Mom spent 9 hours today on a trach mask. This means that she breathed on her own without the assistance of the ventilator (breathing machine) for 9 hours. At about 10 pm she grew fatigued and her trach was reattached to the ventilator so she could rest overnight.

She seems most awake in the evening. When I went back to the hospital after dinner, her eyes were wide open and she tried to mouth words. When I held to phone to her ear for Kimberly to say goodnight, she mouthed the words "I love you." Then when I held the phone to her ear for Shawn and his girls to sign to her, mom really brightened up and got very animated. She tried to say "thank you."

Overall she is still quite sleepy most of the day, but these episodes are encouraging. It will continue to be a long and gradual process for her to recover. It is possible that she will be well enough to transfer to a hospital closer to their home in the next week or so.

My wife Andrea purchased a CD player and some CDs to play in mom's room. Mom got particularly animated during "Clare de Lune" by Debussy. This is evidently a song that anyone who plays the piano knows well. I guess I did not make in far enough in my lessons to learn it. Nevertheless, mom seemed to smile and move her extremities more each time we played this song.

Bob is now back in Idaho and is staying with Anita in Pocatello. She has been quite helpful during this entire saga.

Lastly we got mom to smile on command while taking her photo. When we return to Boise, we will place it on the blog.