Current Hospital

Craig Hospital Room 205A

If you want to send cards...etc. the address is

Craig Hospital Patricia Schmidt 3425 South Clarkson St. Englewood, CO 80110
(303)789-8254

E-mail's, cards and notes will all go in Pat's new scrapbook.

We know your love is here. Debra

Mailing List Subscription Information The Aunt Pat Mail List

Laura here to give you all your Pat fix for the day. I am not sure which one of you said it, but I heard about a plan to hide behind a tree to get a look at Pat on one of her outings. Now I am not sure, but I don't know if the staff here looks favorably on that sort of thing. Just teasing.

Pat has had a great day today! She was still sleeping when Larry, Patty, and I arrived . We were all so woried that Pat would already be at her classes, because we were all running late. I climbed in to wake her, and was greeted with a smile. She did well in P.T.today, they worked on choosing the correct color of blocks, and throwing the ball. She had a hard time letting go of the bell, but the throwing motion was there. Kicking the ball came a lot easier for pat. It seems that the strength in her legs is really good.

Pat has been eating a little food in her speech class, and today they are doing a final swollow test to see if the trache is ready to come out. If all goes well, the trache will be removed tonight, ar in the morning. kathie, her nurse says that the hole should heal in 3-4 days, but if Pat does a lot of coughing, it will take longer. When we fed her she tried apple sauce( not a winner at all) and pudding (also not a winner.) So today I brought in a banana, and we mashed inbsp, Pat seemed to like it a lot better then the other the other things.

I was planning to take a siezure class today, so I could take Pat outside without a B.A. , but I was so excited about the banana, that I completely forgot Larry thougt that he would share with Pat the fact that I skipped nbspolkathieshe rolled her chair right up to me and laughed.

That is all for now, we may be able to do another update later, so check back. Laura

Hi from Pam and Warren and Mike and Debra! (Debra and Warren are cousins of Pat's. Warren and Pam are visiting from Florida.) We are happy to report that Pat had a good day today. We received a verbal report from Laura, and visited late this afternoon. We're sending some photos for the website for your viewing pleasure.

Laura observed Pat's therapy today and reported a much better day than yesterday. She answered lots of "yes" and "no" questions, reached up over her head with both hands holding a ball, practiced tracking movement from upper left to lower right and vice versa... every bit an improvement. In speech class they gave her some applesauce to practice swallowing. When she made a terrible face they changed to vanilla pudding, but that didn't suit her either. After a few icky looks Laura said to her "Pat, you don't have to eat another spoonful if you don't want to." She then put another spoonful up toward Pat's face and asked, "Do you want another bite?" "NO!" came Pat's response.

When we arrived to visit, Larry, Larry's sister Pat, and Pat were out in one of the gardens. She smiled when we walked up, reached out to greet Pam and pull her close for a hug, gave Mike a big smile and hug... and then finally Warren came into focus and Pat did the biggest double take! Like she couldn't believe her eyes. With her eyes wide open she grinned hugely at Warren, and made motions for him to come and sit right down close to her. It was the most obvious emotion I've seen her express, so happy to see her big cousin. She was definately hanging on to every word we spoke and enjoying all the laughter. She showed interest in Warren's digital camera and took the initiative to reach for it so that she could explore it. With some help pressing the button she took a picture of Warren then of Larry and Mike and Pat. It was a great time together, a beautiful day with sun glittering through intense yellow leaves. That's all for now folks. We hope to get some pictures of therapy later this week.

PLS.... Debra