This is really good news I am sharing.  Again thank you.

Dawn

Happy New Year to everyone and my apologies for not posting for a
couple of nights.  We had quite the houseful.  New Years Eve was
spent with 20 people in the family room with a catered dinner from
Congressman Sweeny's office.  Marissa spent about 4 hours of the day
with us in there and then rested up to come in at about 11 pm and
watch the ball drop on MTV to begin the new year.  She laughed and
talked and thoroughly enjoyed interacting with everyone.  It was
really awesome to see.  Her trach has been downsized and she is able
to speak with it now.  I am pushing to get it downsized again maybe
tomorrow, another couple of days with the four and then completely
removed!!!  She is drinking and eating jello.  They are just waiting
to see how she handles all of that before they shut off her tube
feeding and then that tube can go away too!!

She has been asking a lot of questions and finally today pin pointed
me to tell her what happened to her.  Of course that put her into
asking me what happened to everyone else, but she couldn't remember
who was there with her.  All I have told her at this point is that
everyone is just fighting for her to get better and that is also
what she needs to be concentrating on.  Col. Swengros spoke with her
on the phone tonight, they had a really great conversation.  She
asked him about her driver and team leader although she could not
remember the names.  I had talked to him before and he knew how I
was handling it.  He told her that he would look into the paperwork
for her and try to find the information to answer her questions.  I
will be contacting the psych Dr. tomorrow so she can help me with
this as well.  However...  all in all, things are really going
well.  She started her PT the other day and once again totally
amazed me.  They told her to do two sets of five and after the first
five, she looked right at them and did one more!!!  Tomorrow she
will be going in for a dressing check and change but on Wednesday
she will be starting a strict regimen of PT and OT on a regular
basis.  So..  all in all my Christmas could not have been better and
the start of the new year as well.  Dan has been here and it's made
all the world of difference having him here.  I don't look forward
to him going home on Wednesday at all. That is it for now...
Looking forward to another good day tomorrow.