Tuesday afternoon, last week……This is a long day, huh?

I asked everyone……Dr. Hehman, first, what I should do to stimulate her.  His response was less than hopeful and I prayed………….I cried…………I shuttered………to think of Mom surviving for THIS……..We’ve had a lot of conversations about quality of life and how life is to linger or not and how she wants to live…………..I looked at Mom and decided that I had nothing to loose by being assertive with her.  We are not the kind of family to sit sad and motionless in the corner, while something is happening.  There just had to be something that I could do……….and if there WASN”T anything to be done, I certainly had nothing to lose and doing nothing would haunt me for the rest of my life….
So, it began…………I touched her everywhere I could reach. I stimulated every sense that I could think of.  I would reach her if she was reachable.  I moight make her sore from all of the paces that I put her through.  But, if it worked, it would be worth every little ache.  If she was going to become someone that she could be proud of, it needed to begin very soon.
Craig and the girls went home and searched the computers for good pictures to hang on her wall.  We wanted to paper her room with huge pictures of people who love her.
I realized that she didn’t have her hearing aids in and put them in her ears.  I knew that the aids and nurses had been speaking to her in very low and kind voices……….and that I could justify pushing her at this point.  I began shouting at her and shaking her hands and her feet and stimulating all parts of her that I could think of.  I told her that she had to work at it and NOT to give into the laziness of the whole thing…………..She struggled to crack an eye open and I could see that she was with me.  Her eye was dead looking, though, and I had to wonder if my mother was really inside of there……………..
I sat next to her bed and began calling churches.  I picked up the yellow pages and began calling all of the 874 prefixes and begging anyone who would listen for prayers for her.  An hour later, she could open the right eye wide from time to time, she could grunt,”yes” and could shake her head yes and no.
You will NEVER be able to convince ME that prayer doesn’t work!
I sang all of her favorite songs and urged her to smile…….to listen…….to respond……..to KNOW that I loved her so much.  Somewhere over the rainbow!!!  Momma, we’re headed there, now……WORK with ME!!!
The therapists who came in, especially Kathy and Mina were so completely supportive of what I was trying to do for Mom and that I was competent enough not to hurt her in the process.  They made suggestions and every time Mom even fluttered her eyes, I forced her to stick her tongue out, wiggle her toes and fingers and try to respond to questions.  It was a very long process, but it was obvious every time that she woke up that she was still in there and that there was hope.  The prayers and Mom’s determination were WORKING!!!  The doctors were surprised, the next morning that Mom had made so much improvement.  Sara was an especially nice nurse who helped to take care of her.  You could tell that everyone working at the hospital began to see the possibilities and yes, they had HOPE in their eyes……………..