Saturday, 01/25

     Today has been super busy for Caren.  By 9:30 am, she walked across the hall to sit in a shower chair for a good head to toe warm shower and shampoo.  After that, she walked back to her room, and we got her all comfy in bed.
     Just as Caren was relaxing in bed, PT showed up with Caren's Cadillac, and we got her up and secure in the recliner.  I was able to push her around the facility to get the 'lay of the land'.  :-)    Caren also got to see the gym - both the regular and the low stimulation gym; sit in front of the windows and see all the snow; then, relax in the dining room beside a faux tree. It was truly wonderful for her to actually leave the confines of an institutional room setting.  Notice the street clothes!  We take so much for granted.  Imagine the joy of wearing street clothes for the first time in nearly a month, and ditching the hospital gown. All this may seem at first rather elementary, until one remembers her injuries.  Every movement, every new twist or turn, moves those broken ribs, or hurts that broken scapula, or stabs her in the back from the broken vertebrae.  Muscles spasm and ache, and the pain sky rockets.  So many days are bittersweet: the joy of leaving the room in her Cadillac, the pay back of suffering and pain.  It's all like riding a roller coaster.  Today was a descent on that roller coaster.
     Caren is my hero.  I don't know if I could accomplish her victories.  She is determined, she is goal-oriented, and she possesses the desire to move forward, sometimes moment by moment.  In her situation, I think I'd sit and cry a month before attempting to walk or sit or move.  Saturday was a good day for me.  Although Caren was expecting more family to visit, we did enjoy the intimate time - just the two of us.  This is the first day since the accident that we've shared such precious moments together.
     Thank you for your prayers that uphold and support her in her endeavors, and keep us all uplifted.