De la Cruz-Busto: Progress

JUST a few days ago, I graduated from school again. Unlike graduating from grade school through college, this time, was not as festive. There was no grand celebration - no family members as witnesses, no eating out and no big fuss. Probably just the way I wanted it to be - quiet. This was after all just a four-month course I had taken up for career advancement to qualify me for promotion to the next rank.

But if there is one person with who I would very much like to share my recent accomplishment with, it would be my beloved mother. I know she would be very ecstatic and would have looked forward to my next undertaking.

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I accomplished my course even if there was a major setback halfway through when my mother became seriously ill. I remember asking myself at that time why it had to happen when I was drowning in my series of voluminous examinations, turn-ins and researches. I could not focus and I thought I would not be able to finish the course at all. I also recalled being always at a loss and crying mostly in between. But I did it and I could not have possibly done it without ever thinking about my mother and how I wanted to dedicate everything to her.

I was happy even if my mother was not around to cheer for me as I received my certificate of completion. It was on the day of my graduation that my mother had her second check-up with her three doctors after she was discharged from the hospital. And like me, her doctors were very impressed and happy with my mother's recovery progress.

My siblings and I have observed that for every milestone in the family, such as birthdays and other noteworthy occasions, my mother would show an interesting improvement.

It was during my sister's birthday on the first week of June that while at the hospital, some tubes were removed from my mother allowing her to breathe on her own. And it was on my brother's birthday in mid-July that our mother's practice-weaning became longer. She was first allowed to breath on her own for just 30 minutes at a time. Now she could do it for more than two hours. Hopefully, we are looking forward to having her tracheotomy tube removed so she could regain her speech and take food through her mouth. But of course it all depends on my mother's pace.

We are optimistic though because of the remarkable will and strength that my mother continuously shows. My brother said our mother can now grip a little firmly with her hands, a far cry from how she could not even make a fist on her own

After her check-up last week, my brother said that when they got home tears were flowing from my mother's eyes, and my sister said it must be because our mother was now aware of everything that is happening around her. And that our mother is now regaining her cognition ability.

Although our mother still cannot speak to express herself, these signs of improvements -- gripping, crying, waking-up at the sound of the car as my father or brother drives off and back, are our mother's way of communicating to us.

Knowing our mother, I know she would have wanted to badly regain her speech and express things she wanted us to hear but, at this time, she can only do so much. We know how helpless she is to be trapped in her own body which probably explains the reason for her tears.

I know my mother is such fighter because she defies science even when she got hospitalized the first time she suffered stroke. She would always be back on her feet again at a time when all thought it would have taken her more time at the hospital. She did the same thing when she was hospitalized three months ago; everybody thought it would take her two months in the ICU, instead she was out in two weeks.

At the rate of her progress, we are optimistic that in no time at all, she can talk to us again as I also long to have my weekly chats with her and hear her endless words of support.