Christmas Day Photos

Some Photos from the weekend!

Christmas Eve:









Christmas Day:

coming soon

Christmas Eve

Big success. We were over at G'Ma and G'Pa's and G'ma was the life of the party. Family and friends all dined on a LOT of Chowder and visited. G'parents and Jeff opened their gifts that we gave them. G'ma looked REALLY good, and was just such a joy. Even though she was in her wheelchair and was not the one behind the stove she still was the master of her kitchen directing traffic and what to do next.

It was probably the best christmas present we could get through all of this.

She will be here at the house in a couple of hours :) can't wait!

Home for the Holidays

So the gist of what's going on is this:

Grandma will be in the hospital through the first part of January. She has a surgery to remove the clot scheduled for January 5, 2010.

She will get to come to the Family Dinner Christmas DAY which will be at my aunt Judy's house (she's my mom's sister, and an "adopted Reitter" of sorts for my grandparents. They even refer to her as one of their daughters lol)

I am not sure if she will be at the Reitter household for Christmas Eve?

My parents, brother and the two dogs will be travelling to Anchorage from Kenai on Tuesday. They'll be here through Christmas :)

So that's what's going on at the moment. My mouth is healing nicely. Oral Surgeon is very happy with how it all looks, and I should be able to eat what I want come Christmas dinner! score!

Update #7

I just spoke to grandpa, Grandma had her angiogram today but he was not able to talk to the doctor, he is hoping he can tomorrow. He said grandma had PT & ST today one of the head of PT nurses said they are going to suggest that Grandma stay in the hospital for 3 to 4 weeks (that should make her real happy. NOT) hopefuly she will not need that long but if it get her to a point that she his happy with then it is worth it. Grandpa said they are wanting to get Willy in to see her however the area she is in will not allow him so they are going to have to taken grandma down to the parking garage entrance, I hope it works I thing it would be good for Grandma to see him.

Update #6

I visited with grandma yesterday, also got to see her do some PT she did well it was hard to watch though. She was worried about her face and I told her we don't care about the way her face is but we do care about her getting better. Then I told her when she stands up straight like she is supposed to everything else seems to go away so she started to pay attention to what she was doing after that. Grandma is getting frustrated, she don't like people taking care of her and it seemed to bother her when we saw the nurses helping her so much with every day things such as putting pants on. She is doing well though and as long as we all stay positive at all times I feel that she should recover from this well.
As a family we need to make sure we pull together and support Grandpa & Grandma in these difficult times, and continue to pray that Grandmas recovery will be as speedy as possible.

Hello Family & Friends!

Due to Grandma Reitter's stroke, my cousin Louisa and I have relized that a blog might be the best way for all of us to keep in touch. It's a great way to keep updates for everyone on Grandma's progress, and in my mind it will successfully replace those wonderful newsletters Grandpa used to send out every year around Christmas/New Years. Remember those fun little newspapers? We still have each edition at my parents' house. I think they are fantastic, but that might be the journalism major in me.

Please be paitent as we learn the ins and outs of this blogging thing. I have postdated a few updates on Grandma that I had written on another web medium. Hopefully the rest of the family will get on board and we'll have this thing cookin' in no time.

With my recent wisdom tooth removal, I'm the one that's got the most time on her hands - so who knows when the rest of the gang will get involved! Feel free to leave comments, I'll print them out for my grandma to read!

Update #5

just a short update that dad gave me when he picked me up to take me to the oral surgeon yesterday

Grandma had a fantastic day. They had her sitting by herself in a straight back wooden chair and STANDING on her own balancing. Her right side is so much stronger than the left that it keeps trying to push her over, but she is progressing right along.


My dad is trying to get the full week of Christmas off to help out. I'm thinking it's because he's convinced Grandma WILL make her goal of going home on the 19th... which is freaking fantastic!

Update #4

Grandma has been moved from the Neuroscience area to the rehabilitation center!

She is also eating "ground" food instead of "pureed" food! Things are moving in the right direction.

She doesn't like one of her rehab nurses because she wants her to take small bites and chew it all up before swallowing/taking another bite. Apparently she didn't listen at lunch and the nurse took the food away (she had another paitent to tend to unexpectedly, and she couldn't trust gma to follow the rules) and gma fell asleep before she got back with it LOL

then my dad (who is here until after my wisdom tooth drama is over today) got to supervise dinner, and he was "being mean" too. She stuck her tongue out at him.

she can move her leg even better now, and she wiggled her toes for the first time last night!


I told her about my wisdom teeth and she said she was going to pray for me because it was going to be worse than what she was going through. Way to make it positive, grandma! *facepalm*

Update #3

today was a good day.

Grandma was sitting in a chair in her room when we got there tonight, and was finishing her dinner. It's all puree and she can't have regular liquid, it's a thicker (they call it honey consistency) liquid substance. It looks gross, but she says it's okay. Whatever lol, even the WATER is thicker. it's just WEIRD. Space age creepy.

Anyway, she knew who we both were. She was way more aware of what was going on. She told us what her goal was (which is to be home by the motorhome club Christmas party) but she said she's gonna be home before then because she has to clean house. *facepalm*

She is already walking - successfully - with a walker... but not for any real distance, as it tires her out quickly. But she's progressing pretty quickly.

All in all a great visit, she is having trouble with numbers/dates. She's fixated on her goal date and on her anniversary (which is tomorrow). but as far as knowing when I was born or how long she's been in Alaska (this is based on stories she was telling tonight) she's way off. But, hey, if that's the worst of it, then she's pretty dang good... (she's ALWAYS had trouble remembering my birthdate. Go figure lol)

Update #2

Grandma looks WAY better than she did yesterday. Her left side of her face is way less droopy, her eyes are clear, but she's still just talking outside of the right side... there's no more or less paralysis on her left side.

She seems WAY more confused about what's going on around her. Jim and Karen were with her today and she was on teh phone with dad and she told him she was at their house. She's also trying to get OUT of the bed over and over and over, but she is swallowing on her own (and is not on a liquid diet). The IV is also an issue, she was very angry that Grandpa would not take it out/off. And telling her she had to keep it in was making her mad.

Didn't see Grandpa today, they finally convinced him to go home and eat and get some rest. Karen was there when Judy and I went to visit and said it's been pretty good overall. Grandma finally went to teh bathroom while we were there...

but with her confusion Grandma didn't recognize who I was (I think she thought I was my cousin, she kept saying "my other granddaughter" and then would tell a story that was definitely me) unless she just couldn't remember my name and was trying to refer to me. It was a little confusing... but she kept looking at me with a blank/confused look. So we didn't stay long because I wasn't as calm cool and collected this time around... I was fine yesterday when she seemed to know more of what was going on, but seeing her so frustrated/upset/confused... yeah...

Planning on going back over on Tuesday. Grandpa's neighbor brought him food to the house so he's being taken care of, too...


thank you all for your support and prayers... it really means a lot...

update #1

I'm on the phone with my dad right now and he just got off teh phone with my Grandpa.

Gramma was finally given something to eat - soft food diet - she had potatoes and a milkshake. There's some issues with her swallowing, so she may be put on a liquid diet for awhile.

MRI is done, results are due tomorrow......

and she's getting another CAT scan done now because they didn't like how the first set turned out...

and Grandpa is headed home to sleep.

Grandma had a stroke!

I'm running on very little sleep... Grandma had a stroke sometime last night and was rushed to the hospital at around 3... I was there from about 4 till 7 when she kicked all of us out of the hospital.

she's in denial, but it wasn't a little stroke...

we don't know how bad it is yet, they're doing an MRI sometime today...