Month: February 2013

Thorough Thursday #TSJ

Janet was hard at work in the gym when I arrived this afternoon. This was Simon’s first day working with her and he was getting some good results. Garrett had Janet in the gym in the morning to do a good stretching routine and now she was back for a more active workout session. Simon had her doing some leg exercises then Tez came in and helped get Janet onto her tummy for a hamstring stretch and some more on command leg movements. Then came the big test. Yesterday Tez had Janet kneeling on her own a little bit so he was going to try that again. With Garrett watching her back, Tez lifted Janet to a sort of push up position on her way to kneeling. We noticed how strongly Janet was pushing with her left arm so Tez decided to try and have her do a push up. The tears started immediately and Tez let her down a little and Janet responded by pushing part way up. You couldn’t call it a push up but there was an effort there for sure. On her knees the tears were still flowing as they would for the rest of the workout. Undeterred and knowing the tears were a lack of confidence rather than pain, Tez and Garrett gradually let go of Janet until she was kneeling completely on her own. She was able to lift her head and straighten her back so she was up nice and tall. Very impressive and according to Tez, much improved over yesterday. Simon held out some colored pieces of paper an arms length away from Janet and she was able to reach out, grab them and pass them off to me on her left side. Major high five! She cried each time she did it but again, not from pain. At least that’s what she told us. Finally sitting on the edge of the table mat, Janet could relax a little. But not for long. I had told Tez I was doing mainly standing transfers with Janet and he wanted to see her stand as he was surprised to hear she was “stepping” with her left leg. Considering how tired Janet was she stood really well with me, impressing Tez enough that he pulled out a couple of scales and placed them under each of her feet and asked her to stand again to see how much weight she was carrying herself. The left leg registered about forty five pounds and the right leg not quite half that. Pretty darn good and more than Tez thought she could do. One final task for Janet was to transfer herself from the table mat to her wheelchair using the sliding board. Janet didn’t understand how to get onto the board but once she was there it was an easy slide onto the chair. Visibly relieved, her gym day was over and she wheeled her way out and left me chatting with Simon and Tez.

I found Janet in her room ready for a bio break. Success. Our before dinner activity was reading a card and looking at some photos that Gillian had sent us as a thank you from her wedding. Janet surprised me by reading a fair number of the hand written words in the card and a little of the inscriptions on the backs of the photos. When she first started reading I noticed she was only reading the first two or three words on each line so I had her follow along with her finger and she was able to go seven or eight words before losing focus. She did a good job of identifying people in the photos, even Gillian’s husband Josh, whom she’s never met. There’s that improved short term memory again.

Dinner was a fail tonight. Beef stew which I knew would be a challenge and I tried to convince her she liked all the ingredients. No go. I rescued her with half a peanut butter sandwich and a bowl of pears. She is looking forward to making pizza at home tomorrow.

Back in her room it was time for a birthday Skype with Laurel. Janet very loudly and clearly sang Happy Birthday to her right off the top of the call and carried on a good conversation for almost half an hour. Janet is no longer rambling on about nothing. When she does ramble it’s because she is stuck on a word and she is clearly trying really hard to say something constructive. She is even getting mad at herself a little now when she can’t find the right word. So far it is all with a smile on her face. Speaking of smiles, there was another noticeable improvement today. Since very near the beginning of all this I have been randomly trying to tickle Janet, notably at her armpits where she used to be quite sensitive. Up until this evening I had gotten no response. Someone taught Janet to raise her left arm when she is coughing to help her cough bigger. She was doing that tonight and I tried to tickle her and got an immediate pull away reaction with her telling me “stop that, it…” she couldn’t find the word but agreed with tickles. Not sure of the significance but I’m taking it as a positive.

Janet did most of her bedtime prep herself and before I was half way through our prayer I felt her hand relax and she was asleep. Quite the day. Janet is showing signs of improvement in a lot of areas and I think gained some confidence the last couple of days. Praying for a restful and healing night and a fun day of learning before heading home for the weekend tomorrow.

Wonderful Wednesday #TSJ

While reclining in her comfy chair in the living room watching Ellen, Janet gave me a pretty good report on her day so far when I arrived this afternoon. Once again she was very smiley and talkative saying she’d had a good day and that Mary Lou had come to see her and Brian did some awfully hard things with her and she was almost in tears. She mentioned she went to the gym and helped in the kitchen. The staff gave me a more accurate report saying Janet did go to the gym with Lorne then Tez showed up again and that’s where the awfully hard things and tears happened. From the sounds of it Janet had a very good workout again even getting onto her knees and balancing quite well. I notice Janet getting stronger in the legs despite the spasticity holding steady. Brian reported that he had a good session with Janet, taking her to the kitchen where she cut an apple for her afternoon snack.

