>From her brother, Caleb: I'm thinking of a person who can brush her teeth on her own and hold conversations. I'm thinking of a person who can talk on the telephone. If you haven't guessed it yet, you haven't been paying much attention - It's Mallory!
Steve, Vickie, and Caleb went to see Mal today, and it was another really good day for her! After sleeping late (it was a Sunday morning after all), she got up and started having pretty normal conversation throughout the morning. She was generally upbeat and animated, talking about various things, and making a whole lot of sense. No PT today, because they let the patients take it a little bit easier on weekends. A lot of times you can really see Mal's personality still shine through in her choice of words and expressions. It's incredibly relieving to see Mal start to resemble her old self. After talking and sitting up all morning, she soaked up some Texas culture and took a siesta. Sitting up and talking for several hours will simply wear her out in her current condition, but we're supposed to keep her up and stimulated for periods throughout the day. She "needs to heal," as she puts it. In the afternoon she wasn't quite as lively or upbeat, but she didn't get nearly as unhappy, incoherent, or upset as yesterday afternoon. She'd still make sense, but started to realize how much her situation...well, sucks. To put everything in perspective, she'll still get confused quite often and sometimes upset, thinking that maybe she has some sisters, or mixing up people, or just not making sense. On the whole though, she's doing great, and making significant improvements every day. She repeatedly asked about Rex, and now is starting to mention and talk about other people too. She's called several people on the phone now (well, we dialed the number for her), but her voice is strong enough to be heard on the other end of the phone line. It'll still be soft for a while, as the trach tube is still in her throat. The consensus amongst the medical staff is that the trach will probably get taken out later this week. We've started taking notes on all the funny things Mal says. She's a hoot! >From "Monica Lewinski - she is no good." to "Bless her heart, she tries so hard, but that girl is annoying. I'm sure she's nice." After Mal demonstrated that she can easily grab a stuffed bat and hold up however many fingers we asked her to, we told Mal about how we celebrated her being able to reach for a stuffed bay only a few days ago. "Y'all must not have had much to celebrate" she replied. There are about a dozen other funny quotes from Mal, but alas, I don't have the list in front of me. In the late afternoon, she told me "Dunn Tower" a couple of times. The words "Dunn Tower" are written on the wall above some doors at the end of the hall. "Mal, did you read Dunn Tower or did you hear it somewhere?" Mal: <pauses and frumbles her brow in thought> "I read it." To verify, Mom and I held up a magazine and asked her to read the words from the cover, which she did without hesitation. She can read! This is amazing - a week ago we never would have expected improvements this rapid. What will she be up to next? Stay tuned! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
