For Real

Dear Family and Friends,

So...nothing extremely new on the medical end of the spectrum to report. They are going to begin feeding her tonight through her feeding tube (which goes through her nose...fascinating!). My dad told her she would get a Big Mac from the McDonald's downstairs. That got a smile from the Queen. We are really needing prayers and good vibes for her blood pressure to be where it is supposed to be without the medicine. In simple terms, we need her heart to get stronger and her blood pressure to be good without the medicine. In big news, my mom had a male nurse today. His name is Ken. I have to restrain myself from singing "Barbie Girl" every time I see him. When we told my mom she had a male nurse she raised her eyebrows. Haha. Ken is a man of few words but great though, along with all of her other medical support team. I love a good nurse. We have nothing but extremely positive things to say about the medical staff here. They are beyond amazing and wonderful.

I decided to title this post "for real" because this has been my moms favorite phrase to point to on her "ouija board" (pronounced 'wee-gee' aka her poster board with the letters of the alphabet). As I mentioned before, she is very forgetful because of all the medicine she is on (this is normal and ok). So, every time we go in to visit her we tell her what is going on, where she is, and what day it is. And EVERY time she points to her letter board and spells out "for real." As if to say...."are you for real? Am I really getting better?" Now we phrase our words as: "you are getting better and we are FOR REAL!"

Here's a funny story about more breaking rules. There are these "lockers" that do not lock in our super fancy waiting room. Why then, would we call them lockers? Why? Here is the sign around the lockers:

We were off to visit my mom late last night and Nancy and I had our computers, purses, and jackets. After trying to fiddle with the "lockers" we realized that they did in fact NOT lock. So, being the Queen's rebellious children, we decided to put our valuables in there anyways. Luckily, I have not seen or met anyone low enough to attempt to steal from ICU patient's families. Our valuables were still nicely in their "storage space" when we returned. Here is Nancy storing away our things:

Now, I'm sure you have all been anxiously awaiting to see how we decorated the Queen's room. We've got her terrible towel taped up to the wall in front of her bed along with her favorite black and white family picture. While this is my mom's favorite picture, it happens to be Nancy's least favorite. She had braces at the time. Oh well...can't please everyone, right?!

If you've been an avid blog follower, you know that I've been giving my mom stickers since she has been such a good patient. We've been putting the stickers on the calendar for each day that she is a good little patient. And each time, she continues to roll her pretty eyes at me. Oh well. I like to secretly think that she loves the stickers. Here they are on her calendar. And who's that precious little Angel? Yours truly :) If you keep reading...in the next few days I'll even show you the other months of the calendar with pictures of my dad wearing giant glasses and Nancy reading books on the potty as a 2 year old.

Thank you all for EVERYTHING. We cannot even begin to express how grateful we are for all of your support, love, prayers, and hugs. We've been passing them onto the Queen and she is ever so thankful. We love you all.

Love,

Abby, Jeff, Nancy, Aunties, Nana, Nurse Jan and Nurse Nan Fran aka The Queen's Royal Court