20130206-214439.jpg

Brian also mentioned how impressed he was with Janet’s speech volume and her overall alertness and ability to answer his questions. That was reinforced to me when we made a Skype call to Nancy to wish her happy birthday. Janet talked very loud and clear and made some good comments and observations. Probably her best conversation to date.

Continuing in her heightened state of alertness Janet asked if she could go and help with dinner. Garrett was very accommodating in trying to get everyone involved in the meal prep. Janet set the table with a minimum of assistance and seemed ready to do more but there wasn’t anything left to do but eat. She was happy I had some leftover skiing lunch with me and was eating with her. Usually part way through dinner she will ask me “where’s yours?” And I’ll have to explain I’m eating at home. But not today. She made quick work of her fish and chips and vegetables but was not too excited about drinking her water. Garrett has teamed Janet up with Fred and Humberto for dinner menus and prep. They will eat essentially the same meals at dinner and share in the making of them. He also put together a shopping list of groceries for Janet but she declined the invite to go to the store with him tonight.

Winding down to bedtime I read some of Slow Dance to her and she was able to recount the basics of what we read when I asked her right after I stopped. Good to know she’s paying attention and nice to see more improvement of her short term memory. I’m often tempted when reading this book to tell her that similar things happened to her but I don’t want to cause tears. I did ask if she thought any thing similar had happened to her and she said no. Probably a good thing.

Today was another really good day for Janet with a good workout in the gym, some good experience in daily kitchen type activities, good standing transfers and excellent conversational skills. Praying for more healing overnight and a good day of learning tomorrow.

Terrific Tuesday #TSJ

Janet had had another shower, finished her breakfast and was wheeling down the hall looking for help going to the bathroom when I arrived this morning. I reminded her she needs to use the pendant alarm to call for help instead of wheeling around looking for someone. She said ok. She laughed about having a shower this morning after having one last night too. I guess you can’t be too clean. After her bio break we took off for the eye doctor to see what she can see.

The test Janet did is a standard vision field test and was quite difficult for her. I can now see why Dr. McCann was reluctant to send her for one while she was in the hospital. If you’ve never had one, you stare at a little pin point of light in the centre of a vertical bowl while other pin points of light randomly flash around the bowl. You are to click a button every time you see one of those random flashes. Those flashes are fast but the test is not nor is Janet’s response time. Each eye took about nine minutes to test including a short break mid way through each eye so Janet could rest. Dr. Percival came in after to review the results and as expected Janet’s vision is noticeably stronger on the left side of each eye and in the lower half of the field of vision. He showed us an example of someone that suffered a stroke and how their entire right side of both eyes was blacked out initially then after six to eight months some vision was starting to return to those quadrants. I think Janet has been through a similar pattern and may still be changing so we’ll likely run the test again in three months. There is nothing medically that can be done to improve Janet’s vision but at last now we know what’s going on and can monitor any changes.

We spent the rest of the day at home having lunch, playing with Nash, doing a really good job of asking and going to the bathroom, having a long nap, Skypeing Mary/Gaga and Keith who are heading to Africa in a couple days, watching Pick a Puppy, rearranging furniture in the family room, having dinner and watching American Idol. My contribution to Janet’s rehab lately has been more involved with common things she would do around the house. One reason for moving the furniture around is to try and position a comfy chair for her to use instead of being in her wheelchair all the time. She can now get a treat for Nash out of the fridge by herself but her voice isn’t quite loud enough to get him to sit and wait while she puts it in his dish. The singing is helping with her volume and with her state of mind too. She always sings with a big smile on her face. She’s getting better at setting the table but her vision is hampering her a little there so I’m going to try and set things up in the drawers differently so she can see them better.

The drive back to Connect was fun with Janet singing a lot especially to The Carpenters, Close to You. Great moment. Praying for a good night of rest and an active day of learning tomorrow.

Marvelous Monday #TSJ

A very alert and smiley Janet greeted me this afternoon as she watched TV in the living room with Curtis, Clint and Humberto. She was able to accurately tell me a few things about her day so far and Curtis said they had a strong workout in the gym this morning. He did some arm work with Janet then Tez joined in for an hour long session working Janet’s legs. They were able to get her onto her tummy which allowed for some great hamstring stretches. Curtis thought Janet was much more limber than previous and seemed pleased with how things are progressing. I took Janet up to get weighed and can report another gain although this one is a little too large to be believed so I’ll check her again in a couple days.

