Work Time

Mary has moved into her new home in Pewaukee, The Heartland Health Care Center. In the best interests of her health they put her to work immediately. She spent 20 minutes on her feet at a table (in a sling) manipulating various things such as cards etc. From a wheel chair she worked pedaling a bicycle. In all, she worked for two hours today and was so tired that she went to sleep on the way back to her room. We arrived about 30 minutes later and found her so sound asleep that we chose not to even attempt to wake her. This appears to be a great place for her with excellent staff anxious to make her complete again. I feel certain that the process will be very long and very difficult for Mary.

Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts, concerns, and communications.

Jack & Sue Watson

The Move

Highlights of Mary Scovell's life during the past 3 months.

This was her first stay overnight in a hospital. 9/11
The stay that was predicted to last one month lasted 3 months is going to require extensive rehabilitation.
The stay included 4 visits to various intensive care wards lasting several weeks in all.
Before she left Froedtert today, 12/11 she had accomplished the following:
Her leukemia is in remission.
Nose hose out
She can feed herself real food.
She can sign her name.
She can drink water.
She can talk.
She is getting up to one hour of rehabilitation and is asking for more.
Her hair is growing back.
Today was her first ambulance ride but they didn't use the lights or the siren.

Mary has made the move from Froedtert Hospital to:
The Heartland Health Care Center
N26 W23977 Watertown Road
Pewaukee, WI 53188
Room 509
She doesn't have a phone yet but just give us a couple of days.

Keep checking in.

Jack & Sue

Attention, Attention

The Froedtert vigilantes have stepped in and are managing 4NT in their own way without consulting their long standing patient, Mary Scovell. They changed her room! This occurred last night just after I had put up a blog telling everyone that Mary was capable of taking telephone calls. She is still capable of taking phone calls but you need the correct number. It is: 414-805-7276. If you need any further information please refer to the blog "The Nose Hose"

Carry on as usual,

Jack

The nose hose

Usually Monday morning is a very low point in the week. Not so today. The morning started with the news that the doctors had approved the removal of Mary's nasal gastric tube which she, not so fondly, referred to as the "nose hose". The nose hose has been an unwelcome part of Mary for over two months now and so this event was much anticipated and greatly welcomed. After the removal ceremonies "YANK" (You are now klear) Mary's speech improved considerably. She has been helped out of bed and allowed to stand on her own two feet (assisted). She has spent a couple of hours each day in her chair and she is getting about 45 minutes of physical therapy. The result is that she is able to answer the telephone on her own and can be understood much better. Try giving her a call at 414-805-7278.

Thanks for all your concerns,

Jack & Sue

The search for a new place to get physical therapy

About a week ago Froedtert Hospital began a search for another hospital to take Mary for her physical therapy because Froedtert could not supply the type and amount of therapy that Mary needed. Without development of strength if the Leukemia comes back Mary would not have the strength to stand the treatments. They thought that Saint Mary's Hospital on the east side of Milwaukee had just the program to satisfy Mary's needs. It would be designed completely around Mary's needs and might last anywhere from 3 to 6 months depending on the patient's recovery. Some doctors from Saint Mary's came to Froedtert to see Mary and evaluate her. She failed their evaluation. It seems that Saint Mary's had severely changed the program and would now only take patients up to 3 weeks which will not be long enough for Mary to recover all the strength she needs. Mary is known as a sub-acute patient. So.... if any of you know a local sub-acute hospital near a bar please give us a call. We may have learned of a rehab center in West Allis connected with the hospital there that seems to fit the bill. We will let you know in the next blog if she will soon be moving or if the evil evaluators will have their way with her. Tune in, think positive thoughts, pray hard, and see how many times we have to rewrite this plot.

Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and comments.

Jack and Sue

Thanksgiving to all

Over the last week and a half Mary has been making steady progress getting past the fevers, and now what is called the ICU syndrome which simply means "Too long in the hospital flat on your back". She sits up in a "cadillac" chair now, moving her arms, legs & toes, working on her point & flex in the ankles and wrists, raising her arms in preparation to take food, put on her glasses and exercising her fingers so she can eventually burn pages in books, music and write her name. She still has her feeding tube and is screaming (there's that word again) for a swallow test so she can begin to eat real food and drink water. Today on her door is a sigh that says, "TODAY WAS MARY'S BEST PERFORMANCE IN PHYSICAL THERAPY IN 78 DAYS, HOORAY!!" In this season of Thanksgiving she and her family say prayers of thanks for all of you. YOur continued cards and prayers and good wishes give testimony to the phenomenon the power of love creates miracles. The doctors & nurses have been inspired by her development thus far. Yes, Mary's recovery is miraculous, that's the only explanation any of us have... and every day is a precious gift!

Love to you all,

Jack & Sue

Blogs that didn't get posted

Wed. 19 Nov. Petite Mal seizures were diminished but still present.EEG showed little change but EMG showed a critical deterioration of muscle reflexes. The doctors started to slowly raise her dose of Topomax from 25 mg to 75 mg over a few days. They also began an IVIG therapy which included gamma globulin, that part of the blood that contains the most antibodies, in the hope that it would stimulate her nerve and muscle connectors.

Thurs. 20 Nov. This is the second day of treatment and guess what, it is working! Mary woke up singing along with the radio and asking for food. Her voice is still very soft but there is definite improvement in alertness and muscle control. Everyone is pleased and much more hope filled.

Friday 21 November. On day 3 of treatment Mary awakes and freaks out her physical therapist with her muscle progress. She then "screams" to use the toilet. Screams is in quotes because it is a very inappropriate word because since Mary is unable to create enough decibels to scream as we know it. However, the nurse told her that unfortunately she's not ready yet. Now stop and think about that...... Today for the first time in ages Mary stayed awake from 2:30 PM to 1100 PM watching the British version of "Who's Line is it anyway?", "Being Julia", and "Phantom of the Opera" which at our house she refused to watch because she said that she didn't like the movie. Go figure.

Saturday 22 November day 4 of the medication. Mary continues to wow the doctors and nurses with her ability to touch her nose (for what reason we can only imagine), demand food, toilet, and call friends and family on the phone, none of which she can do muscularly yet but we hope soon because she is beginning to get very bored. Ah.....dah! But, the large muscle control is coming back in small baby steps.

Keep those cards, letters, prayers, positive thoughts, and curiosity about touching her nose coming.

Thanks, Jack & Sue