Month: March 2013

Road trip. Disaster Averted. #TSJ

Friday night I got Janet into bed a little late because of the nail painting but not too late, about 9:40 and she fell asleep almost instantly so you would think she’d wake up at her usual eight or eight thirty at the latest. Right? Wrong. I had to wake her at 9:30 so we could start getting ready for our road trip. She actually sprung into action quite quickly and I was glad for that because I felt bad about having to wake her and the only reason I had to get her going was we had an appointment to drop off the dog before we could hit the road. We had plenty of time to get to Vancouver otherwise. We thought we were empty nesters. Hah.

It was a glorious day for a drive, bright and sunny the whole way, sparkly lake, snow on the mountains. Stunning. Janet did well, sleeping for a couple of short bursts on the first leg which was a little over two hours. That got us to Hope for our scheduled lunch and gas stop. Janet shocked me by ordering a Beef Philly Dip Sandwich, something she would never have done prior to getting sick and she ate all but one tiny piece. She surprised me even more by turning down a chocolate milkshake for the road. She regretted that decision after tasting mine but I was nice and shared.

I guess that pit stop took a little longer than anticipated as we didn’t get into our hotel room until five. Fortunately we were late enough to have avoided the Second Narrows Bridge being closed due to a police incident. They opened it over an hour before we got there so most of the mess had been cleared up. That left forty minutes or so for Janet to have a nap before dinner. That was enough though and we met Jim and Nancy at our favorite sushi place, Genji Sushi, and enjoyed a really nice meal and visit with them. Janet carried on her trend of eating completely different things than she used to by enjoying some tempura to start the meal. Never would have gone near that before. The sushi was very good and remains one of the few things we miss about the coast.

I got Janet into bed after nagging her some more about drinking water. If anyone has suggestions as to how to get her to drink more without being nagged I’m listening. Also if anyone is campaigning against daylight savings time, I’m in. It’s a ridiculous and outdated practice, especially as I write this at eleven o’clock knowing its actually midnight. Goodnight.

Thanking God for all His creation and praying for a restful night that brings energy and brightness tomorrow.

Memory Lane. Janet visits the old job site. #TSJ

Today was a more typical Janet day than the last few. I mean that in mostly a good way. She was waiting for me in the living room at Connect with a big smile and a laugh. Her first words through all that were “I haven’t really done much today”. I wonder if she was rehearsing that knowing I always ask her what she’s been doing. Hope so.

Wanting her awake for later in the day I decided it was nap time before we did anything else. Janet didn’t argue about it but didn’t really sleep much either. Lorne got her meds ready for me and we were off for the weekend. First stop was Sandrine’s. It had been too long since the two of them had seen each other and Janet felt good in the store saying she remembered some things about it. Sandrine let us try her new vanilla macaron and it is incredible.

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Seeing the smile on Janet’s face and the obvious familiarity of the place I will make a point of stopping by more often for her.

At home Janet had a long play time with Nash while I got most of dinner ready. She then helped make the salad and set the table. Well done considering the lack of a nap and the fact she is still coming down from the Dilantin OD. After dinner it was time to change finger nail color to St. Patrick’s Day green. That color was not cooperating with me tonight and the process took way longer than it should have, right past bedtime. Janet fell asleep in a hurry even while I was packing for our road trip to the coast tomorrow. We are really hoping we reach our destination this time and are looking forward to a good sushi dinner with Jim and Nancy tomorrow and a yummy birthday lunch with my mom Sunday. All in North Vancouver so it will be interesting to see if any memories are triggered there.

Praying that the peaceful sleep Janet is in now continues all night and we have a safe and enjoyable trip to North Van. tomorrow.

Coming Down. Janet’s overdose wearing off. #TSJ

To my surprise, Janet was asleep in her bed when I arrived at Connect this afternoon. Garrett had put her down for a nap around two saying she was starting to fade and didn’t protest the idea for once. I was more than happy to snuggle up beside her after having enjoyed an awesome first half of the day skiing. Of course she woke up as I approached but only enough to show me that beautiful smile, have a little chat then go back to sleep.

Being comparatively bright afterwards Janet agreed to Skype Heather. The conversation generated a few giggles, lots of smiles and some of the loudest talking Janet has done since her OD. She tired quickly though and agreed to end the talk for today and try again next week.

We made our way down to the kitchen where Rebecca and Humberto were prepping dinner. Janet set the table with a little help from me and proceeded to eat everything in sight including the house’s first attempt at quinoa. She loved it as did most everyone else.

