Welcome to Mount Carmel

So, we've now finished just a little over a week here in the rehab hospital.  It's not the clean and sterile environment we were used to at DePaul, but it feels a little less tense and a little more "homey".  The staff here is very nice and things are progressing extremely well.  When Mom got here, she was just off the hospital stay and could barely move herself.  Now she can sit up in bed almost effortlessly and is just a few physical therapy sessions away from being able to stand on her own.

She still requires help to get up and do most basic things, but it's simply a matter of strength and not a matter of will.  She has some combination of physical, occupational, and speech therapy almost every day.  She is about to graduate out of the speech therapy as the only thing that has not returned to complete normal is the pitch of her speech.  It's higher than it used to be, but the tone, inflections, and rhythm of her speech are as they were.

Here is the room...more like a hotel than a hospital.  Flowers, Grandpas and all...

Here is the physical rehab area on the bottom floor.  While we were there, she walked (with the walker) farther (over 100 feet in three separate sessions) than she ever had before.  I think she said the previous record was 33 feet.  Today she did a 44 and a 55 foot excursion, plus the last one, which I think went unmeasured.

This is the first walk she did...she came from around the corner on the left near where that man is standing..

A brief video of the last walk she did (it may or may not actually load):

Here's the bike-like apparatus that works both arm and leg strength.  You should also know that the woman riding next to Mom was a 97-year old woman named Helen, who was just as full of piss and vinegar as you might expect.  I overheard Helen talking to her nurse about the various cancers she has had, including breast cancer and a brain tumor. "I've got the hole in my head to prove it," she said.  It is worth noting that after explaining the host of complications Mom has had in the past several weeks, even Helen was impressed with her progress.

So, after just over a week, she has made what one therapist called "remarkable progress".  She's got several more weeks to go, but Grandpa and I both agree that the recovery from this point will be swift and complete.  Don't be afraid to give her a call during the day if you want to check in and say hello!