Take your walker and walk!

Jan seems to like Saturdays to deliver major surprises. It has to be a sunny day as well. In this weekend day, Jan was all but resting. Here is the blog for an eventful day:

· Jan continues to sing along the electronic music in Joy’s little piano. of course the lyrics are her own version in Janglish, but she does keep the rhythm.
· Mid morning out of the blue, Jan informed me that she needed to go to the washroom. Usually the routine involves helping her sit in a special chair that couples with the toilet, but not today; she wanted to walk all the way to the washroom as if showing off what she can do. I held her right elbow and with small, tentative steps, she did the rest. She was beaming when she came back to the bed knowing she had started another stage in her recovery.
· A short time later with the help of a walker, she went WALKING up and down the corridor of Wing D. Small steps. Some uncertainty in the left leg. Looking down to her feet. Concentrating on moving both feet in a coordinated way. But walking nonetheless! I gave her a look alike if she was walking on water. She gave me a broad smile back.
· Later, in the afternoon, she and I had a long conversation with complex concepts. She asked me: “Do you know how I feel?” (in relation to her current challenges). She expressed her ideas of feeling somewhat diminished, less than how she knows she was. She said some memories come and go, some days are clearer than others; today, she was aware of what happened and who visited yesterday (she could not remember names but relationships), of the time in the day, of how long she has been at the hospital. She knows she had an operation in her head. She knows some functions are lost in her head like moving all the fingers in her R hand. All this in spurts of a few sentences at a time, and then some unintelligible words.

Way to go Jan!

-Fede