I think it's important to describe Mom's stroke situation, so you can put all of this in perspective with what we were and were not having to deal with. As compared to so many of you, we had a lot going for us in terms of abilities and independence. Mom's right brain stroke was in March of 99. She was left with all her thinking, memory, and speech totally in tact. In fact, we kid around and say the surgeon who did her carotid artery surgery, after the stroke, made things "worse" because he gave her MORE good blood to the brain and now she's smarter and sharper than the rest of us. :) BUT, her left side was paralyzed. She's regained her ability, enough to "walk" short distances with a four pronged cane. She can also maneuver her wheelchair, stand to do transfers, and she does many things independently, i.e. undressing, bathroom jobs and commode needs during the night.
When Mom had her stroke, she was in the middle of a 98 day world cruise, on which SHE was working as the hostess for about 60 people from a travel company. Her stroke hit when they arrived in Singapore. Her big dream, of course, is to return to hostessing on cruises. But in the meantime, she had to cancel several trips that were already planned. This was extremely disappointing, but part of the reality we have to face after a stroke. SO, we decided to go ahead and plan a different kind of trip, with two purposes. First, she wanted to go see her daughter (my sister), in Los Angeles. My sister has been extremely ill for years, and hasn't been able to get to Arizona to see Mom, so, ironically, it was Mom who had to get well enough to go see Wendy. The second purpose of the trip was to figure out what the difficulties might be in travelling again, so we could determine what accomplishments and abilities she needed before returning to cruising...IF it was even possible.
With all this in mind, we set January as our goal. That gave us six months to work hard in therapy, to develop the abilities she would need for the trip. We told the therapists she had to be able to do things like getting in and out of bed without a bedrail, manage getting up and down curbs, have stamina for longer walks (like to a seat on the plane), and energy for all the one-handed activites she'd be doing while travelling.
Her therapists worked with her on bed mobility and they worked on doing small stairs, ramps and uneven surfaces. She also spent two months doing a semi-independent therapy/exercise program, where she worked more on cardio-vascular endurance and stamina than on particular problems from the stroke. All of this paid off.
