Oh Frances.

She has a neighbor named Frances who tries to escape daily. She starts with asking everyone she walks by if they can give her a ride. Wait, she's walking around? Yes, with a nurse. They try to keep her busy. This results in her explaining to anyone who will listen how "terrible" this is. It's nowhere near terrible. The entire staff says hello to her every time they see her and patiently explains that they can't take her home. One extra smooth nurse explained that he had taken the bus today, so he couldn't. When he walked by me he just said "I don't want to hurt her feelings". She asked me the other day if I was a nurse and when I said no, she just moved on. To Frances, I'm just chopped liver. Mom doesn't seem that bothered by Frances, although sometimes she expresses her desire to "help" Frances. Seriously though, the staff is a bunch of saints. They're patience and compassion is admirable.

Meanwhile, mom is continuing to work her tiny ass off. I missed her PT session yesterday with Heather, but apparently she was walking on the treadmill. To be clear, she's in a harness, but the plan is to help her learn to move her legs in a walking rhythm. Side note on the PT's - they're all these tiny girls (I say girls, but they're probably late twenties) and each of them seems to have super human strength and unwavering optimism. Again, these people continue to blow me away. Anyhow. She's still working on getting that left leg in walking form. Every day she makes a little more progress even though every night she says she's swearing off the PT. She also seems to be a getting some control over her left arm. Yesterday the OT - Michelle who is also amazing - she put mom's left arm in a sling that hangs from the ceiling and told her to pull her arm towards her right arm. And she did. Hello left bicep! Nice to see you!

Last bit of news, she's almost definitely leaving RIC on September 21st. This is pretty normal - most patients at RIC only stay 2 weeks, so the fact that she got 3 weeks is awesome. Where to next? I have no idea yet. We have to choose a skilled nursing facility, which is overwhelming and totally daunting. I've started making headway with the different therapists to try to get their opinions. They've all given me things to ask and look for. That being said, we have no idea which place is "the best" which is obviously what we want. If only The Ritz had a rehab center.