Hi there,

I know it's been a while since I last updated but I wanted to wait until I had something new and positive to post on Anna's condition.

In fact, I'm sitting here right now with Anna as we drink tea in her apartment in New York.

As you all may remember, Anna returned home back early in the Fall and has been doing tons of physical therapy ever since (once every day, some times twice). Her voice is sounding great, the tracheotomy hole has completely healed and there's only a little scar now. She says she's not quite up for Karaoke yet, but she doesn't have to take a breath anymore for each sentence. She's able to talk as quick as ever and her tonal range is improving as well as the volume.

Her leg is doing REALLY well. In fact, she greeted me at the door! She couldn't even GET to the door (which we've named Fred) the last time I saw her. She can stand for short periods now with a cane, although her leg tires easily and goes kind of wobbly if she over does it. But we think it's a major victory that she's walking, however slow it might be.

As for her arm, it was the first to be impacted and so it's healing the least (particularly as her shoulder was dislocated if you'll recall while she was in the hospital which hurt a bunch of the tendons and ligaments and impeded the therapy process). However, she does have some small movement in the arm and hand now, and we're hopeful that it will continue to improve but it may take a year or so.

Her vision still remains frustrating, and she has eye surgery scheduled for this Wednesday. It's been postponed twice now over the past two months. Which has added dramatically to the frustration (and the delay of this posting because I kept waiting to see how that turned out before wanting to say anything). Anna says her eye surgery is gonna be gross because they're going to stick a needle in the eye muscle and inject it with Botox (which Anna says won't make her look any younger or thinner - and how unfair is that!) which should help the eye re-align itself and fix her double vision.

Her hearing is much improved, the Sentinel-like overly sharp ability has reduced (she used to be able to hear ALL the NY noise in the street and conversations 3 stories below as clear as day, no joke) a great deal and the doctor's have said the ringing tones will decrease over the next year. (I said she should have used her new found powers for secret spy work but she didn't take me up on that-rats, one and I had our cape and bat signal all picked out and everything. Sigh.)

Overall her typing one handed is improving and she has a new computer screen that is 22" in size to help her see (I'm drooling and typing on it as we speak. It's so shiny!) She's working on slowly putting out e-mails again, but be patient as it takes her a while to type one handed.

Anna says that all of your postcards and packages have been overwhelming. She's incredibly touched by how everyone continues to write her. Since she doesn't leave the apartment very often (it's 3 stories up and in a pre-WWII non handicap building), it's nice to have a little of the outside world come in like that each day. She says she's hoping to thank you all individually but until then please pass on that she is really thankful for all the letters. And the postcard pictures are so cool to see where everyone is from!

Also, for whoever sent the Tim Tams from Australia, the package arrived without a return name (the post office ate the return label) but we wanted to say - thank you, thank you. Anna loved them. It really reminded her of the fun she had discovering them at Media West she says. They were shamefully consumed for breakfast when they arrived.

Well, that's all for now. We're off to discuss tv shows and eat food that is very bad for us (evil grin - it's amazing what you can get delivered to a wee apartment in Chinatown in NY - yum, yum).

If anyone has misplaced Anna's address, it's:

Anna Man

PO Box 1145

PS If I've forgotten anyone on this address list, please forward this e-mail to them and/or let me know.

--Cathy (and Anna this time!!!)