Tonight

Don got here about 1:00 + and Maria got to see him. He and Esther went back to the house to sleep what's left of the night and will be back in the morning to relieve me. I'll probably stay home most of the day. Cornel will be here about 3:00 Sabbath afternoon, so we'll let him take over the rest of that day. He's supposed to be bringing a car seat, cause the baby is expected to be dismissed to me sometime next week. Good to have some extra hands at least for a few days. After that, Noylen and I will have to alternate and hopefully Maria will be at least a little more mentally clear and physically stronger.

The neurologist thinks her challenges are muscular rather than neurological, but they are checking and watching things to be sure. She has reflexes, albeit slight. Along with it, there has been some not so lucid ramblings that they tell me is expected. This morning she asked me what I did with her hotdog. I asked her what hotdog, and she said the one that she was eating...where did I put it... later she told Esther she'd better catch her brother before he fell.
She was also "afraid to go to sleep" because they were trying to drug her. I found out later that she apparently overheard the patient next door "arguing" with the staff last night and caught parts of it and thought it was about her. Later, we heard the guy yell out, so I think that was probably it. She finally going to sleep now, and I hope she sleeps well, cause she has not had much sleep for 3 days.

To make a long story short, I felt so bad as well as a real dud the other day when I realized that when she first came awake, we were telling her how well the baby was doing, etc. then really TODAY realized that she was trying to ask how Gabriel (her 2 year old) was. Not that we hadn't told her, but we were focusing on the baby and she was all the time worried about Gabriel and didn't really comprehend that she had the baby. What a dufus I felt when I realized it. Anyhow we called Gabriel's dad and let her "talk" with him. He calmed her anxiety and she seemed ok then.

Maria and Cornel have some things on layaway (I assume at Walmart). The special services nursery where the baby is has told us they have a few items of clothing they are going to give us to help us get started with that. Cornel is working 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. 6 days a week. It's hard for Maria cause she wants to see him, but when we tell her his schedule and occasionally are able to get him on the phone, then she seems to understand and accept that he can't come until the weekend. They live nearly 3 hours away.

They tell us to expect 3 days of rehab for every day Maria was in ICU. That means 3 months! The plan now is to get her started on rehab here and hope she will get strong enough to move her out to California if we can work it out to take Gabriel with us. I don't think she'd go without him. Of course the baby will go, too. All this is up in the air of course until we see how things go. Bar any unforseen setbacks, they expect a full recovery. Brain scan was good and everything is working except her arms and legs plus the weakness.