Month: October 2013

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #doctor

Renovation Day 5 was a dusty one as Randy was mudding and sanding drywall repairs from the electrical work we had done and the two walls that were removed. The best part of my day was pulling staples and nails from the floor in preparation for installation of the new one. Janet and I brought home a sample of the new floor to see what it looks like in its natural environment. Pretty cool,I think.

Jen from Connect delivered Janet to her doctor’s appointment this afternoon and I met them there. This was a routine check up and I didn’t even have a list of questions this time as medically Janet is doing fine right now. I let her discuss things with her doctor, only stepping in if she gave inaccurate info and that only happened a couple times. Janet is concerned about her perceived lack of sleeping at night and the doctor suggested trying to stay in a routine of going to bed at the same time each day and getting up at the same time each day. Apparently that helps regulate your Circadian Clock and may explain the difficulties Janet was having on Tuesdays when she was home on weekends until Monday night. She was going to bed way later and getting up way later than at Connect so when she does finally get a chance to come home I’ll make sure she stays in a more regular routine. This was a great visit to the doctor as Janet did most of the talking for once and handled herself very well. Afterwards she told me she likes her doctor as “she’s very approachable”.

Janet was a big help in choosing the colour for our new blinds today and also in picking out a kitchen faucet. We were quite picky about what we wanted as it has to be something Janet can comfortably use so the guy at Splashes really had to work to find the right thing. Good job!

By the time our shopping was done it was time to get Nash and figure out dinner. Janet wanted pizza so we decided to try Papa Murphy’s and were pleased we did. Janet helped bake the pizzas at Connect for us and both kinds we tried were yummy. There was lots of chatter going on in the dining area tonight and Janet enjoyed the activity while we ate then she helped me clean up by wiping the table and putting stuff away. She was getting very tired but her drive to be productive kept her going until 8:40 when she called bedtime thinking I would read to her for half an hour. She lasted five minutes before snoring.

Praying for a good night’s sleep and lots of energy for tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #WetSuit

Renovation Day 4. Electrical work complete, all carpet removed. That means I’m now sleeping on plywood but have light to see the plywood with. Progress.

I met Janet at the Kelowna Family Y this morning to help her with her wet suit. I wasn’t going to swim with her but changed my mind once I got there and am glad I did. The wet suit donning went much better than the first time and Janet said she was quite comfortable in it. Here she is just before getting wet. Sorry about the closed eyes.Janet Wet Suit
Initially Janet complained of being cold and that water is cold at first. After a few minutes she seemed to warm up although she wasn’t admitting it. After ten minutes or so she was fine and swimming around just like the KGH pool. Janet tolerated the big pool for a good forty five minutes and said it was fine, she even tried some of the Aqua Zoomba that was going on but got frustrated at her inability to do the leg work.Janet Me in Pool
She was getting cold near the end and asked to go to the hot tub where she warmed up nicely and I was able to get some good stretching done. In taking off Janet’s wet suit I can totally see how you wouldn’t want to try putting one on wet. Sticky. Overall this trip to the pool was a success and I look forward now to a session with Tez there to get some appropriate exercises going.

I went back to the house for the afternoon and Janet went back to Connect on their cool shuttle bus.Garrett loading Janet
Curtis had her in the Standing Frame for almost an hour and a half after lunch with no complaints. Not surprisingly, Janet had a little nap after that. Dinner was almost ready when I arrived with my homemade soup from one of our kind new neighbours. Watch out Barb and Gary, you have competition. Janet was in a good mood and really following the conversation at the table. Still not initializing but she’s much better at reacting and responding. We had a nice after dinner Skype chat with a clean shaven Andrew then did a little Shuttle work before watching X Factor. After a little dessert, Janet called her own bedtime and wanted me to read to her before I left. It was really nice to lay on a bed for twenty minutes so I’m happy to read to her anytime.

Praying for a night of uninterrupted sleep and lots of energy for tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #SheLife

Renovation Day Three saw walls come down, wiring pulled and final decisions made on placement of appliances etc. Here’s a look at where we are at now.
New House Day 3S

New House Day 3N

Janet was waiting for me in anticipation of going to her She Life group at the church tonight. First stop though was Diving Dynamics to try on a wet suit they brought in for her. It was a little challenging to put on but once it was on it fit well and looks good on her. The guys at the dive shop are confident it will keep Janet warm enough to enjoy the public pool and we will give it a go tomorrow morning. Next stop was home so Janet could see for herself what’s been happening. She admitted there is so much happening its hard for her to keep up.

