Happy New Year!

Well, I have been here in Amarillo with mom last night and today and Dad has got a little bit of a break from "rehab cheerleader" and turned into "Super Opa". Apparently Opa, Kinsley,Brylie & Landry all had a camp out in the basement last night....I am certain they will all have a few stories from the adventure.....since this is Opa's maiden voyage with all the kids without Gigi there to supervise! (as I am reading this aloud, Mom just made an Eeeeeeeek face!) Needless to say, I am sure he will be more than happy to resume his duties as faithful husband/cheerleader!!!!!!

Mom is still continuing to improve daily. She had a rigorous schedule with Physical Therapy TWICE today, Occupational Therapy TWICE and forty-five whole minutes of Speech Therapy. What started two weeks ago as a few steps has turned into walking the distance of two and a half football fields and much more intense activities. All the activities are trying to retrain her to do things that we take for granted, and do so naturally. Needless to say, she is pooped! Dad met with the case manager again yesterday and she was able to show him where Mom's team can identify definite gains, which is encouraging. It is also extra sunshine in our day when people who have not seen her for a few days come by and can't believe her progress. I think it is sort of like watching a baby grow.....when you are with them everyday you don't notice as much as if you are away for a few days.

Mom and I were talking today that God still has His Hand in this, and even now we can already see blessings. One of the biggest blessings is that we have all got to experience the power of prayer first hand! I just can't imagine going through something like this and having to watch someone you love so dearly have to endure this, if we didn't believe there is a Master Physician who is in complete control with a Plan.....God! Another blessing that we recognize is the glad reunions! We have been reconnected with dear friends from all of our lives. Some are people that Mom and Dad knew growing up, some are friends from when they were newly weds, others are special people that have been friends for many years that we just don't get to keep in touch with because life gets in the way. All of you have been a blessing to us, whether you know it or not.

While visiting with some of you, you have asked, so how many Corn kids are there, or how is Mrs. Corn the good 'ol Bovina High School Teacher, or Mom's favorite, tell us more about your grandkids:>)? So if you are interested, here is the short rundown of the our family. If not, check back tomorrow, as I am sure we will have more exciting news about Mom's ongoing miraculous progress sometime real soon! Thank you again for your continued words of encouragement, prayers and visits. Please keep them coming/ multiplying!

Love and Happy New Year to all! Christi

Mom & Dad celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in August, and as you can see, a lot has changed since then!

This is the entire Corn family last year on New Year's Day!

This is Clay the oldest and Charla the third in our line-up. Clay lives in Austin and is a professional musician. He plays keyboards and is on tour with Pat Green. Charla is also a professional musician, and is currently pursuing a solo career. Although she owns a home in Nashville, we have been lucky to have her touring all over Texas these past few months. You can see more about our diva at www.charlamusic.com :>)!

This is me, Christi, the second oldest of the Corn crew. My husband Bobby and I live in Midland with our two kids Brylie and Landry. I am a 4th grade writing teacher.



This is Clint the youngest. He and his wife Stacy live in Highland Park with their two kids Kinsley and Anders. Clint is an investment banker.

This one is for all of you Bovina Mustangs and Fillies! Some of you have asked about Anne Corn or Oma to us.....your infamous high school Math/German teacher. She is alive and well! She recently relocated from Bovina to Canyon where she is happy and active doing all the things a good Oma does! Sadly, Charles Corn (in 1997) , as well as Louise (in 1988) and Wendol Christian (in 1997) have already gone to heaven. We believe they are some very special angels who are working overtime to see over our current situation!

Now a word from special Ed.

I've been silent up to up to this point.  My kid's have done an excellent job writing the blog.  I'm not near as articulate and clever as my children.  Therefore, I stay in the background.  I will try not to embarrass my offspring with dumb statements and improper grammar.

First, I appreciate all the expressions of concern everyone has shown.  Friends and family have rallied around us and Gwen and I feel it every day.  I'm sure we will never be able to thank everyone but we both notice all the the calls, cards, and responses on the blog.

 

Gwen is making great progress in rehab, but there are mountains yet to climb.  There are issues with her speech, her balance, and her vision.  Most of the time it's the same ol' Gwen. but there are those times when there are tiny things missing.  We're confident that she will recover for the most part, the question is how long.  Last week we were told, six  more weeks here in BSA Rehab.  I can sense some frustration from her that she doesn't let the kids see.  Most of the time Gwen is upbeat and a trooper, and Lord knows she has a lot to motivate her.

