so i went and saw cassandra today - i persuaded all the co-workers to cough up a couple of bucks and i went and bought her a plant and some balloons and a card. then i headed up to community hospital...her room was in the stroke center, but right above her room was a "seizure center" sign - guess that's where i'd end up if i started having bad seizures again. but i digress...well, turns out they'd released her from community and sent her to miller's merry manor for rehab. so i went there - it was pretty depressing, it looks like it's mainly an old folks home - lots of shriveled up old white ladies sitting around. i found cassie's room and walked in - i barely recognized her, she looked different. her eyes lit up when she saw me and she said "it's my friend! my friend's here!" i was glad to see her smile, but i'm pretty sure she didn't really recognize me. her daughter shawna and her niece (forget her name) were there, so i told them i was from the trader, and that we were all thinking about cassie and praying for her. when shawna read the card to her mom, she started choking up, about to cry. cassie didn't understand why though - i don't think she understands at all what's happened. she's just like a big kid - like i said about her lighting up when i walked in the room, and she told me all about her babies - the stuffed animals that people brought her. she's having a hard time with the vocabulary too - you can see her trying really hard to think of the words and they just don't come. she also said some stuff to me that just didn't make any sense, i had to smile and nod at her, because it was clear that she thought she was saying something logical to me. it's obviously very hard on shawna - when she walked me out she told me that cassie will be there in rehab for a month probably, and that the doctors were amazed at how well she was doing - her stroke was only a week ago. she said she was just going to try to hang on to her mom's house while she's in rehab, so it sounds like there might be some money problems there.

*sigh* it's just not fair.