Joanie likes art

Joanie continues to improve. I spent some time with her Wednesday afternoon. When Bonnie arrived to visit, I returned to school to grade papers. In the early evening I returned to find her sitting in a chair eating supper. That of course is a huge change from one week ago when she was in ICU. She had prepared another list of things I needed to bring from home to make her stay more comfortable or to allow her to dress for therapy. Since her left arm is strapped to her body, many common tasks remain challenging.

Thursday morning I again dropped some things off in her room and watched her sleep for a few moments before I left on a field trip to San Francisco and the King Tut exhibit. The students did well and may have enjoyed viewing objects made about 3500 years ago! By the time I got to her room at about 6:45 PM, she was sitting in a lounge talking with four of her good friends about art. This group gets together monthly to encourage each other to work on art. Joanie had verbalized on Wednesday that she regretted having missed their last gathering. I told her that Earlene had called and that they were planning on bringing the meeting to her. She was jazzed and enjoyed thinking about that for the next day. I stopped by for a minute to see her before I drove home, knowing that she was more interested in her art meeting that seeing me at the moment.

Joanie takes Sonora by storm...sorry, bad weather today!

Joanie arrived by ambulance in Sonora about noon today! I'm so excited to almost have her home again. We were dreading her ride up here since she can get car sick just thinking about it. Turns out our concerns were in vain. Apparently the crew doesn't relish cleaning up their unit and so she arrived in good shape. Joanie's settled into the in patient rehab unit. She really likes the staff there and remembers them from her stay there for several weeks following her stroke in May 2008. Her only complaint is that it was used as the birthing center before the new hospital was built about five years ago and they've never updated it. The paint scheme is blues & pinks and very dated. Her roommate is sweet, quite deaf, and likes to turn her TV on before promptly falling asleep.

Joanie is now getting out of bed, with assistance, and walking to the bathroom. She sits on the edge of her bed and feeds herself with a good appetite. These are all remarkable changes from just a couple of days ago! She is in good spirits and is delighted that I am now only a couple of blocks away. I was able to see her during lunch, right after school and then again after I left school before I came home. This beats a one hour plus drive down to Modesto and back.

Monday--Coming home, almost!

As I was driving Troy to the Bay Area to catch a morning flight home, I received a call from one of Joanie's numerous doctors. Enough of them were able to communicate and agree that Joanie can be discharged. They expect to discharge her "early" Tuesday morning. She is to be transported by ambulance to Sonora Regional Medical Center's in-patient rehab unit. I can't wait!

She was finally placed back on Coumadin this afternoon. It is their policy to wait one week after a bleed to restart the blood thinner. Even though they have been monitoring her heart, her not being on Coumadin has made me very nervous. We don't need another stroke!! She sat up for quite a while today, ate on her own, (even though I bribed her with her favorite See's chocolates if she ate enough) and started taking oral meds. She doesn't yet get up and around by herself.

After dropping Troy off at the Pleasantan BART station, I drove home. Since there is nothing I can do to help Joanie tomorrow, I plan to go back to school.

Sunday evening

Troy & I went home to Twain Harte last night. This morning, I went down to school and worked on lesson plans for next week. It is nice to have an excellent substitute (thanks Julie) who has taught with me for 17 years. She knows the school and has been forced to figure out how I operate (pardon the pun). We took care of several tasks at home before returning to Modesto.

Joanie has had a migraine today and so has spent much of the day sleeping. This evening she is in pretty good spirits and talkative. She always makes sure that Troy has his chair positioned so that she can see him from her bed.

Joanie's hemoglobin has climbed to 9.5 which we consider a good sign. Her day nurse has left a note for her hospitalist to see if they will consider starting her on anti coagulants again since her INR is down to 0.9. Her night nurse and the charge nurse have both been in to check on her.

We are enjoying some beautiful flower arrangements sent & brought by good friends.