We've been blessed with four great kids who know Gigi is the soul of the family.  The kids. their spouses, and the grandkids have been a blessing through all this.  Their encouragement has given her every reason to try a little harder and focus on improving.

Most of all, thanks, she's doing better, but this deal isn't over by a long shot.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  

Big Ed, Special Ed, Eddy, Opa

Merry Christmas!!

Well this isn't exactly the Christmas we expected or wanted but it's the Christmas we got and we are thankful beyond words that we are spending it with Mom. Today means Mom has spent one more Christmas on this Earth than her mother got to, a significant milestone for her, one she mentioned to us last year.

To update you on her condition, she's improving every day. Her left eye is opening a lot more now. Her speech is still really labored but she's stringing her sentences together with more congruity. Overall I think she's doing great.

Tuesday Clint and I walked off the elevator to the most gawd-awful screeching and hollering. You'd think they were stringing somebody up by their toenails...and it was getting louder. It, whatever it was, was headed down the hall in our direction. A second later we saw that it was Mom and they had her on lap two of her new four-lap speed-walkathon around the unit. And the screetching was laughter. You'd think by the noises she was making that she was riding Shockwave for the first time. She had the entire staff in raptures as she most gracelessly glided, supported on either side by chuckling physical therapists, around the floor. At the top of her lungs....

So we saw her progress report. That made us laugh too. Every single benchmark was asterisked with the remark that we, the family, were overcompensating for her deficiencies:

FEEDING: FAMILY OVERCOMPENSATES FOR DEFICIENCY

GROOMING: FAMILY OVERCOMPENSATES FOR DEFICIENCY

VERBAL: FAMILY OVERCOMPENSATES FOR DEFICIENCY

VISION: FAMILY OVERCOMPENSATES FOR DEFICIENCY

Hmmmmm.... I wonder who raised us?

Aunt Heidi and I met with Mom's case manager, a sweetheart named Mary. She's the one who showed us the report and explained that it is compiled during a meeting of everyone involved in Mom's care every Tuesday. The chart basically showed a level of functionality that the average stroke patient who presented with her symptoms achieves within the first few months of recovery along with Mom's functionality represented by a line well below the former. She's excelling at some things and lagging at others as is to be expected. She went on to explain that Mom would be discharged only after she fails to exhibit significant improvement over the course of a couple of weeks. Right now it looks like she's going to be in here for at least another four to six weeks barring a drastic move one way or the other.

Aunt Heidi seems most concerned about Mom's somewhat debilitating lethargy. It kind of confused Dr. Milligan when Mom came in. Lethargy like hers is often associated with a brain stem stroke but the rest of her symptoms pointed to the final diagnosis of the midbrain event. Everybody thought that the stroke could have been caused by an irregular heartbeat but it's looking more and more like the irregular heartbeat was a result of the stroke. Truth is we'll probably never know what caused it, that is to say we'll never know where the blood-clot that caused it came from, but if we can trace what activities Mom was engaged in leading up to this we can help prevent it from happening again.

Aunt Heidi's of the opinion that Mom might suffer from 'Sleep Apnea' which occurs when one stops breathing for extended periods of time during deep sleep due to obstruction of the airway by the throat. I understand that this can affect the oxygenation of the blood and lead to daytime fatigue and there are currently studies being done to prove significant links between sleep apnea and stroke.

As far as I know they haven't explored any viral possibilities. I only bring this up because Christi is just now getting over a bout with mononucleosis and we do live in West-Nile country.

I now believe that her lethargy might have been what brought this on. If she stayed in bed for extended periods of time before this a blood clot could have formed somewhere other than the heart. It could have formed in her leg and traveled north, but none of this is important now as they'll most likely have her on some form of blood-thinning medication from now on which should prevent another stroke in the longterm. Why we need to figure this out is for recovery. She needs her energy and lots of it so her synapses fire and they fire a lot. As I said in an earlier post, the brain doesn't 'heal', it just figures out new ways to get the info from point A to point B. The more she works at it, the more opportunities the brain has to figure out the work-arounds.

So here we're spending Christmas in a hospital in Amarillo and we are thankful for it. The grandkids'll be here this afternoon and I heard tell that Santa might be making a special visit after his little globe trot. Wish we were home and wish Mom was healthy but that's not the way God saw it happening for us this year, guess it beats the snot out of the alternative given the circumstances.

From our family to yours, thank you for all your prayers and support. We hope that as you read this you and your family are happy and healthy and please have a very merry Christmas.

-Clay (and the Corn Family)

Ho Ho Holy Crap That's Funny!

