Saturday (day 43)

Good evening all. We ramain very thankfull for the blessings we have received. Shawna continues to progress well. She has more short waking times and more frequently during the day. When we arrived here this morning she was awake and waiting for us. She was turned onto her left side and both her eyes were open equally. When we talked to her she was squeezing our hands and managing quite a few smiles. I tried something new. When I was doing her range of motion exercises on her right arm I asked her to work against me to build up muscle tone. She understood because almost instantly I felt her resistance. This continued for a while till her arm was shaking a bit with effort. It must have been a struggle for her because she slept soundly after that. Its great that she can remain awake for quite long( at least when I'm there). We talked to the neurologist assistant who answered a few of our questions. We always thought Shawna was in a coma but with her responses to commands we were told she is no longer in a coma but in a period of "enlightening". Her brain is beginning to work the connections to make things work. What beautiful progress....a gift from God.
On another note the hospital has been in contact with Dunnville hospital in regards to transferring her there. Everything must be in place to assure her delicate treatment and untill everything is in place she will not be moving. There are other aspects including a neurological assesment to determine entrance into a rehab facility but there is a one month waiting list to get in. It would be better for her to wait here if she can get into Chedoke in a month. We will find out more about the poetntial move on Monday when we have a joint meeting of her doctors, ourselves and other hospital staff. We have been visited by several of the doctors who were involved in her initial treatment in ICU who marvel at her recovery and are now guardedly optimistic for her recovery. We continue to be thankful to God for her progress and know it is by His will that she continues to heal. All praise and thanks be to Him. We stayed in Hamilton last night and with the ongoing storm may stay here tonight as well. This works well for me since for some reason Shawna continues to respond better to my voice, and I've had a whole day to be here while she was awake. We had only one visitor today due to the storm and that was a friend who was on duty here at the hospital. When we spoke earlier about visiting hours we asked that you not visit from 3 to 5. That no longer applies as that seems to be Shawnas most awake time, although that varies day to day. If she's sleeping don't be surprised and just let her. If she's awake by all means continue to talk to her. Visiting is from 1100am to 800 pm. God bless you all and have a blessed sunday! Al and Deb