Back in the Saddle

Good Evening, I'm actually posting from Mom's room. I will try to make periodic posts while my Mom is here in Seattle (may have Dayton fill in some, since he proved to be such an eloquent writer). Mom is well situated on the 8th floor of UWMC- University of Washington Medical Center. She has a gorgeous view of South Campus and the health sciences building.
She is pretty exhuasted from a speedy trip over the mountains this morning, but is settling right into the routine here. Various therapists have already been through to do some initial evaluations. Mom now has a couple of ways to communicate. As Dad stated, she can verbalize (when not exhausted) with short words. She said "Hello, Caitlin," to me this morning shortly after she arrived at 11:30am. We have also equipped her with a squishy call-bell so she can ring for the nurse at her leisure. The trick is trying to figure out why she rang for the nurse.
She will have a structured therapy program all day- usually a total of 3-4 hours of rehab split up over the day. As for visitors from "this side of the state" here are a few ground rules.
1. We won't have as structured a schedule (ie 2-3 hour blocks per se) as she will be busy all day with therapies. But we will set up a schedule--Charlie Raines will be in charge of that--where you can "sign up" to come in at certain times. Most of these times will be in the evening, lunch-hour, and weekends. If you would like to come in during the day, and a therapist comes in, you can particpate, but please do no distract her from the therapy.
2. Otherwise, just pop Charlie an email (I will post it) to let him know. our goal is to 'even' out the visitors, so she doesn't have 15 one night, and no one the next couple of nights.
Thats about it--see not to bad on the rules this time around--I hope all of you near by on this side of the mountains will take advantage of her proximity and come give her a squeeze and a hello.
PS- Dad's pretty exhausted from a long day as well- he looked pretty pooped when he left this evening. I told him to rest up- its gonna be quite the ride!