So it has been a couple of days since we have posted anything, and for all you faithful prayer warriors we decided that it was time for a little comic relief.   As you can see from the previous picture post, mom got much needed recuperation from rehab and got some serious grandkid therapy this weekend.  Mom has always had such an infectious laugh, but in the past week and a half we have seen a wise-crackin', smile smackin', cheesy grinnin' Gigi emerge.  After years of intense training from Big Ed, she has finally stolen his spotlight.  It is nice to know that when we see what obviously isn't working quite up to par physically yet, clearly Mom still has her Mama Gwen spunk!  So as David Letterman might put it, here is our TOP FIVE WISE CRACKS of the week.........directly from the horse's mouth. 

5.  Referring to the Texas Longhorn nurse, DJ, who's nurses station has a bright orange Texas Flag hanging up which is right in Mom's walking route.  Every time she passes by, she puts her guns up and says "Shuuweee, something stinky over here."

4.  "Do you want these Cherrios, Mom?" "No...... give Daddy...... paid $142 for this!"

3.  Editor's note:  Mom and Dad were high school sweethearts, and this past August they were married for 40 years.  When a new nurse was trying to talk to mom to figure out what her situation was, she asked, "Now Mrs. Corn, how long have you taught Special Ed (since that is what she was doing when this ordeal started) ?"  Without missing a beat she pointed at Dad, and said, "Forty-five years!"

2.  "Well, what do you want first.....chopped ham and gravy OR plain grits?"  Mom said, "NEITHER!"

1.  And the number one wise crack of the week is....  Dad walked into her room and proclaimed, "Whooo!  Mama, there's a strong wind advisory in effect for today!"  Without missing  a beat, Mom cracked, "Maybe for YOU!...HUH HUH HUH HUH HUH!!!!"

Christi and Charla

"A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down!"

Miss March

Mom and I just finished putting together a puzzle of the 50 states. It was for ages 7 and up, but these small victories keep us going!

Today it was just me and Dad on duty. Charla for nurturing. Ed for motivating.

The first therapy session was what some might refer to as a championship moment! Mom did an entire lap around the 6th floor ON HER FEET! She only had to stop and rest once. Just think, only 2 days ago she could barely stand! She didn't stop there...she went on to motor herself in the wheel chair for an additional lap. I think the fact that Dad was sitting at the finish line really pushed her to finish strong.

The nurse then parked her beside us in the commons area where Dad commenced to say, "If you keep up this exercise regimen and controlled diet of yours, you are going to be so in shape that they will make you Miss March in the Mastectomy/Stroke Victim Calendar!"

Big Ed, leave it to him to always keep a smile on her face when all any of us want to do is cry. Well, Mom did end up crying, but they were tears of laughter. She's kept her sense of humor as well. Just last night, she mangled her hair and cocked her glasses. She was imitating Clint playing Will Ferrell playing Harry Caray, something he came up with when he found and an old pair of Gramps' glasses and Mom's stash of wigs during her cancer treatment.

Her hospital room walls are decked with holly. She has her 3 ft nutcracker that scares the bejesus out of the grandkids and a small Christmas tree on loan from Anna, Heidi's daughter. I'm just waiting for Dad to pull out the mistletoe...he steals a kiss and holds her hand whenever he has the chance. Ugh, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth! No, Mom lights up like the Chevy Chase's house on Christmas Vacation every time he's in the room.

She finishes her last therapy session at 4pm, then dinner around 5 and finally...she can rest. Which btw is the best time to visit. During the day she tries to conserve as much energy as she can for therapy, that come dinner time, she is in high spirits knowing that no nurse is around the corner ready to torture her.

DJ, one of her Physical Therapists is a Texas Longhorn. So when DJ helps Mom up and down, then down and back, she always holds her guns up in his face when she does a great job. Raider Power! Pretty soon she's going to be marching circles around the 6th floor like the Tech drum major at the opening ceremonies of every game.

Keep those prayers comin'.........they're workin'.

Much Love,
Charla

We made it ONE WEEK!

What a difference a week can make! Mom passed the one-week mark at 3:00 this afternoon and we celebrated by watching her choke on her strawberry smoothie. Thanks, Clay...I'll never leave her with you alone again.

With Mom in full swing with rehab and the grandkids on their way to lift her spirits....it's been a great day!

I have decided to go ahead and perform this Saturday night at Aunt Tammy's store, The Java Loft. Clay, however, will be in Fort Worth with Pat Green performing at Billy Bob's.

