Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Update on my Mom

Mom is at 9 weeks now since her accident. She has had knee surgery, and recovered well from that. She has gone from a full lower leg cast to a boot cast, that she can remove at night and to shower. She has taken huge strides in her progress in this past week. She has had the hospital bed removed from the house, and has her family room furniture put back in place to look like a real family room again, and not a hospital room. She has started to sleep in her own bed, in her own room!!!! Which means she goes veeeerry slowly, step by step up the stairs, where a walker and/or wheelchair is there for her to use on that level of the house. She can do everything alone now, but it is very time consuming and exhausting for her. Having been so long in a wheelchair means she has lost a lot of strength and muscle tone. She will have to build that back up. She begins her Physical Therapy tonight, and will go 3x a week. This should improve mobility to her knee, and shoulder, and help to strengthen her broken leg. Which is still quite painful, and very swollen now that she is able to put some weight on it. She is thrilled to be getting some of her independence back, and is promising to be extremely careful, so as not to further impede her progress to health! I know this has been the longest 9 weeks of her life, and she is by no means back to normal yet. But it is a huge improvement!! She is even talking of taking a small trip at the end of next month if she continues to do well. She will have to address the possibility of having to have something done if it turns out the shoulder is in fact not progressing more due to a tear in her rotator cuff, or perhaps (and we are hoping) still stiff due to the bad dislocation. The PT will determine if it is frozen, and they will work with her to improve mobility. OH..and she is driving!!! But just a little bit like through a drive thru and back home, as she is still not quite ready to tackle walking without someone or something to hold on to for stability yet.
Keep up the good work Mom!!!!!!

7 comments:

Katie said...

That is such GREAT News!! Hopefully she will not need yet another surgery!! Big Prayers that she will be able to take that trip next month!!

Debbie said...

WOW....I think she is doing GREAT considering everything she has gone through. How thrilled she must be to be "somewhat" independant again. I will pray for her continued healing...

Kelly said...

She is one tough cookie! But it sounds like she is recovering great!

Cathy said...

Oh my goodness, it sounds like your mom has been through quite an ordeal. I hope she recovers quickly and is back to her old self soon. She must be feeling better that she is able to drive and feel some independence. Yikes, can't imagine such a thing.

Maryrose said...

Glad to hear your mom is doing better. She must be so happy to be able to drive even if only through a drive thru...baby steps. Give her my best.

Kristi said...

That has to be such a good feeling to have more independence back. Glad to hear she's doing so much better. She's probably loving having her house back together too.

Tawny said...

I'm glad to hear that things are looking up and getting better! I'm sure that makes everyone feel blessed :)