Gina has been moved to the rehabilitation facility at Loma Linda Hospital. She still intends to move to Florida to finish her rehab, but everyone tells me that the place she is in is one of the best in the country. TerriKares, my wonderful new friend from Phoenix, and I visited her Sunday and I was impressed again with her progress, as well as impressed with her new digs. She even has an outdoor patio attached to her room! Gina ate her dinner on the patio while we were there!

When I call Gina during the week, she is always very tired, because they are working her butt off in that rehab center. Well, not really....her butt is still all there and I have pictures to prove it. But she IS always tired when I call during the week. But they leave her alone pretty much on weekends, so she was very alert and full of energy when Terri and I visited her. It was still quite difficult and painful for her to be transferred from her bed to a wheelchair so she could go outside, though. She still can't put any weight on her feet. Anyway, she really enjoyed eating and visiting with us on her patio.

I showed Gina the pictures I had taken at the bowling party the night before. She became very emotional! She smiled, even laughed sometimes (we got some great pictures of everyone, but Larue's shots were especially noteworthy, lol), and tears came to her eyes when she realized that everyone wes at that party in her honor and even brought some money with them! She said to make sure and thank everyone who showed up that night! And she also wants to thank everyone who wanted to be there but couldn't for their thoughts and well wishes for her. Some people even sent in donations with their friends who were there. It is really wonderful to see the look on her face when she thinks of all the people who care about her. I think her misfortune has made her realize more than she ever did how valuable friends are.

Since she had recently moved from the main hospital building, her stuff was mostly still packed, so Terri set about making her room look more like home, while I took some more pictures. Before we left, all of her flowers were arranged neatly, her stuffed animals and teddy bears were hanging prominently on the wall under her tv, the get well cards from everyone, including the ones from the party, were tacked to her bulletin board, and the boob shots I missed last week were in my camera, along with some other pictures of Gina and her room, including the one below of Gina reading Webbie's message, which made her smile really big! Webbie has many talents, but I think her greatest one is making people happy! She does it with humor and grace. Thank you, Webbie!

And a special thank you to Spinner for throwing that party, including some special prizes for lucky people, and to Nikki for taking donations! How could anyone resist making a donation when the prize was a kiss from Nikki Avalon? Lol! I couldn't! And thanks so much to Quzi for splurging on dinner at Mulligan's later that night. Thanks to everyone else who was there and/or contributed to the Gina fund. I would list them all, but I know I would unintentionally leave someone out, so I'll leave that to Spinner, who kept a list. It really was a great party and a lot of fun! Gina said she wished she could have been there!

Gina's progress is remarkable, but her road to recovery is still very long and rough. She will have to work hard, she knows, but she has a great attitude, and is very determined to do whatever it takes to get back to being the Gina we all remember. The thoughts and prayers from her friends will make her recovery much easier, I'm sure, and she really appreciates them! Thanks again to all of you wonderful people!

T.L.

-- Modified on 9/25/2006 11:57:20 PM