we miss you

Excellent news everyone, Erica is being discharged tomorrow! We know many of you are anxious to see her, but for now, we’d like to keep it only family while she acclimates to being home (and a new home at that) until next week. We will let you all know when she is ready for in person visits and try to work out a schedule that doesn’t overwhelm her. 

We also wanted to say that unvaccinated people can't visit her at this time - we hope you understand, given Erica’s immunocompromised state and the battle she has fought to get this far, the gravity of this request. For those of you who are vaccinated, we would ask you wear masks when you come.

With love and gratitude to you all for your help, prayers, kindness, and love, from the Bren, Hedlund, and Weitzlstrong family

Or three weeks in, depending on how you look at things. The pragmatist [1] would say we're at week three. 

Anyways, because she's strong and able she's been deemed a fall risk and bought herself a 24 hour sitter. Which is pretty awesome because it's way better than the one visitor/day policy. Yay! The last few nights I've curled up in bed with her and she's sleeping great. 

She passed her swallowing eval so now she can have unthickened water and [mostly] real food. Win! She's up and about, can walk the entire hall unassisted and her discharge date is set of 11/21. Pretty remarkable for a stroke as big as hers. 

Neurologically she's the Erica we all know and love. This morning we were going through this site through all the events that led to today and she knows what happened. She also knows all of you who posted comments. It's pretty sweet. 

I wanted a picture to post here because she looks amazing, but she's a little hesitant. But since every day has been better than the last it's only a matter of time. Soon... :)

[1] - an adage where the optimist says it's half full and the pessimist says it's half empty. The engineer says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. 

I stopped in to see her and she was just getting out of the shower. My mother gave her a haircut yesterday, and she looks great. We're off to the surgeon's office later this morning to get the stitches out. Yay!

Everything's looking up today. Yay! I mentioned that it was her mother's Birthday and she said "oh shit..." I think she was supposed to have a card in the mail by now. 

The kids and I swung by and peeked in the window and the way to school, she smiled, waved, and blew kisses. yay. I came back and she was in OT cruising the halls and we hung out for a while. She's really intact and although her short-term memory isn't quite there, she does remember things from the day of her stroke, so that's promising. 

She remembers (and is excited) about the costco couch her and my mother found. She's excited that I got the last one. But all morning she kept saying "It's so weird.." And understands she's had a stroke and her mind isn't quite right. 

Her care team meets sometime today to have conference and will have a plan afterwards, so we'll know more then. 

p.s. I told her about last weekend and how everyone showed up to help pack and she broke down. She knows you love her.