October 18th

Grandma was moved on Thursday to a new place. It is called Accel at Willow Bend. It is a beautiful nursing/rehabilitation center.

She is allowed to be there for up to 100 days. We are praying that she gets strong enough that she only needs to be there for a few more weeks.

She would love visitors. Because the physical therapy is not on a schedule, she would ask that people call first to make sure that she is available. 469-348-3236.

Here is the address. It is very close to Willow Bend Mall off of Park and the Tollway.
 2620 Communications Pkwy, Plano, TX 75093

We would love for her to have visitors! She is a social woman, and I know that she misses seeing all of you. 

Currently, she has swelling in a foot, and still has no access to her arms. She wont be able to use them to do anything until the heart surgeon signs off on her. We are hoping this will be only a week more.

Here is the address to where she is currently staying. Please give her a call if you cannot visit. She needs the encouragement. 

Thank you all for your prayers and please keep praying for her. She is a strong woman, but this is a difficult road. Only God can get her through this, and we know He can. 

This will be the last blog post as I head back to Guatemala on Tuesday. 

For updates, please call her. She is completely able to talk and hold a great conversation...just don't catch her at a grumpy time:)

Blessings to you all, and thank you so much for your prayers.

Sarah (Her favorite Grandchild)

October 8th

Today was a difficult day for Grandma. I arrived at 7:30. She had a picc line put in last night to get her medicine put in because her veins are so bad.

The nurses did not know that they were supposed to wait for an x-ray to make sure that the picc line was put in correctly. Apparently, according to the doctors, this is ridiculous that they did not know.

Makes us worried for her. Some of the staff is fabulous. Some are not so fabulous.

Today she found out that she has a blood clot in each leg. They are in her superficial veins, which apparently is better than other veins. They are giving her two blood thinners right now to get the clots to go away.

Please pray that she does not fall or get cut at all. This could cause serious bleeding and be detrimental.

Grandma will be leaving the rehab hospital around the 15th and going to the Prestonwood nursing and rehab facility until she gets better. Please pray that she can continue to work towards her goals of going home.

Pray that God will give her peace and joy in Him.

Thanks so much for your prayers, sweet cards, and flowers. They brighten her day!

Sarah

October 6, 2014

Today was not a good day. Grandma did well in her rehab, but the rehab hospital is frustrating us. She has had wonderful physical therapists, and the doctors seem to know what they are doing, but the nurses never seem to know how to take care of her. It's like none of them are reading their notes on how to take care of her.

If anyone knows of a rehab hospital in the Plano area that they can recommend, we would be happy to hear about it. She should only be here for another 9 days, but if things stay the way they have, 9 days is too long.

Pray for her not to be anxious in her walking with the physical therapists. Pray for her to trust in the Lord to protect her, and to take deep breaths. The Psych doctor does not think that she needs to be on anxiety medicine, but taught her how to take deep breaths to calm herself down. Pray that she remembers how to do these breaths and will do them.

Pray for her to have strength and confidence in her walking, but pray that she can remember the things that the PT's are telling her.

Pray for her wounds to heal. She has a few and they are slow to heal.

Pray for her swelling to go down. Her kidneys are not functioning well and her legs are swelling.

Pray for peace for her. She is frustrated, as we all would be. But, pray that she has peace in the Lord.

Finally, please pray for wisdom for us. We want to move her if she is not going to get good care, but we do not know where she will get the best care. We want her to get better.

Thanks for your prayers.

Sarah

October 4th

Grandma has been doing really well on her walking. Today her blood pressure dropped a lot. She had a bad day. They had to give her an IV, and they put her back on Oxygen.

She was very discouraged today. Please pray for her to find her joy in the Lord and to be encouraged.

Thank you all for all of your prayers!

Sarah

Tuesday, September 30th (P.S.)

P.S. I forgot to mention in my earlier post from today that Grandma got to hold her great-grandson, Maverik, for the first time today! While she had met him and had lots of visits from him at the hospital, she didn't feel confident or strong enough to hold him. Plus, she had lots of tubes and wires that I was afraid might get pulled on by little Maverik's spazzy baby hands. But today she got to hold him for a little while. It was a very sweet moment for her and I was blessed to be able to have her hold my son before we head back to Arizona tomorrow. I'm so glad she's starting to feel a little better and I felt like her holding Maverik was a testament to her progress! Please continue to pray for little moments of success like this throughout her recovery. Her journey is slow and hard and she needs these little glimpses of hope to get her through.

Tuesday, September 30th

Grandma's first full day at the rehab facility went well. She really likes her physical therapists and while she is discouraged by her situation, she is positive about the therapy she is doing.

The nursing care is not as high-quality as what Grandmas has previously had at the hospital and that has been discouraging for her, so please pray she will get the sensitive and attentive care she needs while still being pushed to do the therapy that she needs to do to get better.

Please pray also for energy and strength for Donna as she cares for Grandma - she is by her side for many, many hours each day.

Thank you all again for lifting our family up in prayer. We feel so blessed and loved by all of you!

- Jen

Monday, September 29th

Some big praises today! Thank you for your prayers yesterday for Grandma's mood - they worked! We saw considerable improvement in her mood today. Here's a conversation I had with her, that was very encouraging to me:

Grandma: I was thinking about the blog last night and I realized that I've been really selfish.

Jennifer: How have you been selfish??

Grandma: I realized that I've been asking everyone to pray for me, but I haven't thought to ask them to pray for the wonderful people who have been taking care of me [at the hospital]. Please put that in the blog - for people to pray for the staff here. They have just taken such good care of me.

Now that's the Maxine we all know and love!!

Grandma also had much more color in her face today and got changed into some "street clothes" (a.k.a. - out of the hospital gown) which I think improved her mood considerably.

The BIG PRAISE is that Grandma got moved into the rehab facility today!! Please pray for courage, confidence, patience, and strength for her as she starts a very rigorous therapy schedule tomorrow. (She'll be doing therapy three times a day and needs to rest in-between, so she is still not able to accept visitors.) Please pray that she sees improvement (however small) as a positive accomplishment. She wants so badly to regain her independence, but isn't confident that it's achievable. As cheesy as it sounds, she needs to believe in order to achieve.

- Jennifer