Ahem

This is Susan filling in for Josh tonight. Gen had a busy day since it is a weekday again. Doing simple things like holding her head up straight, turning her head from right to left, sitting up instead of lying down all require supreme effort on her part. Today she sat for more than an hour in the cardiac chair (we've gotten no good explanation for that name). Speech therapy was supposed to come work with her while she was up, but they got called away. She napped and then had physical therapy in the afternoon. They worked her arms and shoulders and had her lean on her left elbow trying to straighten her back.
She has been favoring her right side since the stroke, and she tends to lean to the right and keep her head turned that way. The highlight of physical therapy was standing up again. It took only two people to keep her upright today, after Josh got her feet straightened out and heels down on the ground. She stood (with the aforementioned help) for three minutes. She got up again for a little while, but her feet hurt and she didn't stay up long. As soon as those two therapists left, speech therapy was here. They had her work with the speaking valve on the trach tube again. This time they had her clear her throat with the valve in place, and we all heard her voice clearing her throat. The other new thing she did today was to shrug her shoulders and move her elbows out. She did both of those on her own, and when I asked if she did them on purpose she said yes. So I said, "do it again" and she did. She is sleeping now, worn out from the exertion. I think how easy it is for me to stand and walk, to talk and wave and carry something all at the same time. Gen has to concentrate on each task like opening her mouth for the therapist or holding up her head. She actually multi-tasked today, doing both of those and answering a question with her eye-blinks at the same time. Now I've written too much, but Gen asked me to say something to everyone. She said thanks for the cards and balloons and flowers and thoughts and prayers. We all thank you for praying and encouraging and communicating so faithfully.