Saturday (6/20)

Tests, tests, tests. First thing Saturday morning Norma was taken to another part of the hospital for tests on her carotid, heart and stomach (as Jim tells me, I wasn't there yet).

Around 10 am the occupational therapist and Dr. Kachman gave Norma tests to assess her physical status. They checked for eye movement/tracking, arm and leg strength, swallowing and some other things that I don't remember.

It was after this set of tests that it was determined that she could sip water and eat ice cream.

Janet and Paul came and brought decorations for the room. A great carribean like poster and one with 9 puppies on a couch. And, three butterflies and a blue stringy fish thing. It really made the room more cheerful, Norma seemed to enjoy looking at them.

Jim finally went home to shower and contact family and friends. I kept Norma company for the next several hours. She was very alert and would nod to my questions. We watched tv, the Travel Channel until she handed me the changer, I guess she had enough of China, she obviously did not like what I was watching!! We watched a bit of sports then she handed me the changer once again.....

Norma ate some ice cream, put up her hand in the stop mode when she had enough. All things told, she seemed to be very alert, was doing a good job communicating and was very sleepy. She was awake about 10 minutes every hour then would doze off. The staff treated her with great care.

At 8 p.m. she was taken downstairs for a CAT Scan of the left side of her brain to investigate.

by Karen

Mom began to show signs of improvement on this day. She seemed to be a little more aware of her surroundings. Most importantly, she was smiling some and tried her best to get a few laughs out.

by Kevin