medical updates
Published on March 14, 2004 By ShawnSkeele In Home & Family
Since Thursday, Mom has shown an obvious improvement in her speech and capability for understanding conversation going on around her. Her medication had been changed and that which she received in ICU has pretty much worn off. She spoke 4-6 word sentences coherently and fluently. Mom has yet to prove she can swallow without any risk of aspiration occuring. Can you imagine how dry her mouth feels? Remember when Esau gave up his inheritance for a meal? Mom is pretty much there. After clipping her toes nails, she sarcastically asked if I could manage to now get her a glass of water. The toenails just wasn't that high on her needs list you might say. She has a few more humorous comments when Shea, I and our wives were there.

No coughing has been heard from her since Thursday. The fluid in the lungs is clearing up, praise God! The infection is progressing positively. Please continue to pray about these two issues as they could easily send Mom back to the ICU.

Soon, Dad will have another website that will tell you a lot more about Connie Skeele. Six years ago, Marty and I sincerely wanted to know more about our ancestrial history, good and bad. Our objectives were to have stories in writing to pass on to future generations. Mom thoroughly documented answers to 160 questions and gave to all of her children a 200+ bibliography sufficiently fulfilling our requirement and expectations. Dad will be sharing some of this in Mom's own words.

God bless you all.


Comments
on Mar 20, 2004
Good morning Shawn. I have just gotten caught up and read your March 13th entry. Praise God she is doing as well as she is. We continue to keep your mom in our prayers. I wanted to tell you that several years ago my sister, Karin Wightman, had a recurrence of breast cancer. As you probably are aware, Karin's only income was and is whatever she makes sewing from her home. I wanted to help her out so I arranged with the church, the legion and other DeRuyter organizations to have a fund raising dinner and a 7 mile walk for Karin's benefit. The dinner was a sell out and they ran out of food. The walk was scheduled for a Saturday morning. Your mom is the only person that showed up for the walk. We had a wonderful visit and at that time she told me about her writing down stories to share with her family. She was so excited about doing that. I have sort of forgotten about that until reading your entry today. I am going to attempt to do some journaling to share with my family once again. Your dedication to your mother is incredible and I know that it is God who is giving you the strength. I am taking my mother tonight to the Beat the Blahs gathering at Highland Forest tonight. Mom is looking forward to going. She is spending the night in DeRuyter and she will be going to church Sunday morning. We pray for your personal strength and ask God to bless you and your family abundantly in the future. Prayerfully, Ray & Barb Lighthall, Munnsville, NY