Recent Photos From Tom Bray

Current Hospital

Craig Hospital New Room 210 West!

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

Hi everyone, Mike here,

Betsy visited with Pat on Monday and reports that she was in a very good mood. Paul a former work associate of Pat's stopped by and was greeted with a smile and Pat said his name. Jon Hasegawa also stopped by for a visit.

Pat had her first unrestricted meal as well as clear liquids. She had some trouble with the liquids and but did extremely well. Betsy didn't think that Pat was impressed with the hospital food. Pat had a manicure after dinner and Betsy and Patty went home. Patty made the long drive for the last time. Patty, Larry's sister has been a very positive fixture at Craig and will be missed.

I had the opportunity to visit with Pat for the first time since her injury today (10/27). I had back surgery the day before the tornado, & have also been recovering.

Pat greeted me with a big smile & immediately wanted to visit & talk. Well talk we did, however I understood little of what Pat was saying. It was very frustrating for Pat, who seems to understand what others are saying, but is having a very difficult time finding the words she is looking for. This was described by her therapists & by Debra in recent updates as aphasia. It was visibly frustrating for her. She is trying so very hard. It was difficult for me but very much more so for her.

We visited for a while, then Pat took me on a tour of Craig. She has very good leg strength & pushed herself around the hospital in her wheelchair. She gets around very well.

After the tour, we went to occupational therapy. Pat broke the hospital record for the number of pegs one could stack up before they fell over. She stacked up 21. The previous record was 20. Pat did quite well with playing catch with a balloon & then a beach ball. We switched to rolling the ball & having Pat kick it back. We had to change from the beach ball to an inflatable therapy ball, since she was kicking the ball so hard that her therapists needed either a bigger room or a heavier ball. They opted for the heavier ball. The therapists, Mary and Jean commented on how nice Pat's nails looked today, and how well Pat was doing.

Pat is working very hard at regaining the use of her right side, & made some more progress today. She tries to do everything with her right hand first, sometimes guiding her right hand with her left. She was able to pick things up more often than not with her right hand. The problem with muscle control has been described as apraxia, a condition common in victims of stroke & head injury, where the parts of the brain controlling voluntary movement patterns have been injured. After O.T., we had lunch. Pat is doing remarkably well with feeding herself, & had very little trouble with chewing & swallowing (good indicators about the extent of her apraxia). I asked Pat if she liked the food, and received a bit of a scowl. After lunch & more attempts at conversation, Pat needed a rest. It was fairly quite around the hospital today. Larry was taking Patty to the airport today, & other recent visitors have also departed.

I have received some literature about her current diagnosis’ & will try to publish it to the website in the near future. In the meantime, visit the center for neuro skills website for more information on head injuries. http://www.neuroskills.com/index.html

That’s all for now, Mike Cuthbertson