Random Fact

The pool at aquatic therpy has a floor that goes up and down. AND it is only one of three in the country!

Day Sixteen

LOL ok so I am posting on time tonight!

So we had a full day of PT and it was fantastic! Dona's strength is still there after her few days off, we just need to rebuild he stamina to get her back to where she was last week. She is getting more control of her left arm and is moving it around more and more each day. Also she started her aquatic therapy today, its looks fun! Dona thinks its great and its helping her with her confidence in her balance, plus its working out her whole body at once, not just parts at a time.

Good news for you gals who have asked, Dona is ready to have guests again! But just to let you know we are not back in the room until 4 after aqua therapy. So please stop by anytime after 5 so she has some time to settle in after her day.

Well thats about it for today, everyone have a good night and I will talk to you all tomorrow!


:)

Day Fifteen

Well good morning everyone! Sorry I am just getting to yesterdays post.

We had a good day, Dona is back on her regular PT starting tomorrow! So yea we are moving forward again, we will find out how far behind we are and just go from there.

The weekend off has kinda put all the doctor appointments on hold. So we will have to wait until next week to find out what she had in her head and when she will be comming home. :)

And to answer the question about Dona having guests, we are going to ask that wait just a little longer. We will see how she feels after her first full day back on PT and I will let everyone know then.

Have a great day everyone!

Day Fourteen

Good evening everyone!

OK so Dona is starting to feel better and the doctors are letting her restart her PT. It is only light PT for right now, we did about an hour today. Having the last few days off have just affected her stamina not her strength, so thats a good thing! As the week progresses we will be working on getting her back to her full PT of three and a half hours a day, I am not sure how this will affect her coming home date but I am sure we will find out tomorrow with her 2nd week report card.

I would also like to thank everyone who has sent cards, they really make her day!

Well thats about it for today, I have a cat attacking me who want to play! You would think I was at the hospital all day or something. ;)   I will let everyone know how tomorrows report card goes, and on Wednesday we go to the brain doctor for a check-up. So I hope we will FINALLY find out what they took out, and what we will need to do next.

Everyone have a good night and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Joe

Days 12 and 13

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Dona and I pretty much took the weekend off, she was not feeling well on Friday so the Doc said bed rest for the weekend. She is feeling better Sunday night and we will see what the doctors have to say on Monday and we will resume PT when they give us the thumbs up.  :)

So this weekend we just hung out and watched movies and some old tv shows, so not much more to report right now. But I will be back Monday night and will be able to give you all a better update then.

Have a good day and I will talk to you all soon!

Day eleven

OK so Dona not feeling well yesterday kinda got the doctor worried  today. So he did tests all morning and decided that she has been working herself a little too hard. I know what a surprise lol Dona working too hard to get out of here. :) So no therapy today or for the rest of the weekend.

Well they decided that she needs to get some rest this weekend so we are just going to hang out and take it easy. We should start again on Monday and from there we will still work hard just not as hard as she has been. I don't know yet if this is going to push the going home date back, but I am sure that it will by a couple of days. Thats ok I would rather have her home late and feeling good then home early and feeling bad.

Thanks for your support everyone and I will keep you all posted as the weekend progresses.

Have a great weekend!

Day Ten

Hey all!! Dona here and with no clue of even where to begin  I guess, first and foremost thank you thank you for all the amazingly good juju everyone sent and continues to send my direction.It truly makes a huge difference knowing I have such love and support out there Joe has done a great job getting this blog up and running....

Sorry to cut Dona short, but she had to go to her next therapy session. The rest of the morning went great and we had lunch down in the cafeteria instead of her room. After lunch Dona and I went to her Physical Therapy, we did some walking and then Dona started to feel a little sick. I think the big lunch we had was not such a good idea. :(  So we took it easy for a little wile, and went to the pool to check it out and get her paperwork done. So tomorrow we will start the aquatic therapy and get her in to the pool to work out, she was kind bummed that we had to postpone but thats how it goes sometime.

But even with todays little set back we are still on schedule for her to come on Monday the 4th, so thats good news. And tomorrow our schedule is a little lighter then it has been so I will get Dona back on here to let you all know how she is doing.

So everyone have a good night and we will talk to you all tomorrow.

Day Nine

OK so I don't have alot to report for tonight.  LOL I was out keeping up the house work today and wasn't there to see what she was doing. But it was pet night at the Rehab center and you could not keep Dona in her room when she heard that there was going to be a dog on the floor! :)

Also Marrisa stopped by tonight and said hi. She regailed us with funny stories and plenty of gossip! Lol just kidding about the gossip. :)

So her walking is getting better and better, and Dona and the PT therapist talked about doing car transfers or we can go on a little road trip around town next week. Also she will be starting aquatic therapy tomorrow so I will let everyone know how that goes.

Well goodnight everyone, I will have more for everyone tomorrow.

Day Eight

Well everyone its the day we have been waiting for! Dona's first report card from the rehab center!

We have a date to shoot for for her to come home, 10/4/2010. If she keeps up her progress she will be able to come home in a week and a half! Yea!!!!!!!!

The way the report card worked is it gives a score on what she can do by herself, the higher the score the more she can do on her own.  When she came into rehab, her score was 54, a week later its 72, and when she gets to 95 she can go home!

