A lot has happened since the last update, and I am so happy to report that all our prayers are being answered as we speak.

My mother was transferred to a rehab hospital in Concord a couple of weeks ago. There she made continued progress but progress which slowed each day and plateaued. After examinations and tests, it was determined that the fluids in her brain were not draining properly. This caused her to have some speech problems -- she would not be able to complete sentences and would get hung up on repeating words several times in the same sentence. This is apparently a normal symptom of excess fluid in the brain and was not an immediately hazardous condition.

She was transferred back to Dartmouth-Hitchcock and received a second operation. This operation involved the installation of a shunt, which is basically a tube that goes from the brain down through the neck and into the abdomen. Inside the tube is a valve to regulate fluid pressure in the head, and the whole thing acts to provide proper drainage of fluids.

As soon as the shunt was installed, my mother's speech difficulties cleared right up. She was watched at the hospital for a few days and then transferred back to the rehab hospital.

It's been five days since this second surgery. I saw her on Sunday, three days afterward. She is her old self. Her voice is weaker than usual -- but stronger than when I saw her the previous time -- and she is bound to a wheelchair for the moment, but she is alert and active, and her personality and sense of humor are undiminished.

Sunday was a difficult day, because she was just coming to realize how much she can't do and how much recovering she has left to do. She is determined to do what she can to recover and get back home and back to work, so that is very good.

Her rate of recovery thus far is astonishingly good. She is already moving her right arm around with natural, subconscious movements. If her right ear itches, she scratches with her right hand. When she's talking, she accompanies the talking with natural gestures of both hands. She uses both hands to eat. The right arm does not have a great *range* of motion, the hand is shaky, and the fingers don't have a lot of fine motor control, but (1) this is already more recovery than what we, at one time, expected she'd *ever* manage; and (2) the stroke is still recent, so the coming months of continued physical therapy should show much more recovery. She'll probably be able to type with both hands, which is not something we expected would happen.

Her right leg was, until this past weekend, not moving at all. Now she can lift it 8-10 inches on command and has also recently recovered some control of her foot.

(It is fascinating to hear her talk about how she can move it. See, the problem is that the channels through which the brain communicated with her right side have been damaged, and so the brain has to establish new channels to recover control of her right side. At any rate, this is evidence in her description about how she can move around. It seems to her brain as if she has three legs -- the original two and an "extra" limb. She can move the right leg a very small amount if she moves the "regular" right leg, but if she moves that "extra" limb, her right leg moves a lot more. It's the same leg, but the brain communicates with it in two different ways as if it were two different parts of the body. The physical therapy, apparently, is what has taught her how to move her limbs at all; without it, she said, she wouldn't know how to move her leg. It's fascinating to think about how all this works.)

She is still bound to a wheelchair, but she is not expected to need it indefinitely. In fact, the rehab hospital has set a tentative discharge date of September 10th and expect that by that time she will not only be able to walk but also to navigate stairs. This, too, is farther than she was once expected to come at all, and it's also somewhat important, as it's doable but difficult to arrange my parents' house so one can be self-sufficient on just one floor.

Considering her outlook a few weeks ago, I think it's safe to call her recovery thus far "miraculous." It is important for me to remain grounded in reality and continue to pray for her continued unhampered recovery. However, it is pretty obvious to me that God is at work answering a lot of prayers. Again, I thank each one of you for your prayers and support.