Bread, Bushes and Breakthroughs

One of the hardest parts of this journey, for me anyway, has been the change in Kori's personality.

It's hard to describe the change.  She was just different.   Her voice was not the same,  her articulation was not the same.  Her words were emotionless.  She was not without emotion, but the tone of her voice was very.....  blah (monotone).  And her brain, very obviously, processes information differently because the way she says things or the way she interprets information indicates that.  

Little by little lately, we have noticed her personality returning.  

She is starting to sound like herself again.  Pheeeeew!

The other day, Mom and Kori went to Great Harvest to pick up some bread. 

The best part of buying your bread at Great Harvest is receiving a lovely free sample.  If you are lucky, you get there just as they are taking a warm loaf out of the oven.  There is nothing better.

Well, this particular day, they were sampling one of their newer breads called

Breakfast Blast.

Mom asked if she could take a second sample out to her daughter who was in the car.  

(it must have been her lucky day because the sampler said "yes")

Usually, they say "No.... Ma'am, I regret to inform you,  there is only one sample per purchase"  and then you feel embarrassed like you are some sort of loser-beggar....  I speak from several unpleasant begging experiences, wherein I was denied a second piece of bread for my "friend in the car."..  or "my co-worker back at the office".....  whatever.  And I am only a little bitter.   And it may or may not be the reason why I no longer buy my bread there.   But, I have digressed.  Returning to the story.

So, mom scores a second piece of bread and takes it out to Kori.

And boy, did they enjoy that bread full of crunchy, fruity deliciousness.

As they pulled up to Kori's house, she started recounting again how much she enjoyed that bread.

And then she says "what was the name of it?......  Morning Fiesta?"

And my mom fell out of the car, she was laughing so hard.  

It was such a clever use of word association.  And a classic example of the way her brain works lately.  My dad now calls the bread  "Fiesta Fun"  which is especially funny to those of us who live in St. Geezy.

Another day, Mom was helping Kori out to the car and she was walking behind her as she usually does, just in case she loses her balance or trips or something...

And all of the sudden, without warning, she thought of something that she needed to rearrange in the car, so that Kori could sit in the front seat and she rushed by her to get ahead of her....  And in her haste, she either unknowingly knocked into her, or maybe the wind from the wake of her power walking blew into Kori.  Whatever it was, it sent her tail over teakettle into the bushes.  (Or as Kori describes it "she straight up knocked me into a thorn bush")

Anyway...  Kori didn't make a lot of noise as she was going down.  She sort of moaned and quietly made an attempt to call out for help...  but Mom was on a mission and didn't notice that she was sprawled out on the front lawn until she had made everything right in the car.  

"Oh. My. Gosh. my daughter....  what has happened over there?"  She said and she ran in a panic over to the wreckage.

"I think you knocked me over."  Kori replied

And instead of helping Kori up,  Mom just joined her in the gravel and mulch and cried.  

You know, there are two sides to every story.  And mom's version was a great deal different than Kori's and when you hear them both, it leaves you wondering if there weren't two entirely different incidents happening on two different days.  Mom's version:  sad and emotional and riddled with guilt and apologies.    Kori's version:  funny, with a bit of resentment and full of all kinds of accusations.   

Hmmmm....  one would have had to have been there to know the most accurate account,  I'll assume.

This care taker business is overwhelming both physically and emotionally.  

"yeah??"...  says Kori "you can say that again."

 Kori is experiencing a neurological breakthrough ( Dr. Tudor said so and he's "in charge"!!!)  She is having tingling sensations in both her leg and her arm.  This is very exciting and is sparking a lot of hope.  So, physical therapy and workouts are taking on a whole new meaning.   Like,  what can we do today to get some more tingling to happen?

This is Luke, one of Kori's Physical Therapists.  He and Kori ran together as part of team in a Ragnar Race a couple of years ago... so they go back a long way.  He is so kind to her (all of her therapists are, even Richard) and always compliments her on her hair.  He also told her the hair on her legs isn't prickly (Russ isn't a very consistent shaver).  Now there's a REAL compliment.  Luke's ward meets in Mom and Dad's building on Sundays, so he can't get away from us, even on the weekends.

This is doctor Tudor.  He is growing out his hair and let mom take a picture of it.  He is so optimistic for the future and has scheduled an MRI for four weeks.

Kori's birthday is Wednesday.  We are going to have a couple of celebrations over the next week.  The next post will have lots of photos of all of the "Morning Fiesta Fun"

A New Year

There is something strange about writing a blog about someone's journey through an illness.   It's backwards...

You write a ton when there is a lot going on.  And there is a lot going on when things are not happy.

There for a while,  I could write every single day and most of it was unpleasant to write about.

Nowadays, there isn't a lot to write about because things have mellowed out.

And things are happy (relatively speaking).

Kori had a seizure, her first and hopefully her last on November 29th

It was a Sunday Night and Russ was taking a nap and Grant found her and he did all the right things and they got her to the hospital really quick.

