TheRuths.net

Sandy and I have opened the possibility to Linda to come to Thorndale with us for an indefinite period of time. Most of the downstairs is relatively handicap accessible with a few modifications necessary. We have two bedrooms, a family room, laundry room, sun room/kitchenette and a handicap bathroom all on the ground floor.
Linda was very optimistic today and realistic about the future. She understands that going back to her house on Bunker Hill Rd. may not be practical. Again time will tell. She used a hand wheelchair today and did well. She is hoping the insurance will pay for an electric wheel chair and buy a hand chair herself if necessary. She feels she wont be able to use a non-electric for any length of time. Her short term memory is still not very good. She can remember who visits but not what she ate at her last meal. She knows her financial status and has a good memory for numbers. During rounds today she was seen by four doctors and made the comment that “where else can you eat breakfast, sit on the pot and have a house call from four doctors all at the same time.” The hearing doctor will see her tomorrow, and the eye doctor by the end of the week. She is anxious to hear from them both.

Sandy spoke with Linda this morning and she was in good spirits. Rick and Robin had just come in for a visit. Yesterday she was in a chair for 5-6 hours but she had a lot of company and she didn’t tire too fast. Among the visiters were Gail and Jennifer from the Chicopee area, Sherri and Kathy and of course Stacy and Ruth. Ruth is scheduled to fly home on Tuesday and as of yet has not scheduled a flight to go back to Boston. I am sure Muffin is missing her “mother”. Linda opened both eyes today and did not have double vision. Of the many things that concern Linda one of the biggest is her vision. Just a reminder, since Linda is unlikely to see this website emails should be sent to her via the link at the top of the Riley page. Any emails that show up here will be forwarded to her but it is faster if you use the link that takes you to the form to fill out. That allows the emails to be delivered directly to Linda.

Hi Linda
I wanted to let you know I was thinking of you A LOT! Thankfully someone told me about The Ruths web site and I have been reading it almost daily.
I actually have wanted to email you but I just couldn’t find any words, didn’t know what to say. But today I said, “self you need to let Linda know your thinking of her and that she missed her hair appointment! Only kidding.
It sounds like your working really hard and improving daily. I hope you were able to eat some of that great food everyone was bringing today. I cooked a 24 lb turkey for 8 people, looks like I’m going to be eating turkey for a week. I’ve been cooking for years and today was the first time we weren’t waiting for the popper to pop.
Keep you spirits high and know my thoughts are with you!
Love
Kim

(I hope you get this and I did this right)

Thanksgiving finds Linda in good spirits (maybe because she doesn’t have to cook). She is doing more and more for herself including washing. She was watching one of the Thanksgiving Day parades. Her right eye is open for now and she can see fairly clearly. She can see the TV but still has trouble reading. Perhaps books on tape would be a good idea for the time being. Shane brought in her prescription glasses and that has made a difference. She is going to reinstate her cell phone contract which was cancelled after the accident until such time as she would want to renew it. So you may end up getting a phone call someday from Linda. Stacy is bringing food from work and Ruth and Shane are stopping at Boston Market and taking that in to have with Linda as Thanksgiving dinner. The nurses were getting her up around 10:00AM and she is hoping that she wont be too tired later when her family comes in for dinner. She loves the cards and letters and email because they brighten her day. The therapists are saying she is making terrific progress and by the time she leaves Spaulding she will be able to do everything but transfer herself from chair to bed and back.

Tiny steps will get you there just as surely as big ones. It may take some time but you will get there. In that light, Linda has managed to open her right eye with the help of some strategically placed adhesive tape. She said that her vision is quite clear our of her right eye which is the better of the two under normal circumstances. Linda is really enjoying the cards, letters and emails that she is recieving. Ruth will be in Boston until next Tuesday and then she will be returning to Hellertown to Muffin who is missing her very much. Seems Muffin is spending a lot of time alone lately. Conversly, Jingles is loving the attention she is getting with Ruth being at the house.
I was working outside today and suddenly I heard a voice inside my head telling me to paaak the caaa in Baaston yaaadd. I truly will miss Steve. I am glad we had a chance to visit in September. Sandy and I have some really neat memories. Sorry, I can’t see what I’m writing anymore. Check in again soon.

Ok most of you are going to read this and say “that’s it?” There are times when there is not a lot to say. Ruth flew up from Philly today (go Eagles!) and was picked up by Barb and Tony who visited before driving back to Chicopee. Linda was glad to see her mom again, after all it has been about 9 days. Linda’s cousin Robert from Rhode Island stopped in for a visit today. There have been some highs and lows with visits. This weekend Linda did not get many visitors except for Stacy and Shane and this got her down a little. We tried to explain that this is going to happen but when she can’t see to read or watch television the quiet times can be a little too quiet. She is kept busy during the week but they do very little rehab on the weekends. A rehab specialist is making a visit to the house in Ipswich tomorrow to determine what would have to be done to make the house suitable for Linda to live in once she can leave Spaulding. We suspect the changes are going to have to be extensive and perhaps prohibitive, but time will tell.

Hey everyone, thanks to Eric I can now add daily updates to The Riley site.

Another good day for mom…. she had a chat with her doctor today about how far she has come in the past week and a half and the possibility of her going home to attend the memorial service for my father (which we have no exact plans and dates for yet). She had no visitors during the day but enjoyed the time to herself to take a nice nap and rest up between her therapies. She washed her hair by herself today and is really looking forward to seeing her mom tomorrow. She is so excited for her to see how incredibley far she has come in such a short amount of time!
My mother, brother and I are working on arrangements for my fathers service so as soon as we have definites we will be sure to let you know.
We would also like to say thank you to everyone of you for your love and support throughout these difficult times. We especially thank Aunt Sandy, Uncle Ron, Grams and Aunt Pat for doing so much!
Keep the email and mail coming because it sure does bring a smile to my moms face at the end of a long, hard day.

Many of you are asking for addresses and numbers and we thought this would be a good way to get that information to you.

Linda’s phone number is 617-573-7486. Just remember that she may not always be there or able to reach her phone (sometimes the nurses move the phone out of her reach).

Her address is:
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Room 727
125 Nashua Street
Boston, MA. 02114

Todays update finds us with Linda getting an electric wheelchair. Now it is not likely that she is going to be doing laps around the hallways or wheelies in front of the nurses station real soon because of her eyesight, but it does sit there beckoning to be driven. She still has a way to go before that happens. Today she was able to roll over on her own once the nurse moved her leg into a certain position. This may not sound like much but it does make her less dependent on the nurse when she feels she needs to move around in the bed something she has not able to do in the last month and 1/2. They are taping areas of her face in order to make other parts of her face work harder. For instance they tape the eyebrow of her closed eye so that when she flexes the eyebrow it will open. She remains positive about her progress and her future rehab.

They made the mistake of giving Linda a sleeping pill last night and that is exactly what she did, until about 2pm this afternoon. They did what they had to do and she just kept on going back to sleep. She had real food today and enjoyed it thoroughly even tho it was pretty well ground up so she could swallow it without choking. She is getting her sense of smell back. Her spirits continue to be high even though one of the nurses put her eardrops in her eye. This could have had bad consequences had they not irrigated it right away. Stacy’s friend Elmy, who is a nurse, found a small pressure sore on Linda’s foot and brought that to the attention of the nurse. They put pressure sore boots on her and it cleared up nicely. There are 7 patients/nurse so it is not like Canada where Linda was a one-on-one most of the time she was there. Shane and Stacy continue to alternate visits. It is possible to email Linda through the hospital website which can be accessed by the link on this website. Unfortunately she can not respond at this time.