I would love to hug everyone's neck who has not had a chance to make it up to Amarillo to visit Mom and I will be glad to take anthing you would like to send her way with me.

Also, I will be passing around a basket with blank note cards where you can write Mom a direct note if you would like. Clay, Christi, Clint and I will personally read every single note to Mom.....I know she will love that! If you're not camera-shy I'll have my video camera out and you can tell her yourself.

Also, the facilities here at BSA are absolutely incredible. The nurses and doctors are top notch and have made all of us feel at home. We all hate to spend Christmas in a hospital, but since we have to, we couldn't have ask for a sweeter set up. So, speaking on that note, Saturday night I will be collecting fruit and baked goods for the nursing staff. To give Momma Gwen some love....give the staff some love.

I can't wait to see everyone Saturday night!

Love,
Charla

The Java Loft is in Clovis, located on the NE corner of Prince and 21st St. in The Master's Center. 7pm Mountain Time is the start time, but come as you please as we will all join in on Christmas Carols.

One Quick Note

Please, please, please feel free to send whatever you like to Mom. Cards, flowers, whatever. But part of why we set this blog up was to give everybody an opportunity to send her well-wishes without having to go to the inconvenience of physically sending something this way. Feel free to post comments here after any post. We read them to her every night. Your encouragement at this time is an invaluable source of strength for her.

Thanks again for all your love and support.

-The Kids

Settling In

She's in a good mood this morning. Little sluggish but she's coming around. Yesterday was a big day. I was gonna write about it last night but it wore me out just watching the paces that they're putting her through.

We're seeing them establish a routine for her. Breakfast shows up around 7:30. Charla's been staying in he room with Mom and has been fantastic about motivating her to do the things she can do on her own. The last two days Charla's coached Mom through feeding herself breakfast. She just runs out of gas later in the day and can't get the strength up yet to feed herself lunch or especially dinner, but right after waking up she has enough go-juice to get breakfast from plate to mouth.

Yesterday she brushed her own teeth, dressed herself with a little help and even tied her own shoes.

They come get her officially out of bed at around 10 am. They make the be behind her just so she won't be so inclined to want to climb right back in. She gets speech therapy for about an hour. They've instructed us on exercises we can do with her on our own time like getting her to make clicking sounds like a squirrel and walk through her vowel sounds.

Speech therapy goes for about an hour then they move her to occupational therapy

OT is designed to reteach her the things you and I take for granted like opening doors, tying shoes (check) an getting dressed (sort-of check). Practice, practice, practice.

By now it's time for lunch and a much-needed nap.

At around 2 they come get her for 2 hours of physical therapy. The gym. I'll tell you what, if they keep at it we're not going to be able to keep her out of Curves when she gets home. Today she walked all the down the hall and back!! There is light at the end of this tunnel after all...and it's a MOON!!

So the way I understand it the brain doesn't 'heal' itself in the traditional sense. Once brain cells are lost they don't come back. What happens is the brain figures out ways to reroute the signals to their appropriate destinations, that's why rehab is sooo important. The more she works at it the more the more opportunities the brain has to try new routes. It's kind of like Lily Tomlin's Ernestine sitting at her switchboard patching calls through but her switchboard's about half fried. She'll eventually be able to get most of the calls through, it'll just take her a while to figure out how.

Christi called while ago telling us Landry, her four-year-old, got up in front of his preschool class and proclaimed he had an announcement to make..."My GG had a 'spell'. Her eye doesn't work and she talks funny so when she comes to pick me up YA'LL BETTER NOT MAKE FUN OF HER!!!" He points his fingers at his eyes and then turns them slowly toward the class..."I'm watching you..."

-Clay

The Nurse's View

Hi everyone. This is Heidi, Ed's sister and I am a nurse. Ed and Gwen's kids asked that I add my few cents here, and I am happy to do so. First, a few disclaimers. I practiced as a pediatric nurse when I practiced years ago. Now, my specialty is signing purchase orders and dealing with educational "adminis-trivia", so I do not hold myself out as an expert on strokes, or any other "adult" malady. However, I have had the chance to review Gwen's medical records with her permission and have a bit of a sense of the medical issues. Clint and Clay have done a great job of accurately reporting her condition, and I share their joy at seeing her progress since the early phase of her stroke. So, now for the physiology lesson:

We may never know what caused Gwen's stroke. The most likely "cause" may be an irregular heartbeat. I'll explain why in a bit. But first, you might be wondering what a stroke is. We use that term a lot, but in my experience I find that most people really don't know what that means.