Of course, they ran every test including an MRI which provided us with very good news...

The "lesion" is much smaller

The edema is reduced

The swelling is reduced/gone.

Additionally, they could find "no reason" for the seizure.... 

Other than the fact that she technically had a severe brain injury and so why would her brain not go a little spazzy from time to time.  I suppose it's entitled to.

The truth is the doctors are actually shocked that she hasn't had a seizure before now. 

~Christmas~

Russ and Kori were invited to the Cardiac Rehab Christmas Party. 

And it turned out that the party wasn't so much a Christmas Party as it was a Kori Party.

Former patients were there, cardiac surgeons came as well as other hospital workers.  

It was a wonderful event.

They had wanted to have a Fun Run in her honor but as the planning started to happen, there were too many "hoops" to jump through and so instead they just collected large amounts of money in the forms of more than generous donations.  

We don't really know what the final amount was....  it's not for us to know.

What we do know is the amount of love and support shown to them is unbelievable.

Kori and Russ' ward still bring a meal to their family every night Monday through Friday.

This blows my mind.

I volunteered to bring a meal to a family in our ward a month ago and let me tell you...  It was a feat and very nearly killed me.

It's hard enough for me to feed my own family (mostly because I am domestically impaired and so making a simple meal overwhelms me) and I think of the families that do this for them day after day.  And I think of the amazing sister/sisters that are coordinating all of these meals and I could cry.  

I think of the expense....  I think of the time it takes to not only shop for food but to prepare it and the hardest part (in my opinion)...  putting it in bowls and pans and transporting it over to their house. 

There have been NUMEROUS acts of kindness and service given to the Hyde Family but one I really must mention.  A lady in their ward, Ruth, comes EVERY WEEK and cleans their THREE bathrooms!!! Talk about an act of service.  One of those bathrooms belongs to the Hyde Boys...just think about it...or maybe, don't. 

We are beyond grateful.

Our family celebrated Christmas as we always have.

Kori and Russ spent Christmas Eve with Russ' family for dinner and then joined our family for dessert.  We each pick a name and give an exchange gift.

This year Kami chose Kori's name and she gave her an "easy to put on" sweatshirt.

It is more difficult than one would imagine to put clothes on Kori's unruly left arm, so I'm told.

 The holidays really boosted her spirits.

Maybe because she was able to get out and socialize. 

Another event was our annual New Year's Day Luncheon.

We go to Sakura (which is Japanese Hibachi)

It could have been stimulus overload very easily, but she did really well.

She even tried to catch the tossed shrimp.

Okay...  so I am going to hear from my mom and Kami about posting these pictures.

But, I tried to edit them 3 times on my Mac and I experienced 3 episodes of failure making me question my intelligence, so I gave up and chose to move on.

Kami and Brent turn 40 one week apart.  

Savanna threw a "surprise" birthday party for them at the Pizza Pie Cafe.

Here are some of my observations of the event.

1.  I thoroughly enjoyed sitting by Kori.  She was so funny and cracked me up several times.  Some of the time she meant to....  but a couple of the times, she wasn't trying to be funny, but she just was.  I love that her personality is back.   And that she has a sense of humor. 

2.  She told me that her taste buds have changed.  She doesn't like sweets anymore and for sure NOT chocolate.  It burns her throat.  She likes chips and salty foods, especially nuts.  And "strawberry sprites with lime" make her mouth water every time she thinks of them.  She sends Garrett to Arctic Circle every day.  Kori and Soda...  never thought it would happen.

3.  We (Kori and I) didn't know 90% of the party guests.  Which made us feel weird... like we were outsiders.  We're NOT!!!

4.  Kori looks really cute in this picture.

 This is Ryker (Kori's nephew and my son).  He is 4.  He came up to Kori and said

"you're cute, I'll sit by you."

It was so funny.

I bet she was so glad too..  he spilled his drink 3 times,  he probably kicked her 100 times,  he bumped into her chair and NON STOP talked about random nonsense for over an hour.

Sorry, Kori.  Try not to be so cute next time and he'll sit somewhere else.

And finally,  Kori got a little trim to the new do today.

Cicely cuts her hair and I personally love it.  

Especially when it is spiked.

Her hair is so dark, almost black and I'm jealous of how very little grey she has.

It seems to be growing in nicely and she should have no problem growing it out fast when the time comes.  The right side of her head isn't growing in as quickly.  

Her scar is healing up very nicely.  It looks really good.

Kori is on a "maintenance" chemo program...5 days on, 23 off.  We like the "off" days best but the "on" days seem to be getting better each month.  She just finished her 5 days "on" and she pretty much sailed through them.  Sunday was a little rough and on Monday she was wiped out but she never complains and is a very good patient.  She returned to rehab today (Tuesday) and worked as hard as ever.  

Thank you to everyone who continues to read our blog and support our family with overwhelming acts of kindness, service and generosity. 

And Love.

P.S.  Kori really enjoys reading the comments (we do too).  Please leave a little comment and let her know you were here.  We appreciate your support.