Thursday's novel, 2:15pm

Hola everyone -

Cheryl and I flew into SEA yesterday after a lovely 3 1/2 hour delay at Long Beach. We got up and out of the plane twice because of mechanical issues with the plane. The beer at the bar tasted good. Two taxi rides and one ripoff cab fare later, we dropped off our stuff at the hotel and made it to the hospital.

We walked into the room, and found Michael sitting on the bed with her. So like the good moms that we are, we admonished them to "get a room!" I don't know if they were upset for interrupting them, but they seemed to be happy to see us. We also got the chance to talk in person, give hugs, and be on this side of the never-ending ringing phones. When he took her into the bathroom, we closed the door and heard "great, we're alone in a room now". The one thing we noticed was how when Karen talks she is "good", and then a few minutes later her face seemed more frozen on the left side and speech would be harder for her. We brought her cards from WDT and from my boys, and we had some good laughs. Karen was very touched to see regards from some folks she had not seen for many years. She read every one as much as she could (and if you know her, you know she HATES to read), just to prove to herself that she could.

This morning Cheryl and I found a drugstore and bought her the basics - facial cleansing pads, moisturizer, hair bands, and women's deoderant. In a protest against Middle Eastern cab drivers, we walked from the hotel to the hospital. Darn near had a stroke ourselves, cause although it was only six blocks - they were all friggin' uphill.

We took her in a wheelchair downstairs for breakfast and lunch, hoping that her foot didn't drag like grandma's did, but then found that her left hand was dragging in the wheel. Darn it - too many body parts to keep track of. Reminded me of pushing her in the Hot Seat when we were kids - but I swear, I didnt push her hard enough to flip her over this time.

The therapist came and took her to the sink, she was ecstatic that she could brush her teeth. Not ecstatic that she had to work so hard opening the tube of toothpaste. After she was done with that, the chore was to fold three washcloths with her hands. That was painful and tiring for her, so now we put her to bed and taking away the phone so she can have a nap. She is supposed to walk the hall later this afternoon. We hope that Michael is finally getting some much needed rest, if he comes back too soon, we've decided that we (Cheryl and I) can take him and kick him back out. He has been fantastic through this whole thing, but a guy's gotta recharge his batteries sometime.

Pushing my luck too much, so will sign off and post more later.. ~ Lori