Tonight was ladies night upstairs and I think Janet would have gone had there been something going on other than sit and have a cup of tea. Maybe next week. She opted to play a game on the iPad and did very well naming pictures of places, some of which I had to think about. First time I’ve noticed a weakness in that app as some of the clues and pictures were really obscure.

Bedtime came a little early as Janet has not yet fully “come down” from her OD although she is noticeably improved today. Garrett and Tez had her in the gym for an hour this morning saying she worked hard and did well. Tez tried pushing her to do some standing work with him but she’d had enough by that time. I’m glad he’s considering it at least.

Praying for a good night of rest and healing, a productive morning and some fun in the afternoon.

Suspicions Confirmed. A path to improvement. #TSJ

Janet was waiting in the Connect living room for me with a smile on her face. She knew we were going somewhere but wasn’t sure where. Jess told me they let Janet sleep in until after nine as the night staff reported Janet was awake at 2:30 and again just after five. Janet told me she ate a good breakfast and was ready to go.

Her doctor and I were both shocked at the high level of Dilantin in her system and the doctor is very confident that all the symptoms I brought to her attention are from the excess of Dilantin. Good news I guess. My suspicion is that there was a mix up in the conversion from liquid to pills and instead of the moderate increase the doctor ordered last time Janet actually got a fifty percent increase. Not sure if the error was with the pharmacy or in the doctor’s orders but something went wrong somewhere. To be safe, I agreed to have Janet go back on the liquid form until we get the right dosage then we can talk carefully about what that looks like in pill form.

Janet was quite drowsy today, even nodding off in the doctor’s office. After that appointment we had a quick lunch next door then met our realtor to look at a couple condos in the same building as the doctor’s office. Neither were to our liking but it was good to have a look.

I offered Janet the choice of a nap at Connect or home, she chose home and went down for a two hour snooze as soon as we got there. All that sleeping meant we only had time for a quick dinner then it was back to Connect for bedtime.

Everyone I’ve spoken to today is confident Janet will snap out of this pretty quick now that we know she was overdosed on the Dilantin. I expect a much improved Janet after a good nights sleep tonight and am praying for such.

Getting Better. Janet improves tonight. #TSJ

When I called Connect this morning Lorne was in the process of getting Janet up. Jess told me they decided to let Janet sleep in till nine and that she seemed fine, having slept through the night. When I arrived to take her to the lab she was having a late lunch and seemed pretty chipper. She wasn’t doing too well with feeding herself but she managed and after a pee break we went to the lab. No crying this time as I guess she’s finally getting used to being stabbed.

Upon our return to Connect Janet seemed relatively bright still and agreed to play a game on the iPad. She chose math and did surprisingly well lasting about fifteen minutes with that game then I switched her to a naming game that she succeeded at as well. I took a chance at asking her if she wanted to lay down for a rest after half an hour and she quickly agreed. Two hours later and a little past her dinner time she was recharged and ready to go. It was her night to help with dinner but rest is far more important right now so Humberto took her spot and everything was dished out and ready when Janet got to the table. She was clearly doing much better than yesterday, smiling at the conversation and eating well.

Curtis took Janet to the gym for a late night stretch which I thought would be short considering the time but Janet came back grinning and feeling proud of herself after eight o’clock and had enough energy to watch some of the hockey game with Chris and Humberto before going to bed.

I’m very impressed by the improvement in Janet today and especially with her interactions with others. For the last while she’s not shown any interest in the other residents but that flipped around completely today. She’s still not conversing with them but she really enjoyed listening to the chatter and reacted with smiles when appropriate. Janet’s talking to me was much clearer today with no major occurrences of Klingon but her volume level was really low. Her toileting routine was very good and I’m feeling a little like nurse Jen may be right about Janet adjusting to the Dilantin. Anxiously awaiting the test results and answers to my many questions.

Praying for another good night of rest and healing and a day of learning and progress tomorrow.

OD? Janet does not have a cold. #TSJ

I called Connect fist thing this morning and Janet was in the shower. Good sign. Jess called me after the shower to say Janet was awake when she peeked in her room around eight and agreed to have a shower. Another good sign. While Jess was talking to me Janet was eating a piece of toast. Good sign number three and enough for me to think Janet was certainly no worse than yesterday. Jess said nothing unusual was reported from overnight and Janet seemed fine.

An hour or so later I called nurse Jen for her take and she said she didn’t notice any big change in Janet and acknowledged that I see way more of her so would notice things better. All was well as far as she is concerned. We talked a little about my concern with the Dilantin levels and she suggested I bump up Janet’s doctor appointment to as soon as possible. We agreed to discuss things in more detail when I got in this afternoon.

