Back Together Again!

Well, here we are! I just arrived Saturday night into Tulsa and already Mom and I are stirring up trouble at the Villages. The next few paragraphs are straight from her mouth:

To my loyal fan base and hangers-on. 
Thank you for sticking with me through all these ups and downs. I have now graduated from drinking all my meals through a peg tube to plates with food colored tan or beige, with a touch of orange or green, all in a delectable pureed form.Tried some gooey hot tea today and decided, "No thank you." 

P.T. is progressing very well according to all my crew and passers-by in the hall. I am more critical of myself. Although, my dancing has improved since Jennifer came to town. We put on a little number for Jim last night and he loved it. I don't know which gets more laughs, my wooden-legged walking or my samba steps with Jennifer. 

Jennifer: She is hard on herself but most people are stopping by for a laugh at her quick-witted jokes.

Back to Mom: Thanksgiving is right around the corner and along with Jennifer, Jimmy & Kippy will be bringing their whole crew to town, including their 2 dogs. We are sure to have a full house and I am anxious to get a couple of trial runs home in before the cooking begins on Thursday. Already working out how to direct traffic in the kitchen from my throne, without whiskey sours. At least I can monitor the rest of the family's whiskey hijinks. 

Thank you so much for all of your cards and letters. I enjoy reading through them with Jim. He frequently sits down at night and reads through them all again. He has the toughest job in town and needs every word and picture for the smile it brings to his face and the chuckle he treasures, as do I. 

Thanks to therapy, I can now walk and talk at the same time, with a walker or the occasional hand rail. However, you wouldn't want to see my handwriting, at least not yet. 

Wishing all my "Thanksgiving Family" a great gobble, gobble, gobble and a tasty drumstick and keep me in your mind even though there is only a puddle of turkey on my plate!

The surgeons gave me no chance, but they didn't count on you!

-Josie

Friday, November 14th

SHE EATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have made big improvements this week. The speech and occupational therapists have been working hard with Mom on her swallowing and they slowly moved her into some applesauce and pudding at the end of last week. And then ever so slowly this week, they have started pureeing foods and giving them to her to test it out. She even had mashed potatoes and stuffing a couple of days ago! She is really enjoying and seems to be doing so well, they will start substituting some of her peg tube feedings with real food!!!!

We are very excited! She has also made it her job to entertain the staff at the facility and they all seem to really love working with her. I will be there a week from tomorrow and will try to post every day while I am there. I imagine Mom will have some ideas on what she would like written in the blog!

Keep it movin!!!!!!

Jennifer & Family

Friday, November 7th

I know my posts get more spread out but as I was explaining to a friend of Mom's, her progress is slow so taken day by day, it is hard to see the improvement. But over the course of a couple of weeks, I am happy to report that she has definitely gained strength and is more motivated to get better. My brother was there a week ago and pushed her to practice standing up and sitting down and walking and they are now making her walk to and from her PT every day (with a walker). We are hoping to hear something about a new swallow test soon but I do know that the speech therapist is giving her soft foods in very small quantities and she snagged a couple of bites from my sister's sno cone recently! She has called me a couple of times from her phone and definitely sounds more like herself every day but still a little croaky.

I will be there soon and hope to help my dad figure out what the next logical step is and where we can go, hopefully home with some in-house care help. I will try and keep everyone updated as we hear anything.

Thank you,

Jennifer & Family