debbie.fromm

 Today would have marked 5 weeks since Mom's stroke.  During that time, Daddy, Heidi and I were beside Mom as much as we could be and it will still never feel like enough.   I could tell you all the odds that stacked up against her.  I could tell you about Daddy who just fought to hold onto her.  I could tell you the pain of Heidi who flew back to California with plans to see Mom Tuesday evening.         But.  All of that seems like not the right story.  So let me tell you of our last minutes with her.  Minutes are what matter - right?  I walked into her hospital room.  Daddy was by her side holding her hand.  He immediately jumped up and I got to hold Mom's hand.  She has been sleeping a lot in the last few days.  When I came in she was talking.  She was alert.  She wanted me to know these things -  "I love you SO SO much! In Jesus Name Amen."   She said this over and...

The GOAL is the same.  We want to help mom to get better.  The plan has changed a bit since the last post.  So - last Thursday she went back to the Baylor Waxahachie Hospital because she fell at Legend Oaks. (ONLY 30 minutes after I left her side.....).  While back in the hospital she began to run fever once again.  So she has been being treated with antibiotics.  As they did that - they also sent out a blood culture to see where the infection was coming from (her second infection in a month).   On SUNDAY we got news that the blood cultures came back clean.  MOST LIKELY the infection is in her shunt that was put in her head 15 years ago to help her heal from the brain tumor.  At this point because she has been on WEEKS of antibiotics - testing her shunt for infection would not show us anything right now.   For that - we will reconnect with her brain surgeon and he will tell us what to do.  We WILL be in the hospital for 3 ...

  One thing we have learned as a family this week is that you never know what the day will hold. You set out with a plan, and sometimes your day entirely changes.  Dad's day was changed not once, but twice this week as he woke up to calls that Mom had fallen out of the bed at Legend Oaks, and was sent to Baylor's emergency room. He would quickly cancel his tax client appointments, and go to the hospital to support mom. Thanks for your patience and support if you are one of dad's clients. He will get to everyone's taxes or extensions by next week, so just know you will be taken care of. Tuesday and Wednesday night I spent the night with mom at Legend Oaks to try to keep her from falling at night. We think she wakes up, forgets her left side doesn't work, and falls out of the bed trying to get up. Heidi flew in from California late Wednesday night to help out as well. Thursday morning I went to school, and within 30 minutes of leaving, mom had fallen again and was sen...

From time to time, you find yourself taking a step backward before you are able to find the best path for you to move forward in your journey. It's kind of like a little dance. This is where we found ourselves this morning with mom's journey of recovery from her stroke.  She was moved to Legend Oaks Rehabilitation this weekend, but she has fallen out of her bed two of the three nights she has spent there so far. We think she forgets that her left side doesn't work, and try's to get up in the middle of the night. This morning the fall landed her back in the emergency room at Baylor Waxahachie, but luckily nothing was broken. They did find a touch of pneumonia on her lungs, and the wound on her left arm is starting to ulcer so she is on another round of antibiotics. For now mom is back at Legend Oaks, and it's believe it or not - she fell out of her bed a third time this afternoon after returning from the emergency room! So we are working to get mom transferred from L...

...but we have officially reached another MILESTONE!  Mom finished her last dose of antibiotics and now the meningitis infection is behind us! And, after more than three weeks in the hospital, Mom was very excited to move to a rehabilitation center. She will be at Legend Oaks Rehabilitation Center in Waxahachie!  I think she was getting a little tired of the last place, because there was one time she even threw her plate on the floor. Hospital food can't be that great! She also called 911 to break her out of the hospital a couple times. 🤣 Since the stroke greatly impacted the left side of her body (vision and movement in her left leg & arm), there are still many milestones mom will need to reach as she continues her journey. We are setting small goals like being able to get out of bed to go to the bathroom and hopefully eventually walk. There will be a lot of speech therapists, physical therapists and other doctors assessing mom on Monday as they plan out her rehabilitati...

Good afternoon from Waxahacie - Baylor Scott and White Hospital.  Today mom has been here for 2 weeks!  We are ALL getting a little restless.   Today when I got here Mom wasn't in the best mood.  She is in pain and she is worried.  What we are doing right now is waiting on insurance to say where we can move her.  Our place MAY be a rehab center or it MAY be a place in DeSoto that is able to give her ALL of the antibiotics that she is currently on.  We are waiting for insurance to decide.  Something MAY happen tomorrow.  But right now - we are here until they let us know where to go.  Mom has been in bed for TWO WEEKS!  14 days is hard on a body!  Her left side is where the stroke effected the most.  She is having difficulty moving that side and it is filling up with fluid.  The doctors are aware and working to help her out.  For now - we keep things elevated as much as we can and we pray things get better....