In the first hour I was with Janet she twice asked to go to the bathroom and was successful each time and right after the second one she suggested she have a rest. I asked her if she wanted to lay down on the bed for a while and she said no. I asked her what she meant by rest then and she said “rest under your chin”. I figured she meant I was to lay down with her and when I suggested that she agreed and slept for an hour and a half! I guess she really did have a busy first half of the day.

Her nap took us right to dinner time which was a nice piece of chicken with mashed potatoes, carrots and gravy prepared by Crystal. Janet ate it so fast I thought she would want more but she was full. I tried to get her to drink more of her water but got the most defiant response yet and it took me twenty minutes of convincing including switching to my plastic water bottle to get her to drink. Then we went off to Skype Andrew. Ever since waking from her nap Janet just couldn’t get her loud voice going until we connected with Andrew. She wasn’t always making sense but she was pretty loud. Crystal was going to give Janet a shower so in trying to be efficient I asked Janet to brush her teeth while we waited. Again, huge defiance, so much so that I had to tell her she wasn’t being very nice. Not sure what brought that on especially after such a good afternoon nap. Could be just a heightened sense of awareness as she was pretty intent on doing things herself and not wanting to be “lead”. She always did like being the leader.

The shower tired Janet out nicely and she was tucked in at her normal ish time and looking ready for a good sleep. Praying for a healing night’s rest and an informative session with the eye doctor tomorrow.

Super Sunday #TSJ

After a busy week and a late night Saturday I elected to not push an agenda on Janet at all today. She woke up just after nine this morning and was in no hurry to get out of bed. We did manage to have breakfast in time to go to church but it would have been a rush and I was not prepared to be rushing around today and Janet was not too excited about going so we had church at home. We watched a sermon podcast from Elevation Church with Steven Furtick on how change (and our growth in faith) is not a project but a process and he mentioned how important it is to not think you have reached some high point and then judge others as though they haven’t. That helped me forgive and pray for the strata council at Invue who now for the final time rejected our request to modify the condo we were considering purchasing there. Their loss.

Leslie joined us for a nice Skype chat then while I was making lunch Janet requested a bio break. I can’t use a standing transfer at home so part of that routine is to lay her on the bed. After her successful session on the toilet and while she was laying on the bed getting dressed she agreed that she was pretty comfortable there and maybe she would have a rest. Shocking! An hour and a half later she was ready to get up and get ready for the Superbowl. I made some pregame snacks of which Janet said she would only have a little as she wasn’t very hungry. From the amount she ended up eating it was a good thing I made as much as I did.

As game time neared I asked Janet who she was cheering for. For the past two weeks whenever that question came up I encouraged her to say San Francisco. Just before kick off she chose Baltimore. A choice I allowed because she did cheer for them previously because of Michael Oher. I tried a little football 101 with Janet as the game started and have to say she’s starting to catch on a little bit. Overall she enjoyed watching the game and was quite proud of herself for picking the winner. We both enjoyed Beyonce’s halftime show and wished she would have sung more.

When it came time to head back to Connect Janet asked me where I was going after I had gotten her ready and was heading out to open the car. I told her we were going back to Connect and that’s where she would sleep tonight. She asked “with you?”, and started crying when I told her no. She really enjoyed being home this weekend and I think especially enjoyed the relaxing day today. I hope she’s not enjoying being home so much that it adversely affects her performance at Connect. I got her calmed down and told her I hoped she would sing during the car ride and she did for the first couple of songs. By the time we got near the airport she was asleep. She seemed to accept my bedtime pep talk once she was tucked in and I’m praying that she continues to work hard at getting better and that her therapists and the staff continue to do their best to help her.

Wedding Day #TSJ

A beautiful and busy day today. It all started earlier than anticipated as Janet woke up around 7:30. Thankfully she wasn’t in a hurry to get up so we were able to linger in bed for a bit before starting the day. After breakfast we got a quick Skype call in to Heather then Courtney dropped by for a visit. It was nice to get caught up with her a little bit and she cut and painted Janet’s nails in preparation for the wedding. Getting Janet dressed for the wedding was harder and took longer than anticipated but we made it right on time and naturally the bride was late so all was well anyways.

