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.