Janet was in bed when I arrived, having been there for a couple of hours. She was awake and greeted me with a little smile. There was good color to her face and her eyes were nice and sparkly. Her speech was decent and she agreed to get up and have some lunch. Jess told me Janet refused lunch from her and hadn’t felt like doing any of her usual activities. She wheeled down to the kitchen and chose to have some roasted red pepper soup which she ate with only a little help from me at the end. Jen came down to chat just as Janet was finishing and we went back to Janet’s room so we would have a better chance of hearing Janet. Her speech remained decent to my disappointment as I wanted Jen to hear the Klingon. She had done a little research into Dilantin as I had and we agreed there are some signs of Janet’s levels being too high or the presence of some side effects. I will take Janet to the lab tomorrow to test those levels and then discuss them with the GP Wednesday morning. Jen assured me she sees nothing to be overly concerned about and said Janet for sure does not have a cold. She cautioned that sometimes side effects appear at the outset of using a drug and then they diminish as your body adjusts. Solid point. I’ve been there.

Still with some energy Janet wanted to watch some TV. Luckily there was a repeat of a pretty good NCAA basketball game on and we enjoyed watching that with Fred and Karl. We especially enjoyed teasing Clint who would come in and try to diss the game of basketball and promote his favorite game of hockey. He stood no chance. Some of the jabs thrown brought a smile to Janet’s face. Another good sign.

Dinner was chili and Caesar salad and Janet did a great job eating everything dished to her. I was impressed with how long she was staying awake for and never saw any signs of fading until half an hour after dinner. She helped wash some dishes, rejected the offer of a tootsie roll for dessert and started her rapid decent to sleep. After brushing her teeth and getting her PJs on she was asleep before I could cover her up. Seriously. She was so soundly asleep that she never flinched as I got my jacket out of the wardrobe, which is very noisy, said a prayer and kissed her goodnight. Didn’t move a muscle except those needed to breath.

A definite improvement over yesterday but I am ever more convinced that her Dilantin levels are too high or it just isn’t the right drug for her. Praying that the sleep she was in when I left continues through the night and she is ready for a productive day tomorrow. Thanking Jesus for the accomplishments of today and the people that are caring for Janet.

Sick Day. Janet still under the weather. #TSJ

Janet had a good sleep last night only waking once that I know of and that was with a smile. Same thing happened this morning but she didn’t want to get out of bed. I convinced her to sit up and drink some water and take her meds. That went well then she went back to sleep for an hour or so.

After that little nap she seemed to have a more energy and managed to sit by the fire and eat half a bagel with jam and drink a cup of water. She started nodding off an hour later and I put her back to bed. That’s pretty much the way the day went. Sleep for a bit, wake up for a bit, sit by the fire then go back to bed. All in about one hour rotations. At times her speech was reasonable and at times it was complete Klingon and she seemed to know that but couldn’t do anything about it. I tried to always ask questions that only required a one or two word response as sentences were pretty much impossible. Throughout the day she ate and drank well considering the way she was feeling and she was really good about taking her meds. I didn’t push the toileting routine on her today and she didn’t seem to want to bother with it. Not much happening there anyways.

By late afternoon Janet had perked up enough to sit and have popcorn with me while watching some basketball and a little while after that she gobbled down a couple pancakes while we watched The Princess Diaries. She didn’t make it through the whole movie but that was her longest awake stretch of the day.

On the drive back to Connect I actually got a smile from Janet and a little singing to The Most Beautiful Girl in the World by Charlie Rich and she stayed awake the whole trip. Things deteriorated rapidly once there though. Last week we switched her Dilatin to pills from a liquid and apparently the pharmacy can only do her dosage in five separate pills. It has been a battle to get Janet to swallow that many pills at bedtime and tonight was the ultimate. With her not feeling well and being tired and with me not at the top of my game things broke down in a hurry. What to me should take less than a minute took twenty complete with tears from Janet and impatience from me. I’ve requested a change back to liquid so as to avoid a repeat of tonight.

This weekend has taught me a lot. Janet and I were disappointed we didn’t make it to Calgary Friday but even she appreciated being sick at home as opposed to a hotel room somewhere. Today there was a blizzard in Calgary and who knows what the drive out of there would have been like. We were clearly meant to be here this weekend.

Today was difficult for me as there wasn’t much I could accomplish. At least that’s how I was feeling and when it came time to drop Janet off at Connect I was thinking ahead to what I could get done upon my return home. When Janet had trouble taking her meds the delay angered me and I blamed her. She did nothing wrong. She’s sick, she’s tired, she just wanted to go to bed. There was no way to avoid the pills tonight but there was certainly a way I could have helped her, by remembering that Jesus is in control here, not me. I am merely His servant living out the commitment I made to Janet almost ten years ago. By hitting bottom a little bit tonight I realized that the enemy is constantly trying to get at us and I won’t allow that.

