Marlene Hanson

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. Dan & I decided to post here because answering texts, emails & phone calls about Mom's condition has gotten exhausting. We want everyone to be informed so please continue to visit here. Three weeks ago Mom fell & hit her head. She was able to reach her phone & call the front desk at Deerfield. The director & an aid went to her apartment. Although she had a bump on her head & a bruised chest, she was fine. I talked to her the following day & she told me she fell. Our conversation was normal & lasted over an hour.
The following Wednesday I received a text from my Aunt Ranae saying my Uncle Bob had called her to say they were worried about Mom because they hadn't seen her for a couple of days. Monday had been Memorial Day so they thought she was probably with Tawnya & Jonathan for the day so they weren't concerned then. I knew mom had a follow-up doctor's appointment on Wednesday so I checked with Tawnya to see if she was with her. When Tawnya said she hadn't heard from Mom was when I became concerned. I called Dan & he called Jackie, the director. She immediately went to Mom's apartment & found her on the floor in her bedroom. She called 911 & they took her to Westfield Hospital.
They did a CT scan & discovered a brain bleed. She was transferred to Regions Hospital immediately. Most of her time there was spent sleeping. She couldn't get out of bed herself or feed herself & her speech was slurred. After several days she was transported to Deerfield's rehab facility.
She continues to need to be lifted out of bed to get to the bathroom or into a chair & can't dress herself. So she's not mobile yet. She's feeding herself most of the time but really has no appetite. We sometimes feed her to get more food into her. They are feeding her high protein oatmeal & ice cream (she loves it!). They get her dressed each day & some days they wheel her out to the common area to be with the other residents. She has a long road ahead, but we continue to see small improvements. Her speech is clear now although she sometimes can't think of the word she wants (but don't we all struggle with that?). Our main focus right now is getting food into her so she can get stronger.
We pray every day that she'll be able to start walking with help. She talks about wanting to get out of there but she realizes it'll be awhile.
Dan, Karen & I have been taking turns being there with her for part of each day. She loves having visitors, so please feel free to visit, EXCEPT between 1:00-3:00 which is her rest time. She isn't using her phone unless one of us is there. Please leave a message & we'll help her call you back.