mom has moved

Mom has moved over to the east side of Criag. Her new room number is East 330 and her new phone number is 303-789-8830. When anyone calls mom ask for Rhonda Bates in room 330. Mom is still doing good and learning lots of new things. Thank you all for your support love you all!

Mercedes

Having fun on the run

Today was a fun day! We all went trap shooting up in Bennett. Mom is doing great! She stood up in the stand up chair for 10 minutes, is getting better with her manual wheelchair, is learning how to use the Internet with a voice activated program, and is running away in her wheelchair from the nurses with the drugs.

A informative oppertunity about mom's progress

On August 12 at 1:00 Pm there is a conference about mom. Her therapists, nurses, Dr. Hsu, and her physiologist will speak about there thoughts on mom's progress and where she is headed. Here is the info: The conference line number is 866-230-2904 and the code number is 303-789-8430. other then that mom is doing great and is progressing on the manual wheelchair. Hope you all can call in and get more info then I could give. Believe me it's more info then most can handle. Thank you all! Love you!

Mercedes Bates

The cute bug

Mom is still doing good. She is learning lots of new things and is getting stronger and stronger by the day. She made cookies today, is working hard on the manual wheelchair, and getting stronger not only physically but mentally. Life is not a sprint it's a marathon and along the way one achieves things never imaginable.

I've been extreamly busy!

Some have wondered why I haven't wrote in a while on, and I'm sorry but I'm just busy. Bobby had surgery on his shoulder on Thursday and I have been helping taking care of him and mom. Bobby is doing good, his surgery was a success and now he is just healing from it all. Two holes were placed in the front of his shoulder and one in the back of his shoulder. He only has three small holes and I think it's amazing what surgeons can do these days. One hole was for the camera and the other two were for the equipment to come in and put his shoulder back together. He has three anchors to keep his shoulder together and when his shoulder heals and the tissues, mussels, and cartilage form around his shoulder the anchors will dissolve. Bobby is sore, feels sick to his stomach sometimes and has been sleeping a lot, but hey he is doing great compared to other people who have had shoulder surgery. Mom is doing great too she can feed herself, brush her teeth, comb her hair, drink out of cups, can tell temperature on her hands, and still has her competitive edge. What I mean by competitive edge? My mom, I and many others played line soccer in wheelchairs and mom was on my team. That was the first time I had to pretend that I was handicapped and two of the people picked on me for it lol. One was stabbing me in the belly with a plastic thing (no blood was drawn :D) and one desperately trying to keep me from getting the ball in the basket. Mom was asked if she was an athlete and said no, then two minutes later yelled at me to wake up when she through the ball to me and I wasn't paying attention. It was so much fun and it brought back so many memories with my mom and I when we would play games together. I will try to write back soon but I am not making any promises. ttyl Love you all and hope to get back to writing more progress soon.

Mercedes

keeps on getting better

All the nurses, techs, and respiratory people call mom their rock star. Mom is doing a wonderful job. She is completely off the ventilator, got her trek pulled out today, and can eat whatever she wants now. She has also been pushing around a manual wheelchair for a little while everyday. I hope she gets better with the manual because that automatic wheelchair she had today, wow. She just about took me out, almost ran into the wall, had the hardest time getting out of an office, and I drove it and looked like I was drunk riding down the hallway. Point blank those things are very confusing and when placed with speed not a good combination. Oh and another great thing happened, well not really, but Bobby's fingernail finally fell off. He bashed his finger in the accident and it went through all the stages and now I don't have to hear, Mercedes my fingernail is going to fall off any day now. He has told me that everyday, like 7 times, for a week. Mom's attitude is fantastic and she cracks me up all the time. She is like her old self but in a wheelchair.

trucking along

Mom passed her swallow evaluation today. When we arrived she had just got done eating her beef stew and earlier that day she had some spaghetti. She loves being able to eat. Mom has a very busy week about 5 or 6 hours a day of therapy. The people at Craig call her their rock star because she has been doing so well.