Don't cry

It has been a week since my mom returned home from the hospital.

She has since made a little progress. She is eating quite well, oat meal for breakfast, porridge for lunch and dinner, and milk in between. She can raise her right arm further than before if she wants to. Occasionaly I would wheelchair her to the living room or downstairs. When she saw a sad scene on TV, she would cry.

However, one moment she could remember you, and the next moment she would stare blankly at you.

I still talk to her non-stop. Whenever she forgets, I have to tell her everything all over again. It is hard to communicate because the only reaction she could do is to blink her eyes. How I wish she can talk.

Actually she did talk, once, when I hurt her leg accidentally while trying to shift her on the bed one night."你整到我脚!" ("你弄到我的脚", or "You hurt my leg") she exclaimed. I was shocked. When I asked her to repeat what she said, she couldn't.

Last time, when I watched movies in which the paralysed guy got so agitated that he managed to stand up, regain his speech and started to scold the baddie, I thought what bullshit that is. Now I know there might be some truth in it. One has to get really agitated, or perhaps in pain, for that to happen.

So I threatened mom: "If you still don't talk, I will start pinching you!"

She also laughed once. That evening she kept looking at the clock which stood at 7pm. I tried to figure out what she meant, making guesses from 7th uncle to 开门七件事. After many many attempts, I gave up and said, "Mom, are you kidding me?" Then she laughed!

But the past two days, even though I was spending most of the time at her bedside over the weekend talking to her, she couldn't seem to recognise me.

Aaron

Miracle!

I brought mom back at about 2:30pm today. I started to talk to her as usual, and I turned on the TV in the room.

At about 7pm when I was working on my computer in the living room, Jovelyn our domestic helper told me that mom cried while watching a TV programme. I was rather doubtful.

I went into mom's bedroom and started talking to her again. I asked her the same question I had asked the umpteenth time: "Mom, do you recognise me? If you do, blink your eyes." And, for a moment I thought my eyes trick me, she did! To be sure, I asked her a second time, and a third time, and without fail, she blinked her eyes! And she started to cry!

How elated I was, I just couldn't describe. I cried too, but it was tears of joy. Immediately I phoned Jane, who was with Cowen and her mother and on their way home.

It is simply a miracle. Barely five hours after stepping into the home, mom has managed to regain her memory of me! All the weeks of non-stop talking and singing at the hospital by her bedside, sometimes at the expense of the patient at the next bed, has finally paid off!

However, when Jane, Cowen and my mother-in-law returned, mom doesn't seem to recognise them all.

I guess we just have to take thing one step at a time.

Aaron

Mom is home

On this day 4 October 2009, mom is back home at half past two, after 7 weeks of hospital stay, and two visits to the ICU.

She is able to move her right arm and fingers, though her left arm is still weak. She is unable to walk, talk, or recognise us. It will be a long road to recovery and I am prepared for it.

In the photo, she is holding a stalk of toy sunflower in her right hand (I bought it for her to use as a pointer), and the teddy bear in her left. She is playful with the sunflower.

She is back in her own bedroom. I have got the adjustable bed, an air-bubble mattress and a wheel-chair. She is able to sit on the wheel-chair now, and I intend to bring her out from time to time to get some fresh air.

She is a strong woman, and I will learn to emulate her strength.

Aaron