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I arrived at the UIC Medical Center at approximately 8:15 on Tuesday morning to relieve Ralph from his night watch. I found Norma sleeping and Ralph pretty much exhausted. It seems that Norma had another active night and kept Ralph busy. I think it has something to do with that good old fashioned sibling rivalry. Norma and Ralph have always been very competitive with one another, but in a good way and they are very, very close.

Anyhow, that made it easy for me, because Norma was resting. I was waiting for Jon to come relieve me. He was coming in from the Joliet area and arrived sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 in the morning.

Norma was having several assessments during that time, so Jon and I stayed together to make sure we got all the reports. Long story short, after several assessments, we have great news... Norma will be coming home to our residence in Sugar Grove, probably on Wednesday afternoon. She did extremely well with physical therapy and has great balance and is walking good without assistance. She is getting back up to steam and moving quicker and has that sly little smile on her face as she continues to move forward through this period.

It was interesting when the occupational therapist, Eric Olsen, took us down to the lower level where they have a kitchen area set up. He had actually given her some choices as to what he wanted to see if she could cook for Jon and I (boy, do I love this idea!!). The instructions were to either make an egg and a slice of toast or to make a grilled cheese sandwich. He showed Norma where the stove was. It was an electric stove which she is not accustomed to. He also showed her where the pots and pans, dishware, and silverware were. He asked her again what she preferred to make and she commented, “Whatever's easiest!”

So we watched with interest as Norma made choices on what to make. She promptly pulled two slices of bread out of the loaf of bread. She went to the refrigerator and found two slices of cheese. She pulled out an egg and butter and then started looking through the cupboards for pan spray to spray the pan, which she also found without assistance. In fact, Eric Olsen was very impressed by this because he wanted to know if that's what she did at home, as far as using spray versus butter, and I said yes. That's why they like to have family there because they want to make sure that they are doing what they are accustomed to and not something out of the ordinary. She then promptly buttered both sides of the bread, turned the heat on and placed one of the pieces of bread in the frying pan, put the cheese on top of the bread and we were off and running. She got a little bit confused through the process because she ended up whisking the egg and adding it to the grilled cheese. Then she did something very unique but adventuresome and started adding cinnamon to the mix to give it some extra flavor. It actually turned out pretty well. He was also impressed that she was able to turn off the stove and then she sat down to see if anybody really wanted to eat her concoction. Jon and I both took a bite and said we were full! But the bottom line is she did the task very well and that was very encouraging. She sat for awhile and then got up and started to do the dishes. I'd like to make a chauvinistic comment at this time for my good friend Jim Campbell, but I think it would be best to let him make those kinds of comments and I will abstain at this point in time. But I have to admit that I'm somewhat excited that she may be able to cook in the not-too-distant future and that's of course a selfish observation.

After all of the assessments were done, we met with the various nurse practitioners and they felt that her best plan of care would be to have her go home where she is familiar with her surroundings. They did not feel that an advanced rehab facility would make sense and she may not even qualify because she had done some of the other tasks well. Please keep in mind, she still has problems with cognitive impairment but as long as somebody is here at the home watching her 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we should be fine.

I know a number of you had recently mentioned that you might be willing to help out with Norma at home and so we are gladly accepting any volunteers that might be willing to share of their time to keep an eye on Norma while she is recovering in this process. We won't hold anybody to their previous comments, but we just thought we'd throw that out there and see if there are any takers. Again, they are very serious about making sure that she's watched 24 hours a day, and I'm going to spend as much time as possible at home. My mom has offered to help out and Norma's brother, Ralph, has also said that he might extend his stay from Tennessee for another two or three days to at least get her home and get her settled. She'll continue to be assessed and watched. The good news is she's making progress and seems to be on a mission to get well and back to work as soon as possible. The nurse practitioner has cautioned us that this could take weeks or months, but nonetheless she's on the right track. We are very excited and pleased, and we can't thank you enough for all your prayers that you sent our way. We'll continue to keep you posted and thanks again.

Love,

Ken and Norma

kenireland2@aol.com

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