Update on Grace, Thursday, Aug 26

Thursday. Latest update 8:30 PM.

3:30 PM - Today was teach a music lesson day. I stopped by the hospital on the way to the music lesson, and found Grace happy, but still very sleepy.

I greeted her and asked if she slept well, and she answered, "Yes, very well, thank you." Then I asked if she had a good breakfast, and she replied, "No, it was bad."

I was sorry to hear that, so I asked her, "Tomorrow morning, would you like me to bring you a biscotti? Or a scrambled egg? Or maybe a piece of Cracker Barrel toast with some cherry butter on it?"

She fell asleep in the middle of my question.

It wasn't for very long, because less than a minute later, she opened her eyes again.

I told her I'd received a phone call this morning from (I said the name), from Sunset Church. She said, "Who?" so I repeated the name, enunciating clearly.

"Oh!" she said. "Haven't heard from her in ..." and she smiled as she remembered.

However, even in her sleepy state, she was still sharp and ready to joke. For example, when I started to tell her the weather was nice today, I got my tongue all twisted, and said, "It's nice weather today, all shunshiny..."

And Grace grinned and said, "Sho it Sheems."

Then she fell asleep again.

I'm speculating that she was on some pain medication this morning because she said a few things that just didn't track.

As I was leaving to go teach the music lesson (here in Mississippi, folks might say "As I was fixin' to go..."), she said something quietly. I asked her to repeat it, and she said, "There's a snake around my ankle."

I said, "It might feel like that, but I bet it's just a strap from the leg brace you're wearing."

She nodded in acknowledgement, but not like she totally agreed with me.

I told her Jan and I would be back later today, and left.

Jan took some time off at lunch today and went to visit Grace, and told me Grace was about 80% asleep for her visit, also.

Obviously, there's still quite a bit of healing and recovery yet to go. Let's keep up the prayers. I know they're helping.

One more bit of news. It seems there are quite a number of different levels of care facilities. Grace was initially in the intensive care unit of the River Oaks hospital. Now she is at this current hospital, which is a long term (some kind of high-level care) hospital, not quite as critical as the ICU.

Grace has, as you have been reading, been making good progress in her recovery, and how the folks at this hospital say she needs to move to an intense nursing and rehab facility. They will probably transfer her early next week.

Jan and I will go interview one or more of them tomorrow morning and decide where she is to go, then the gaining and losing facilities will do all the coordination.

I think this might have a lot to do with Medicare and Grace's insurance and who pays what and how much. Of course, I could be wrong, since they never brought me in on the loop of whys.

So stay tuned for further developments, and I'll certainly let you know as soon as Grace is transferred to the new place.

By the way, there's yet another level of care facility, to which Grace might be sent as soon as she can begin bearing weight on her injured leg, and can endure the required three hours of rehab therapy each day at the new place.

That's all I know as of now. I'll let you know as soon as I know more.

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3:30 PM - It's so good to be able to report that Grace was better tonight!

It turned out that Sarah had some sort of rehearsal tonight, and asked if we could Katiesit. OH, GEE! Twist our arms!

So we had Katie with us when we went to visit Grace tonight.

When we arrived at the room, I stopped just outside the door, and leaned in slowly so Katie was the first one through the door.

But I couldn't stand waiting, and peeked around the doorframe pretty quickly.

Grace had the biggest smile on her face that I've seen for days!

Katie was saying, "Nana! Nana?"

We all got into the room and Jan shut the door, and we put Katie down on the floor. She headed for Nana right away, but of course was instantly distracted by all the fascinating new things in the room.

Katie made it to Grace without much delay, however, and while Grace wanted a Katiehug, Katie herself suddenly had to show Nana her baby. Grace took the doll and talked about it for a few minutes with Katie, until Katie was off exploring more of the intriguing things in the room.

We noticed that Grace still hadn't yet eaten the piece of cake we'd brought yesterday, and we offered it to her. While she was thinking about that, Jan saw a Kit Kat bar on the table as well. She said, "I see someone brought you a Kit Kat bar. Do you want that?"

After a moment's more thought, Grace said she'd like the Kit Kat bar. So Jan gave Grace the remaining piece of candy bar, and of course, it was espied instantly by the wee one!

I wonder if it's because she's female or because she's a child that seems to have endowed Katie with chocolate radar?

Needless to say, Nana broke off a piece of the candy bar and shared it with Katie.

I must say, as much as Grace loves chocolate, it gives her far greater pleasure to share her chocolate with her loved ones, especially children. You should have seen the radiant smile on her face as she gave the candy to Katie.

Just out of habit, when Grace gave Katie the candy, I said, "Thank you, Nana," and Katie echoed it! She said, "Taneew Nana!"

As she was devouring her candy, Katie started dancing! So I started singing the cabaret version of "Bill Bailey" that we're preparing for our next concert, and Jan started dancing, too. Hey, don't laugh. If you'd been there and seen what Katie was doing, you'd have danced, too! Jan said, "Mama, I bet you didn't think you were going to be treated to dancing girls tonight!"

Then Katie played peek-a-boo through the bedrails with Nana for a bit, then we tuned in a TV show Grace likes to watch.

As we were getting ready to leave, I said, "Grace, I noticed you were trying to do something on your phone when we arrived. May I dial someone for you?"

She said, "I was trying to call Pat."

So I dialed Pat for her, handed her the phone, and we left.

All in all, she seemed quite a bit better this evening than earlier today or yesterday. Perhaps that's because she got some sleep during the day. I sure hope that doesn't keep her awake tonight.

I'll go see her tomorrow, and report afterwards. Jan and I are going tomorrow morning to interview the next facility where Grace might go, so I probably won't be able to report until after lunch sometime. Since I have quite a few things going on tomorrow, it might be late before I can post. Please bear with me - I won't forget you!

Take care, everyone. Let's keep up our prayers. Have a wonderful Friday!

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