Stroke
The term "stroke" just refers to a a sudden impairment of brain function. This can be caused by:

• a blood clot (we call that an "embolus")
• some other substance, like plaque from a diseased artery (we call that a "thrombus")

This is called an "ischemic stroke" and is caused by a blockage in a blood vessel. Ischemia means "restriction in the blood supply". An embolus or a thrombus can travel along in larger blood vessels, but eventually can get caught in the very small blood vessels and cause the blood flow to that area to stop (just like a dam in a river). When this happens, the oxygen rich blood cannot move on into the surrounding tissues and the cells that are fed by that blood vessel are then damaged. This appears to be the type of stroke that Gwen suffered. More on that later.

Another type of stroke is called a "hemmorhagic" stroke. This is when a blood vessel ruptures, like with an aneurism, and causes bleeding in the brain. That causes the brain tissue to be pressed against the skull, and that pressure causes the blood flow to that area of the brain to be decreased and the cells to be damaged. This does NOT appear the be the type of stroke that Gwen experienced. We know this because there was no sign of hemorrhage on any of the MRI scans that were performed.

So, Gwen has probably had an Ischemic Stroke that my have been caused by an embolus (blood clot) or by a thrombus (some other material like a plaque). All of her artery and vein studies in the neck (carotid arteries and jugular veins) have been evaluated and are clear, meaning there was no plaque inside those blood vessels, which would appear to mean that it was most likely NOT a thrombus, or plaque, that caused the stroke. We are left, then, with the most probable cause being a blood clot, or embolus.

So, what does her heart beat have to do with this?

You may remember from your biology classes that the heart has four chambers. There are 2 atria and 2 ventricles. The atria are on the top part of the heart and are smaller than the ventricles. The atria act like the "waiting room" for the blood before it goes into the ventricles, which are the work horses or "pumps" that squeeze the blood out into the lungs and the rest of the body. The right side of the heart, meaning the right atrium and the right ventricle, collect the unoxygenated blood from the body and push it into the lungs to get oxygen. After the blood gets oxygen in the lungs, the blood goes through the left atrium, then goes to the left ventricle to be pushed out into the body with every heart beat.

The atria and the ventricles are separated by heart valves. Think about the old irrigation ditches and how we would move water forward in the ditch by using "gates" and dams. Or think about moving cattle through the working chutes to the squeeze chute. You have to have some way to stop the water, or the cows, from moving backwards....everything has to move forward. It is the same way with blood in the heart. When the blood is squeezed forcefully out of the ventricle to move forward in the system, something has to stop the blood from going backwards into the atrium. That is the purpose of the heart valves. The heart valves act like dams or gates to prevent the blood from moving backwards in the circulatory system.

A heart murmur is heard when the valves do not close sufficiently to keep the blood from moving backwards when the ventricle pumps the blood to the next "station". Since the valve does not close completely, the blood is kind of turbulent at the valve and it creates a swooshing sound. Think of a river flowing...it makes noise because of the turbulence that is created when it goes around stones, branches, etc.

When Gwen came in, her neurologist said that he heard a heart "murmur". However, her heart studies did not show any problems with her valves, so that is good news. Perhaps it was a temporary problem related to the stroke? Who knows. Then, she began to have an irregular heart rhythm. One possible reason for this could be atrial fibrillation. By its name you can tell that this condition happens in the atria (plural for atrium...the top chambers of the heart, or "waiting rooms" for the blood). Fibrillation means that they are vibrating or "jiggling like a bag of worms". Different things can cause this situation, and I do not know what caused Gwen's irregular heartbeat. However, when this happens, the atria are "jiggling" instead of "pumping". The atria normally do not pump as forcefully as the ventricles do, but they do have a little pump to them to help get the blood down into the ventricles. When blood is not moving, it coagulates, or clots. So, if the blood is kind of stagnant in the atria and not moving forward, it can clot and become an embolus that can then travel through the system until it gets lodged in a tiny blood vessel in the brain and cause a stroke. This is the most likely cause of Gwen's stroke, though, frankly, it is hard to say if the stroke was caused by a clot formed by an irregular heart rate or if the irregular heart rate was caused by the stroke which happened for some other reason. That will probably remain a mystery. As Clay mentioned in an earlier posting, Gwen's heart rate converted on it's own to a regular beat a few days ago, and to my knowledge, continues to be regular.