The more Janet and I go out around Kelowna the more a whole new world is opening up to me and I must say I’m not impressed. Prior to Janet being sick I was always aware of accessibility issues and certainly noticed ramps and special doors wherever we went but never looked closely enough to see how effective or well maintained those features were. Last night at the little Italian bistro in Lake Country I had to carry Janet up some stairs to get into the place as their wheelchair ramp was partially blocked by snow and only goes to a part of the restaurant we were not going to. The church where today’s wedding was held has a wheelchair ramp that was locked in different places by two by fours padlocked shut. According to the church it’s because of “skateboarders and idiots”. A gentleman unlocked one of the boards for us so we could get to the front door and with help from friends I carried Janet up the seven steps INSIDE the church so we could get to our seats. On the flip side, because of the wheelchair we were able to sit in a spot that afforded us a great view of the ceremony.

It was a beautiful wedding, very heartfelt and genuine, such a pleasure and an inspiration to witness it. There were some especially meaningful moments that reminded me how deep the commitment of marriage is. Janet and I wish Jon and Lisa a life of ever increasing love.

We had a couple of hours to rest before the reception so after a late lunch I offered Janet the chance to nap and for once she thought that would be a good idea. She had a good thirty minute power nap leaving ample time to get to the reception which was conveniently at a restaurant in our neighborhood. No stairs to negotiate at this place and a nice seat ready and waiting for Janet with lots of help from the staff got the evening off to a nice start.

20130202-233046.jpg
Janet enjoyed being in the lively atmosphere and despite it being a little challenging to talk had a really good time tonight. She ate well, made friends with a little preschool aged girl seated a table away from us, smiled big and greeted all those that came over to say hi. The food was outstanding and the speeches quite tolerable with Jon starting his off with “this is all new to me”. Classic. Janet’s only meltdown of the day came when she saw wine being served at every table and she said ” I’d really like some wine”. I couldn’t say yes and she cried a little. Thankfully there were lots of distractions and I was able to shift her focus.

Nine o’clock arrived and Janet suggested we get ready to go home. Pretty impressive endurance demonstrated by her today. I fully expected her to crash when we got home but it wasn’t until after eleven that she finally fell asleep after a few more candies from the candy bar at the wedding.

Praying for rest and healing tonight and a relaxing Superbowl Sunday.

20130202-235220.jpg

Dinner and a Game #TSJ

My day with Janet started a little later than normal and she asked me “what took you so long” when I arrived. She was smiling and when I asked her to try and remember what I’d said about today she responded with “you said you wouldn’t be here till four”. I actually said three but that is still a major improvement in her memory recall and for the record it was 2:45 when I got there so I was actually early. Janet was quite cheery but after twenty minutes or so her words started scrambling beyond recognition so I suggested a rest. Of course her response was no way but when I said ok, let’s go use the Shuttle then, she opted for the rest. I warned her the Shuttle would be done before we left for dinner.

She was in the midst of a very deep snoring sleep when some loud voices in the hallway woke her up so she didn’t get the full benefit of the rest time she had but it was better than nothing. I took her to the gym and she was all for it until I parked her beside the Shuttle. She got really upset and took quite a bit of convincing to get her to give it a go. She did well, matching her personal bests for reps but not getting the best extension ever. I decided to try the machine myself, partly so I could justify me saying positive things about it but also to try and see what may be causing Janet’s hatred of it. I can see how effective a leg workout it is but I got quite a weird sensation when I started some reps. I felt a little like I was floating and was not in total control of my balance. That is a feeling that would totally freak Janet out and I wonder if she is experiencing that. She hasn’t said so but I’ll talk to Tez next week about it.

We met Suzanne for a pre game dinner at a little Italian bistro in Lake Country. Janet ate her first real salad and a massive portion of lasagne. She didn’t talk much but she sure did eat. We got to the UBCO basketball game and enjoyed it very much.

20130201-224048.jpg
A long time family friend, Simon, came over to talk to us at halftime. Janet had a big smile for him and will be seeing more of him over the next while as he’s started doing some practicum work with Tez at Connect. Cool.

Janet sang her way home as I tried to find a way to turn up her volume. She was quiet most of the night and seemed a little tired but does her face ever light up when she starts singing. After a snack and some more singing it was way past bedtime so I got her all tucked in. In our prayer I asked that she continue to work hard in the gym and understand how good the Shuttle is for her and she started crying because I said that. She was fine after we talked about it for a bit but my goodness this is getting a little much. We may have to find an alternative soon.

Praying for a good nights rest and an energetic day of fun tomorrow.