Since I was gone for ten days (and there wasn't any progress to report before I left) I didn't give an update but here's one for today.
Yesterday, after listening to two of the nurses talk about my mom like she was never going to wake up, I decided to just pull open one of her eyelids and see what happened. Well, she opened up both eyes for more than an hour and looked at me, around the room, and was just trying to focus her eyes on things. She was getting a little upset when she realized she had a trach in her throat but I started explaining to her that it was there to help her. I played some of her favorite songs off my iPhone and just talked to her. She moved her lips like she either wanted to say something or wanted a drink of water but she just kept moving her lips. Today, my dad and brother went early this morning and her eyes were open the whole time they were there and they were asking her questions and asking her to squeeze their hands if she understood. She kept squeezing their hands. She is still only able to use her right side but we're hoping that, with lots of therapy, she'll be able to use the left side too. The even better news is that they are moving her back down to the floor where she started!!!!! I nearly started crying when my dad told me this because it's been really hard to keep positive thoughts about everything. Some of the nurses have been really great in the Neuro ICU but some haven't been very kind. Her neurosurgeon has always been very positive throughout this whole thing--she almost always followed his commands to squeeze his hand. The vein from her carotid is working very well too.
Thank you so much, ladies, for all your positive words and thoughts. I appreciate them so much--more than you can ever know!!!!