Nothing funny about feldspar

I walked into Mom’s room this afternoon. She was awake and alert, and getting her neck IV removed. She’s already had her nitro patch taken off, and the med student who was removing the IV said “See, she’s off the oxygen, too.” So now all she’s got is the IV in her arm, the NG tube for feeding and meds, and catheters for waste.

More important than all that, however is this: she was bored. She’s not well — her stroke has affected her sensory perception, and her mouth doesn’t work quite properly (though there are signs of improvement there too, many words are coming out clear as a bell) — and she’s not going to be well for a long time, but she was there, and knew what was going on.

That’s a huge improvement from last week.

I know I have to steel myself for the “one step back” events that are sure to come, as well as the likely plateauing of her progress. But for now, I’m feeling better about her recovery than I have since she left the ICU.

As my dad used to say, “We’ll take what we can get.”