So...
My wife and I went up to visit Carmen today, but right as we walked in we saw Albert in the hall with a very upset look on his face. "She doesn't remember anything" he said. What?! I couldn't believe it. Neither could Bert. She was doing so much better and things were getting back to the way they were when they first got to therapy, which were days filled with great progress and giant steps forward. But today when Bert asked if she knew who he was, or who her mom was, she said "no" and shrugged her shoulders and had a very scared and confused look on her face. Her body language said it all; "I'm scared. I don't remember anything and I'm frustrated."

They immediately took Carmen back to Kaiser where she will get another CAT Scan to see if there have been anymore strokes. Albert has been racking his brain trying to figure what they started to do anything differently or started giving Carmen that may be the trigger for this sudden change in behavior. Before I said that it was most likely due to the UTI and the fever related to that, but now the docs aren't so sure since the UTI is most likely gone by now.

When asked a question, Carmen answers with a quick "yes" then "no" then "yes" and then "no" and she does this repeatedly. There were some things that Bert would ask her that she would give a definitive "yes" or "no" to, but for the most part it was her saying "yes/no" a lot, which was often followed by that heartbreaking confused look on her face and then tears.

I left Kaiser around 8:45 or so and Carmen was still in the ER waiting to get the CAT Scan done. I don't know the outcome or any new developments as of right now. What I do know is that Albert and Jodi and of course our Carmen are going through a lot right now and could really use a whole truck load of prayers and more of your sweet words on this blog.

Faith, hope and love.....right? That's what gets us all through these crazy times. Carmen, I have a whole bunch of all of those for you and I know a few hundred other people that do too. I think it's safe to say that they are sending their faith, hope and love to you as well.

We'll be thinking of you. We love you Carmen....so so SO MUCH.

Hi all,

Sorry for the lag time on my post. I got smacked with that cold that has been going around and I can't seem to shake it. Carmen on the other hand is doing much better. They got back to the rehab facility on Thursday, but Carmen wasn't feeling so hot. She was clearly very frustrated and agitated, but they couldn't figure out why. She wasn't into any sort of PT either these past couple of days. So Bert went through his "yes" and "no" questions with Carmen to narrow down what was wrong. After a lot of this, Bert and the docs figured out that Carmen had another UTI. This is actually good news. Why? Because along with a UTI often comes a spike in fever, which can cause a lot of irritation, head aches and sometimes seizures for people that have had strokes like Carmen. The docs are pretty sure that Carmen's UTI didn't cause a seizure but it was most certainly what caused this "overload" that we described earlier.

So! The next question is this: Since it was the UTI that sent her back to Kaiser and nothing more serious like a stroke, is Carmen okay? Is she back to where she was before all of this? YES!!!! Bert said she is using all the same words as before and doing well. She isn't very excited about PT though but that will come back in time. She is also eating diced peaches! This is huge because it shows how well she can chew and swallow and utilize those many muscles inside her mouth. That's awesome Carmen! We are so glad to hear you're doing so much better. Keep it up. We'll be praying for you that PT goes well.

We love you guys.

The Crew