A hot air balloon in Central New York on my Dad’s way home from visiting Mom
Hi yall,
Woof. Been a while since I’ve gotten to write here. Michelle and I have been all over the place lately. I think Connie calls it “galavanting.” (I have a different blog if you want to keep up with the galavanting. It’s called instagram lol.) But you wanna hear about Connie, and boy do I have some improvements to share.
When I last left you, Mom was at “squeeze-if-you-can-hear-me” level of communication.
A couple weeks ago I was at home in Reno at my lunchtime. Dad Facetimed me out of the blue to say hi to Mom. She was alert, responsive, receptive. I was wearing my apron and chopping vegetables, and I said into the phone, “Mom, we’re making white chicken chili.” And she said, “Mmm. White Chicken Chili.” My Dad’s hat almost popped off in his jolt of surprise.
So for a short while her vocabulary was “Yes,” “No,” and “White chicken chili.”
Throughout October, she’s had wonderful visits from her friends Dina, and Tracy, and John, and Jody, and others. My brother, Jake, has been there multiple times in the last few weeks bringing her lots of love and encouragement.
As a family, we met with the entire care team (this was a little while back). They had oodles positivity to bring to the zoom meeting. Maybe they were just trying to match the uppity… (no, I mean UPLIFTING!) level of work-from-home etiquette displayed by my sister who was managing the online meeting ordeal. My dad was at first a little suspicious that maybe the care team were all laying it on too thick. Maybe they were celebrating mom’s small improvements a little too voraciously. I mean, she could barley get out of bed with the help of 3 people and walk a couple steps before nearly collapsing. But her care team sees EVERY step as a milestone.
When he was there, Jake witnessed her on the recumbent bike as part of her PT and walking using parallel bars. Recently she’s level’d up to using a walker and is pushing herself all the way down the hallway. Dad said she has a big smile the whole time.
I’ve facetimed with her the last two days in a row. She has a LOT of vocabulary now (compared to earlier in October, at least). She has all of our names. She says “I love you.” She can track the entire conversation. She doesn’t drive the conversation… yet.
Dad’s been taking her outside in the sunshine. They’re reading together every day. I know that when she has her people around her, she’s motivated to work the on the parts of her recovery that are hardest.
HER BIRTHDAY is coming up. November 4th! Dad has decided to decorate the heck out of her room. If anyone has any little decorative this or that, feel free to send it over to her before next Monday. Flowers, garlands, photos, plants, whatever will add some color and memory to her room. I pasted the new address below:
Cayuga Rehab and Nursing
Connie Starmer Room 127
1229 Trumansburg road
Ithaca, NY 14850
My busy life doesn’t show any signs of slowing down (I wish it would), but Michelle and I are making plans to be back in Upstate New York for Thanksgiving. The speech pathologist said Mom might be eating solid food by then. Michelle would love to make her a pie. Mom loves pie. And the only one who can make a pie almost as good as Connie is Michelle.
So yeah, the care team is probably laying on the positivity pretty thick. But just look at the amount of progress from one blog update to the next. The road isn’t getting any shorter, but every step is a step forward.
Love to you all.
Luka