Now, as for the location of the stroke. The neurologist indicated in one of his notes that he thought the stroke occurred in the left midbrain. The midbrain is the smallest region of the brain and it acts as a relay station for sound a visual information. In the brain, injuries to the left side of the brain show themselves on the right side of the body, and vice versa. The doctor referred early on to a "lacunar stroke". A lacunar stroke is the name given to a stroke that involves very small blood vessels at the end of larger vessels. The location of the stroke deep in the midbrain, and in very small vessels, may explain why all of her brain studies have come back essentially normal.

Now, as for treatment...

Gwen has already received the treatment one would expect. The most important element of her treatment is to prevent further strokes. This is being done by giving her medications that thin the blood to decrease the chance of further clotting.

Now, the focus is on rehabilitation, physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. These activities will be on-going and will be focused on getting her as independent as possible. We can all expect a hit of a roller coaster in terms of her abilities, but their should be fairly general, overall improvement as time goes on. There may be day-to-day ups and downs, and often these will be determined by her fatigue level. She is working VERY HARD....every physical movement, spoken word and attention to conversation is taking a lot of her energy. Things that were automatic for her before the stroke are now things that may have to be concentrated on, and that takes energy. She needs her rest as much as she needs her therapy. It is fine to encourage her, but do not over tax her. Take the lead from the therapists on how much she should do.

Finally, two things for you all:

• take one baby aspirin a day (81 mg). Aspirin is well documented as a good preventative against strokes and heart attacks caused by blood clots...it thins the blood a bit. This is one case where more is not better. 1 baby aspirin is all you need; more can cause stomach bleeding, so don't take more than that every day. Report that you are taking baby aspirin as part of your regular medications when you go to the doctor or the hospital.
• I recommend the book, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey written by Jill Taylor (no relation!). She suffered a stroke herself and offers a compelling first hand account and good advice for dealing with this difficult experience. You can find it on Amazon and it costs around 15.00

Love to all....Heidi

Goin' To Rehab....

Just got back from my quick trip to Nashville. Hated to leave Amarillo but I wasn't doing anybody any good here. Christi had things UNDER CONTROL ... ha!

Returned to great news. Mom has been officially discharged from the hospital. But she hasn't gone far. She has been transferred to Rehab. I can honestly say that I never thought I'd be blogging about my mom, Gwen Corn, going to rehab. The only thing she's ever smoked is a brisket although her Diet Coke habit would classify as a full-bore addiction in at least 8 countries. She should charter a chapter of Diet Cokeheads Anonymous.

Though she's been moved, I want to stress that her condition as it relates to her ability to communicate and function hasn't improved a great deal. I was hoping that after I hadn't seen her in a couple of days I would notice a change. She's about the same with labored and slurred speech and wonky, uncooperative eyeballs.

She did get up and walk today! It was awesome, and kinda funny-looking. They call it a Light-Walker. I wanted to see it because I was so into Light-Sabres back when I was a kiddo. It looks like an engine jack that has straps that support the rehabilitee in a fashion not unlike a paratrooper. It can be adjusted hydraulically up and down allowing it to support as much of her weight as the physical therapists see fit. So they slung her up and she walked for about 5 mins. on a very slow treadmill. She was pooped.

They came in and explained her regimen for the next four to six weeks. Several hours a day with physical and speech therapists interrupted only by several more hours with the occupational therapists. She's trying to be gung-ho about it but I think we all know that it's gonna be incredibly hard. Like Marine boot-camp hard. But if anyone is up for the challenge it's her.

I'd like to make a point here that neither Clint nor I have touched on during our posting. Though we haven't blogged about it, we are whole-heartedly giving God all the praise for the progress Mom's made. She has an amazing faith and all of us know that it will be only through Him that any recovery will be possible. I know I've had more than a few conversations with Him over the last several days. As a matter of fact night before last I had a dream He came and spoke to me and He assured me that she would make a near-full recovery. I was stunned, thankful and relieved.

Did you know He's Laotian?

You, and God will have to forgive me for that but it's been a while since any of us have had a chance to laugh about anything. We are fighting this thing with Faith and humor. I pray every night that Mom has the strength to laugh and continue this fight.

She does.

Her new home away from home is room 629.

-Clay

Movin' on up...

Yesterday (Monday) our day was greeted by meetings with both the neurologist and cardiologist ... Each provided favorable reports and overall stable conditions of the brain/heart, and independently recommended starting a therapy regimen ... Encouraging words/diagnosis ... By noon, we were packing up belongings to move from the Critical Care Unit to the Neurological Observation Level (FYI : Room 668) ... More specifically, this wing is effectively the post-stroke unit of the hospital, and acts as a bridge between critical and traditional care.


