It's heartbreaking...

The last couple months have been pretty good (as good as they could have been). Somehow she survived and mostly recovered from two horrific strokes, but cancer is insidious and always wins. 

The last couple days have been awful. Saturday she stopped walking. Sunday she stopped eating/drinking. She's comfortable now and every now and then will open her eyes to find her family at her side. I don't know what else to say other than it breaks all of our hearts :(

 

Three weeks out.

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. 

She looks great!

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. 

"It's so weird..."

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.