she did, I was so excited and hugged her.I told her I am so proud of her! The PT  told me that this morning Lisa told her that her sisters will be "shocked" and we were! Well, I was...here I am thinkin' a few steps. During her passes on the bars, she was talking to them, and being opinionated and they all just smile...they didn't know her before, and told me that they love that she came out of her shell, it has been a month...they are finally seeing the Lisa that you can't help but love. All (the other therapists working in the gym) agreed that they will miss her when she leaves. I can honestly say, that Lisa will not miss the hospital, but she will miss them too. She is still inspiring people. This is still God's plan.

Lisa, I am learning more about life, and how to accomplish goals by watching you! You don't even know how much you inspire me and the rest of those who love you! You will walk again, because you tell me that...and that in itself is a miracle! I love you big sis!