As far as what she did today, she and I walked about 150 feet this afternoon, and this morning she walked 100 feet and climbed and walked down 3 steps! When she is walking she is mostly doing it by herself with one of those cains that have 4 feet on them, and I am just there to keep her steady if she needs it.

It looks like maybe tomorrow or Thursday Dona will be starting aquatherpy, so its work out in the pool time. It looks like its going to be hard work but it will be so good for her too.

And the last bit of news from today, we have a followup appointment with the neurosurgen next Wednesday, so we will find out more about how well she is healing and hopefully what it was that they had to cut out of her head.

Thanks everyone for your support, and maybe I will have a surprise guest on tomorrow, so come back and see!

;)

Have a good night everyone!

Day Seven

I would like to say thanks to everyone who stopped by tonight, Dona and I had a blast with you all!

Dona is improving everyday! She walked 100 feet today with just a little assastance. Also she went up a stair today! Dona said that it was hard work and a little scarry coming back down, but was excited that she did it. Her arm is doing better, she is moving it more and more on her own with out really having to think about it!

Tomorrow we have our week one report card, I will update with a real progress report from the hospital. So be sure to check back tomorrow evening!

Have a good night!

Day Five and Six

Hey everyone I hope you all had a great weekend.

We had Rachel this weekend and she got to see what her mom does when she is going thru therapy. On Saturday Dona had a light day but she did alot, she walked another 30 feet and is starting to show more control over her left arm. When she is walking she started out on the side of a large table with the therapist helping along, now she is walking with a cain and the therapist is by her side just keeping her steady!

With her arm every day gets a little better, it is a slower process, but hey what are you going to do? She did surprise me this weekend tho, she moved her arm to wipe off her hand and did it with out really having to make an effort. Well LOL sometimes she just does what she want to do no matter what anyone says, even her body.

Sunday was just an easy day for all of us, we slept in, watched a couple of movies, and ate junk food. Overall we just had a good relaxing day.

Have a great day and I will get back tonight with todays update!

Joe

Day Four

Hi everyone!

Dona had a great day today! She walked 30 feet!!!! she is getting so strong, she will be walking on her own before you know it.

I'm so proud of her and where she has come in just the four days she has been here.

We have Rachel this weekend and tomorrow she will be going with Dona thru her different  types of physical therapy. And on Sunday we have the day off so we are going to sleep in and have a silly movie day.

So have a good night everyone and we will talk to you later.

Thanks For the Flowers!!!

So when I got there there were all of the great flowers! But of course no cards had stayed with them so if you would please let me know who's is who's that would be great!

Thanks

Day Three

Well it was a good day and a bad day for us.  Everything that has happened so far hit Dona and I today and well we both had a little melt down. But I think we both needed it too, because we are feeling better, and the journey doesn't look so bad anymore.

On the plus side of the day Dona is standing more, and starting to use her left leg more! She had to stand three times today for a blood pressure test, and is moving from her bed to her wheel chair. She still needs support from me and the nurses to move back and forth, but considering that Monday we had to use a lift, I think she is doing fantastic!

We found out today that when Dona gets her staples out tomorrow she doesn't have to go back to the other hospital, they will be able to do it where she is at. So Yea! we don't have to deal with the transportation back and forth!  :D

We have Rachel this weekend so there will be some light PT then just the three of us hanging out and watching movies. It will be a nice easy weekend for us.

If anyone wants to send Dona a card or letter, please do! Just mail it to our apartment and I will make sure that she gets them. The address is:

Dona Zach
1323 Jackson St #404
Omaha NE 68102


Thanks for your of your support out there!

Joe

Day two

LOL
Posting from my iPhone this morning.

We had breakfast with the speech therapist today to see how her eating and swallowing was doing. Well she is doing great at it, Dona was scheduled to do this for the rest of the week, and after this morning she will only have to do that every once and awile. :)

Dona is napping right now, but she has a full afternoon of therapy. I will be back on this evening to keep you all filled in.

Good day!
Dona walked a few steps and is sitting up in bed by herself. So tomorrow starts a full day of therapy, with more improvement I am sure.

On Friday we go back to the first hospital and get the staples removed, and I hope more details on what they removed. Then on next Tuesday we get our first weekly report card from the staff here at physical rehab, we should have a better idea of when Dona gets to come home.

Well that's about it for today, were just watching tv for awile then off to bed.

Good night everyone and I will talk to you all tomorow.

:)

Day One Rehab

Hello everyone!

So here we are at day one of rehab,I belive that we are looking at 6 to 8 weeks here, it been a very productive day for Dona! We have meet most of the staff that she will be working with and toured to facility. She did her baseline tests to see where she is at and what need to be worked on and had some very good results! Her mental awareness is just about as good as it was before the surgery, so the work there should god pretty fast.

The physical side is what we are really going to have to work on. Everyday she is getting stronger and gaining more control over her limbs. Her left leg is doing the best and she is standing on it longer and longer everyday. Her left arm on the other hand (lol not pun intended) is what really needs to be focused on and is looking like will take the most work to get back in shape.

Rachel is here this evening spending quality time with her mom, when I left they were giggling and having fun.

Because I am just starting this I know that everyone will have a ton of questions, so bring them on! LOL I will try to answer them the best I can as soon as I can OK?

I look forward to hearing from you all, and please pass on this blog to anyone you think should be updated, because I know that I have missed people, and I am sorry about that.  :)

Well thats it for tonight, sleep well, and I will keep you updated!

Joe