March 22,1999 update
Well up until a couple of days ago Suze was doing great. Making real progress and working hard with all her therapists. Her discharge date was set for the 31st of March and we were getting the upchecks done to make sure we could go home. Talking a lot but still was hard to understand, no much lip movement so it came out very monotone and with no inflection. After a while I could puzzle out what she was trying to say about 60% of the time and the rest of the time we were using her communication board to 'type' out what I could understand. Her memory is coming back little by little and she is starting to remember people from the fairly recent past.
Friend from work came up and visited with her (thanks Jeff) on the 14th and she was real attentive and able to follow our conversation and made some very appropriate and pithy remarks. Definitely saw some flashes of the old Suze that day, both in her choice of remarks (That's my boy - being one that she used to use all the time) and her comment on the current status of the Darlington Football Club.
She graduated to using a large base quad cane, i.e. a cane with four feet on Thursday last and that has really helped her with improving her walking, her balance is still poor but she is putting weight on the cane which was something she wasn't doing with the walker.
Car was in the shop so I was riding the CB back and forth to Richmond Tuesday - Thursday. Her eyes really lit up when I came in the first time in my motorcycle gear. She gave me one of those big double takes she does when she can't really believe what she is seeing and then a big grin broke out on her face and she gave me a thumbs up sign. She wanted to go out and look the bike over and started laughing when she saw the licence plate (personalised "SUZGIT" - and no she didn't tell me what GIT meant until I had the dang thing for about a year). The only downside to the bike was that of course we couldn't go out to the movies or do some shopping. Though we were getting pretty movie'd out at this point. In the past couple of weeks we had seen "A BUG'S LIFE" (good movie, excellent animation); "ANALYZE THIS" (no stretch for either DeNiro nor Crystal but funny); "SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE" (excellent but I thought Saving Private Ryan was better and the ending made Suze cry a bit); "DANCING IN LUGHNASA" (good movie and it was set in Donegal in the 30's, really made Suze cry) and "WAKING NED DEVINE" (filmed on the Isle of Mann and very funny).
Friday she had her BOTOXIC injections to paralyse the spastic muscle in her right arm to try to alleviate the pain and increase her range of motion. She handled that pretty well, probably better than I would have - having someone dig around with a needle in the biceps trying to locate a particular muscle strand didn't look like it would be fun. But she was a real trooper, hardly cried and let the doctor move her arm around a lot. The procedure wiped her out a bit so she took a nap and then we went to the Mall and she bought a nice sweater and slack outfit from The LIMITED, very much in line with what she wore before the accident. We went though most of the clothes stores and she picked the outfit out herself, pointing out which sweater she wanted and which pants she wanted and even helped with the sizes. Then it was back to the hospital to get some needed sleep and she was zonked out before I could get her bath done.
Something happened on the Saturday (details not important here) which really upset Su. This week's 'report card' was the first bad one (i.e showing regression vice improvement).
As a result of this I have requested that she no longer have visitors unless I am there, so if you plan to visit you really need to page me first so I know you are coming. Still plan on having her come home at the end of the month but whether or not she goes to the original day therapy program is up in the air. I will no longer publicize her location in the future and since she will be at home, cards, visits and phone calls can be directed there. Email me if you need the address or phone number.
During our conversation this weekend Suze typed that she wanted me to pass on to everyone that she says "HELLO" and thanks for your support. Also she would like it for those of you who met her before the accident if you could email her with one particular memory that sticks in your mind about her to help her piece together her memory. They can be sent to:
take care
lawrence