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

Sunday, September 28th

9:30 a.m.Jennifer here again. I'm visiting with Grandma this morning (she's resting right now) while Donna and Sarah go to church. They have been by Grandma's side almost constantly these last few weeks and haven't been able to attend since Grandma has been in the hospital. I'm hoping being able to go will be refreshing and encouraging for them.

Grandma seems tired this morning, which isn't entirely surprising since she had such a busy day yesterday (lots of visiting with family). Please, please continue to pray for her emotional health. She needs to find the hope that she can get better or she may not have the motivation to do the work she needs to do during recovery.

10:15 a.m.
Grandma just got back from walking with the physical therapists. They are so great with her - offering lots of encouragement even though she is very discouraged about her slow progress. I overheard one of them tell her, "God's not finished with you yet, so you've got to keep getting better!" She walked from her room to the doors leading out to the main hall of the hospital wing and back. This is further than she's walked before, so that's progress! Please pray that she'll begin to see it as such.

Saturday, September 27th

Maxine's granddaughter from Arizona, Jennifer, arrived yesterday and brought with her the newest great-grandchild, Maverik. Jen will be writing some blog posts during her visit.

Today was Grandma's first time meeting her greart-grandson, Maverik (now three-months-old). He seemed to cheer her up and gave her lots of big smiles, which she loved. In general, her mood was much improved this morning, though she's very nervous about going to the rehab center, so please pray for peace and confidence during the transition next week.

As always, I enjoyed chatting with Grandma (Sarah says it's a good thing I'm here to give Grandma new stories to listen to, because according to Sarah, Grandma is tired of hearing Sarah talk. Her words, not mine. ;-)) It is good to see that while physically weak, Grandma is still the same witty and wonderful woman on the inside. Do continue to pray for encouragement for her however, as she still feels very discouraged about her progress and is having a hard time seeing the light at the end of the recovery tunnel.

The big praise today is that the physical therapists were able to get Grandma to walk with her walker further than she has before. They may have used Maverik as motivation to get her to walk from her room to the bench in the hall were Sarah, Maverik, and I were sitting. Okay, who am I kidding, they totally leveraged Maverik's presence to make her walk further. Which is a good thing! Now she knows she can do it, even though it was tiring for her.

Thank you so much for your prayers - please keep them coming!

- Jennifer

Friday September 26th.

The procedure went well for Grandma yesterday, and she is feeling better. She appreciates everyone's interest in her.

She will be going to a therapy center Monday. This will be a difficult challenge, but we hope and pray that it will strengthen her and get her back to the Maxine that we know and love at a quicker rate.

She is doing better on her walking. While it is difficult, she is working hard, and trying to have a positive attitude.

Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray. She appreciates and is grateful for all of you.

Sarah

Wednesday September 24th

Today was a pretty good day for Grandma. She was able to walk to her door and back twice today!

They also had an occupational therapist come in and they told us that she needs to be feeding herself and doing most activities for herself.

A negative for today is that they told us that they would most likely have to take fluid off of her lungs tomorrow. Last time they did this, she felt much better afterwards. However, this is a dangerous procedure. When they do this procedure, there is a possibility that her lung could collapse. Please pray against this. Pray that her lungs will do fine and that they will be stronger than every. Pray that the fluid stays off of her lungs.

Thank you for praying for her!

Please feel free to send her cards! If you send them to her home address, we will bring them up to the hospital.

She enjoys receiving cards!

Love you all and thank you for praying!

Sarah