wednesday evening

gen had a pretty good day today. she had e-stim again in ot, and practiced writing. she got to sign her birthday card for josh when he was out of the room. she was so happy she has a surprise for him. the last part of ot was devoted to finding a satisfactory joystick for gen's wheelchair. we finally had success! she steered herself around the gym, and then in pt she drove down the hall to the cafeteria and back. everyone was so happy she can use it now. in speech she practiced again talking louder, and also practiced singing "happy birthday to you" getting ready for the birthday party. she gets to help bake a cake tomorrow using some gadgets they have here that will let her do some of the work. early this evening, when all the therapy was over, gen had a little sick spell (felt nauseated, sweats and then chills, blurry vision, a tingling in her forehead and eventually a headache and dizziness.) we called the nurses as soon as she said she wasn't feeling well. they checked for low blood sugar and several other things, but found nothing wrong. she felt bad enough that her stroke doctor recommended she go by ambulance to a nearby hospital's er (but as a non-emergency trip) to get a cat scan as a precaution. we were at the other hospital a couple of hours while they did blood tests and the cat scan. everything turned out fine, and they don't really know why she had the spell. she felt a lot better by the time the ambulance brought her back to madonna. it was a relief to have them react so quickly and rule out another stroke, which was something gen feared. all's well that ends well. we hope to jump back into the therapy schedule first thing tomorrow morning with the pool therapy at 9 am. gen wanted me to say "thanks" to aunt judy and to say to jenny "bop she-bop."

susan