Day 54

Last night after I posted, our friend Karen, from Derby, KS, came by and paid us a visit. She was in town for Education Week and for her sealing. I was so glad she came. We had a really nice visit. Karen said some very insightful things to me last night. I am grateful for her and the strength she left me with.

Wow! Nicole walked 20 feet today. Not only did she walk but she walked fast. Well, as fast as she can. Man I was so proud of her. I was so excited to see that. Nicole was resting in the hall before she took a few more steps and she saw Scott her aide. The conversation went like this.

Nicole: Scott did you see that.
Scott: No, what.
Nicole: I went fast :)
Scott: Let me see you!
Nicole: Okay here I go.
She mustered all her strength and took a few more fast steps.
Scott: Wow! You are in high gear. That is awesome.

She beamed. She was so excited. And she was proud of herself.

Nicole is going to PT twice a day now. Walter was her therapist this afternoon. I love Walter, don't get me wrong, but I think he works her harder than anyone else. Today he was having her turn pop cans over and over. It helps get the skin on the hands moving in all sorts of directions. Nicole is competitive. She tried to race him. He was a good sport. Then he gave her another thing to hold and maneuver it around to move a bead from the top to the bottom. It was quite difficult to move around and get the bead to move. Walter stopped her and said, "I don't want to see that handle stop moving." She looked at him and smiled. She took a hold of the handle and just moved it back and forth, back and forth. I was laughing so hard. She was following his instructions about not letting the handle stop moving. What a ham.

After PT Dr. Saffel ordered Nicole to go outside again. It was such a nice day so I was glad to be able to do that. Scott was our escort. Nicole was hooked up to so many things that we had to take her pole out with us. You know the pole....it has her food hanging on it, her IV, antibiotics, bolus and so on. It was nice to get out for a bit. it was only 20 minutes but it was nice.

We had surprise visitors today. Stephanie and Christian came by. They were in a fire also, last year. What great courage and faith they have. I have drawn strength from them for the past couple of months unbenonst to them. Having them come by and speak to Nicole and I meant a great deal. To see how well they are doing and seeing how much progress in one short year they have made gave me great hope. Thank you both for taking the time out of your schedule to bring sunshine to our day. I hope to see you both again.

For all the good day Nicole had today by late afternoon all was not well in room 9. Nicole's pic line got infected so they needed to take it out. Not so bad but when the pic team came in to take care of that they couldn't find a good place to put it in. So, Dr. Saffel came in and put a peripheral line in. Then we found out Nicole has thrush. I had been saying for days I thought she had that but they were not listening. I am glad her nurse today listened to me and had it checked. For several days Nicole has been running a fever also. She is having some lung issues so they sent some samples to get cultured. Hopefully it isn't pneumonia. That's all we need.

Cafe Rio is my life saver. I stopped by to get some rice and beans on my way home from the hospital. (Sorry Tiffany, I had to do it) I needed comfort food. May I love their green sauce. It is so nice to lay in bed and eat that while I am blogging. I hope to sleep well tonight. I can hardly keep my eyes open to finish this. Good night.