With the help of some yogurt Janet got the pills down and was finally able to lay down for the night. I had my jacket on, ready to leave, but felt prompted to stay so asked her if she wanted me to lay beside her for a bit. I heard the sweetest “yes” I’d heard in a long time and watched her fall asleep through watery eyes.

The goals for this week are; ensure that Dilatin is the right anticonvulsant drug for Janet and is not producing negative side effects. If Dilatin is ok then confirm Janet is on the right dose. Discover the cause of the reappearance of Klingon. Confirm Janet has a “cold”.

Truly praying for a restful night of healing and a bright day of recovery tomorrow.

A Reason for Everything. Janet under the weather. #TSJ

Our day started off great. Janet slept well last night and was pretty chipper this morning enjoying our breakfast time together. She enthusiastically helped start the purge of her closet for our morning activity and had a good chuckle over some of the things we found. Some things I’ve never seen her wear before and I’m glad of that. She was able to say goodbye to a lot of stuff and we only did one half the closet.

Lunchtime came and Janet was starting to fade. Even at the height of her chipperness this morning I noticed her speech was mostly in Klingon. She was fine with one or two words but when she tried to put a sentence together it came out a real mess. Not scrambled words at all but unidentifiable ones. I am a little concerned about this as I’ve noticed it happening throughout this past week.

Janet did not fade too rapidly and agreed to go for a walk as it was quite the nice warm day here. We were out for over an hour enjoying the sun and mild temperatures. Really nice to be doing that again.

That was about it for Janet today. As planned, it was nap time after our walk, 3:00, and after the usual “why are you putting me to shelter?” complaint (shelter is not the usual word) she was asleep in minutes and stayed that way till after five. In fact she is still in bed as I write this and I suspect will be for the night. She says she’s not feeling well but has no specific complaint. She wakes up a couple times an hour and each time her speech is better. She’s managed some water and her dinner time meds so I’m thinking the sleep and rest is all good healing and tomorrow she will stay chipper all day. I’m glad she is doing this at home rather than a Calgary hotel room so there’s one silver lining from yesterday’s adventure.

Despite the enormous rest she’s already had I’m still praying for a restful night as Janet clearly needs it. Also praying for a bright and chipper day tomorrow.

The Best Laid Plans. Avalanche! #TSJ

Today started out great and ended great, it just wasn’t that great in the middle.

I arrived at Connect just before ten after dropping Nash off at the kennel and Janet was pretty much ready to go. Our plan was to drive to Calgary to surprise Cam for his final college basketball game of his career tomorrow and things started off just fine. The weather was decent in Kelowna and was forecast to be quite mild in Calgary as well. I was a little nervous taking Janet on such a long drive but knew there were plenty of places to stop along the way if needed and we were in no hurry. She happily sang along to a few songs for the first while then near Armstrong she was nodding off now and then. It’s really hard to talk to Janet in the car as she has yet to get her volume level up where it needs to be so I felt a little awkward driving in mostly silence but she seemed content.

Every time we came near a gas station I asked her if she needed a bathroom break and she said no every time. We made it to Revelstoke and our planned lunch break by 12:30 despite some slow traffic and a delay for avalanche control. Speaking of avalanches the potential for such was extreme today in many parts of BC and that caused the powers that be to close the highway between Revelstoke and Golden ten minutes before we got there. So instead of a four hour drive from there to Calgary we faced a twelve hour one through the Kootenays or wait for the highway to open. The ETO was for eight or ten tonight and as I write this they are estimating eastbound traffic to start moving at 10:30. That would have gotten us in at around 3:30 local time which is likely the same as if we’d have driven through Nelson etc.

I was not interested in subjecting Janet to that amount of time in the car and with no hotel rooms available in Revelstoke we made the call to head for home. By the time we got there we should have been in Calgary and I got a really good look at Janet’s tolerance level for car travel. Next trip to Calgary will be by plane. Janet was uncomfortable on the way back and found it hard to sleep. She would have made it to Calgary but it would not have been pleasant. I think she’d be fine with the four hours to Vancouver but seven is too much. Good to know.

Nash was extremely happy we decided to go home and Barb made our decision seem right when she had Gary bring over two warm pieces of fresh baked apple pie soon after we got home. Mmmmm.

Janet was pretty out of it tonight but ate a good dinner and was happy to get to bed. I’m praying for a good nights sleep that recharges her for a fun day tomorrow.