After getting situated in our new real estate, in came the therapists ... Mom was assisted up on her feet for the first time since Thursday ... A bit shaky at the onset, but she fought incredibly hard and walked +/-10 steps ... What an incredible sight ... In addition to this short stint towards mobility, tongue and eye exercised were completed in the afternoon ... By the evening, we could tell fatigue was beginning to set in ... And understandably so, as there were no naps allowed this afternoon - just plain, on-the-go hustle ... All in a hard day's work ... We are anxious to help Mom continue another day of battle today.


While the underlying cause remains a bit perplexing, as it stands (as mentioned yesterday), irregular beating of the heart appears to be the lone smoking gun ... Correspondingly, doctors generated a second CT scan of the heard yesterday for comparative purposes ... We should receive those results sometime today, but we are not overly hopeful that it will offer any more transparency to the case ... An isolated cause may never appear, but with medicines able to regulate any issues, we are confident that we will, in time, be able to achieve some level of normalcy ... Yesterday was the first +/-10 shaky steps of Mom's journey towards recovery.


Thanks for the thoughts/prayers ... Please keep them coming/multiplying.


Clint

Encouraging, but limited answers...

Today (Sunday) brought encouragement in the form of additional tests, but we still lack clarity relative to the underlying cause of Thursday's incident  ... Doctors performed tests on Mom's heart in an attempt to pin-point the issues ... These tests revealed a healthy heart, with her valves functioning with normalcy and no other adverse signs ... Phenomenal news, although with this report comes another round of uncertainty in relation to the initial causal factors.

As it stands, perhaps one area that can offer some explanation is an irregular heartbeat ... Over the last +/-36 hours, monitors have signaled irregularity (which may be either the cause or the effect of the stroke) ... Doctors have continued to evaluate these levels, and had planned to initiate a regimen of medicines (dextrose amidorone for arrhythmia) to help regulate the beating ... Whereas dosage was planned to begin this evening, incredibly around 6:30, Mom's heartbeat clicked back to "Sinus Rhythm", which in layman's terms means pretty close to a perfect beating pattern ... There are occasionally some misplaced beats, but overall, she maintained the Sinus Rhythm throughout all of this evening ... Very positive, and we pray that this continues tomorrow and beyond.

Outside of this testing (and correspondingly, positive results but few answers), Mom had a very good day today ... She remained alert and engaged, and her speech remains around the same level as Friday/Saturday ... As Clay alluded in the prior post(s), her memory and cognitive skills are top-notch ... If we were to relate our in-room dialogue amongst family/friends to the show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", Mom has continued to play the role of "Lifeline" :: She always seems to come through in the clutch with answers/corrections to any holes we may have in our telling of stories.

We will endeavor to continue to pass along updates as they become available ... We are hopeful that some level of therapy (speech, physical, etc.) can begin soon, and Mom can herself begin to feel the progress that we have witnessed over the past few days ... It is truly remarkable the strength she is maintaining (I need to admit that I just had to substitute the aforementioned adjective "remarkable" for a previously-typed "unbelievable" ... Never have we doubted her strength ... We always knew she would give this a helluva fight, and she sure keeps slugging away ... We anxiously await her landing the haymaker knock-out punch, and seeing her come out of this victoriously).

Thanks for the continued thoughts/prayers ... Please keep them coming/multiplying.

Clint

The Short Version

At around 3:30 pm on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 Gwen Corn suffered a stroke while teaching school in Friona. It has been classified as a basal ischemia and affects her ability to communicate, her vision and many of her motor skills. She is completely cognisant but struggles to speak. She seems extremely lethargic but assures us through her slurred speech that she isn't tired.

I will post here for anyone to read as her condition changes (hopefully improves).

She is in the Critical Care Unit of Baptist St. Anthony in Amarillo, room 3 at this time.

Below is the long version of events for those of you who know her and care to learn the chain of events as I understand them at this time.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Gwen's Fight

On Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008, my mom, Gwen Corn was helping a student at Friona High School with a math problem when her speech began to slur. She felt dizzy and put her hands on Trevor's shoulders to steady herself. He turned around and saw that she was struggling so he sat her down and ran for help. Mom was in the midst of suffering a stroke. An ambulance transported her to Parmer County Hospital where she was given a cursory evaluation and MRI and then forwarded by life-flight to Baptist St. Anthony in Amarillo.

The doctor in Friona painted a grim picture telling my dad, Ed that she'd suffered a severe stroke and that things didn't look good from his educated standpoint. Dad drove himself, alone, to Amarillo. It was during this drive that dad contacted myself and my brother and sisters. He in turn painted an anything-but-rosy picture and said he'd get back to us as soon as he got to the hospital and had a better idea of the severity of mom's condition.

Dad's sister, Heidi Taylor who is Dean of Nursing at West Texas A&M University cast her vote for neurologist and Dr. Sean Milligan was quickly on the scene. He had a second MRI done for comparison and both this one and the previous one from Friona showed no abnormalities. Whatever it was was small. Good news under the circumstances but we were told that this was her darkest hour. Without being able to pinpoint anything his suspicion was a brain stem event. If you google 'brain stem stroke' what you'll find is that they're often fatal and at the very least severely debilitating.

As I was traveling to Amarillo the limited info I was getting over the phone was just that she was trying to speak but wasn't making much sense or even forming complete words. What sentences she was putting together were nonsensical and alluded that she thought she was still in the classroom where this all started earlier in the afternoon. We were simply told that by this stage what she had endured may not be life-threatening any longer but was definitely life-changing.

By the time I arrived at the hospital and got in to see her she was making complete sentences, still her speech was a very confused hodgepodge of present and past. It looked like she had just been roused from a deep sleep, or, if you've ever seen it, someone coming back from anasthesia. It appeared to have affected mostly her right side. Her face showed limited droopiness but was kind of slack and she was complaining of numbness around her mouth and right cheek. Her right eye was open but the left was closed, she was obviously struggling to open it and frustrated that it wouldn't. You could see her struggling to put together nearly every word but everyone in the room was amazed at the progress she'd made over the last two hours. Her sister, Tammy was shouting hallelujahs at the ceiling. I understand that these things happen every day and that this is all part of the Human experience, but nothing can prepare you for seeing your mother in a state of utter helplessness and struggling so hard against some invisible enemy. (This was our second time around since mom was diagnosed and defeated stage IV inflammatory breast cancer six years ago.)

No sleep that night for anyone but mom.

The next morning appeared to be nothing short of miraculous. I got a text from Christi, the oldest girl of our clan, at 4:45 am saying mom was "a million times better than last night". I was on my feet and back at the hospital within a few minutes and she was right. Mom was alert, speaking with reasonable clarity. The nonsence that cluttered her rational thoughts the night before seemed to be gone. She was sitting up and very proud of the fact that she was moving her right arm with muted authority. She was cracking jokes. Her eyes were opening fairly evenly. Don't get me wrong, the stroke was still very, very evident, but the change throughout the night was drastic.

We met with the doctor and he seemed very happy with the progress she was making. He announced his diagnosis of a small stroke of a part of the the 'mid-brain'. He called it a basilar ischemia. Great! When can we go home?

What He giveth He taketh away...

By noon any progress she had made overnight seemed to be diminishing...quickly. When we walked in, ready to throw a party, she couldn't speak at all. With her eyes closed she threw her functional left arm over to her right side and forced the word "numb" out of the left corner of her mouth. We called the nurse in, fearing that she might be having another stroke. She decided it'd be best to notify the doctor. A few minutes later he called back and said that if the symptoms were the same as when she arrived but not worse that there was really nothing he could do. Ughhh! Okay, but to us it looked like we were watching mom slip away. We left the room, scattered and broke down. For the first time we really saw what we were up against and it was going to be way harder on everyone, especially mom, than any of us could imagine.

Later in the afternoon she really seemed to improve though not nearly to the extent that she had earlier in the morning. I'd call it a not-so-happy medium. She seemed to stabilize and spent the rest of the evening half-resting and half-trying to converse with whoever was in the room. We left her to sleep, cautiously optimistic that she would stay this way throughout the night.

She did.

I think now that we have a very clear picture of the level of rehabilitation it's going to take to get her seaworthy again. The type of stroke she suffered doesn't effect cognitive abilities. She still thinks clearly and is quite aware of everyhthing going on around her, only some of her motor, speech and optical functions are affected. While she appeared nearly catatonic to those observing her at the time, she can clearly remember the event itself, the ambulance driver's name, the helicopter flight and everyone around her once in Amarillo. She's got to be incredibly frustrated.

We just met with Dr. Milligan who has traced the cause to a previously undiagnosed irregular heartbeat. He called in a cardiologist, Dr. Hernandez who is currently tracking down what's causing that but I think they've about got it figured out. One thing's for sure, she's got a long row to hoe before she's able to get back anywhere close to normal, but I think now we know what her starting point is.

Thank you all for your prayers and keep 'em coming! She's the strongest broad I've ever met, but she needs all the help she can get.