Earlier in the day Janet helped Jess make cereal squares and Janet brought a pan of them to the church with her. She was quite excited about them and they were really good. The She Life session went quite long tonight but Janet was still smiling at the end and was able to tell me a pretty good recap of what happened. I notice a different sparkle in her eyes when she’s there and am really glad she’s enjoying it.

After downing her meds once we got back to Connect Janet was quick to say she wanted to get ready for bed then was sleeping before our prayers were done. Praying for a night of uninterrupted sleep and lots of energy for a good day tomorrow especially at the pool.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #tour

Day two of renovations was productive and we now have internet at the new house. I felt naked without it.

Janet called me around four to ask when I’d be there to visit her. She sounded like she was having a good day and when I arrived around five thirty she was all smiles and about to have dinner. She was quick to tell me she didn’t sleep “at all” last night and Curtis confirmed she was awake at four thirty. I feel she must have slept at some point because she was way too awake and bright otherwise. She very confidently told me of her morning and the “class” she went to that turned out to be some sort of residents meeting. Janet told me she spoke about our new car, selling our house and buying a new one. Pretty good! There was no arguing about the gym tonight and her Shuttle session was excellent. I keep trying to impress her with statistics but she doesn’t always buy into it. Her improvement is noticeable especially with the amount of extension she is able to get now. Janet was a little tired by the time we attempted some free standing so that wasn’t her best tonight. The Standing Frame was good tonight as well with a nice straight upper body but we still need to work on the leg positioning. Curtis will consult Tez tomorrow on that one.

Our plan was for me to read to Janet for a while before bed and Janet did a great job of getting herself ready. A page and a half into the read she was sound asleep. Good thing we were re reading for tomorrows She Life session and hopefully this means she will have a good sleep tonight.

With our good Internet connection restored I was finally able to upload the video tour of the new house. Check it. http://youtu.be/f8mj1SNXwbU

Praying for increasing strength and flexibility and lots of energy tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #demolition

Day one of the renovation project at our new house was definitely a day of demolition. Randy wasted no time in taking apart the main closet. I thought that was a reasonable goal for today but he also got the kitchen dismantled as well! Here’s what it looked like by 5pm.

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I got to Connect as everyone was eating dinner and having Nash with me brought out the “ahh’s” and “he’s so cute” from most. I’m not ready to leave him in the new house yet so he’ll be travelling to Connect each day for the next while.

Janet was in a good mood until the word gym was mentioned. She fought long and hard against going but ended up making a real nice effort on the Shuttle and doing some nice free standing. I wasn’t going to upset her again so didn’t push the Standing Frame. We sat on the couch together and watched The Voice. Neither of us has been blown away by any of the talent yet but Janet still loves the show.

Tomorrow promises to be busy for me so I’m praying Janet has lots of energy and a willingness to work hard so she has a productive day.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #NewHouse

From our new house!

No longer at my secret location, this post is coming to you from the new house on Lanfranco Road. It doesn’t look or feel like ours right now but we start work on that tomorrow.

Janet was up early for a Sunday and I can only guess it was the anticipation of the Seahawks game that did it. At least that was her answer when I asked her what the big event of the day was. Love her. We watched most of the first half before meeting Les to get the keys to the new place.

Janet was excited and a little overwhelmed trying to piece everything together. After checking a few things out with Les I toured her around and could tell it was difficult for her to sense that it’s our home. She agreed she won’t recognize it in a few weeks and once our stuff is here it’ll seem more ours. I did shoot a video tour today but am unable to upload it. I’ll try tomorrow.

Our neighborhood is full of cool places to eat and shop so to kick things off I took Janet to lunch at Urban Fare. It was really nice to sit in a cozy space with live music and good food. Hardly felt like a grocery store at all. It was really nice to see a lot of Sandrine’s product available there too! For regular groceries it’s a little expensive so after a quick stop at Save On it was back to the house where Janet became first to sleep in it.
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I was able to inventory some of the stuff we’ll try and sell out of here while Janet was napping. Of course that wasn’t the best nap ever but it recharged her enough to enjoy another great experience at Joey Kelowna. We tried going there last night but faced with a twenty five minute wait we employed plan B. The hostess remembered us tonight, told the manager and he bought us a glass of wine! Unreal.

Back at Connect I packed the rest of my stuff while Janet put away laundry and got her meds. I could feel the sadness knowing the amount of time I get to spend with her will be far less during this renovation time and I really had to work to keep the conversation from going there. I helped Janet respond to some overdue correspondence then read to her in bed before lights out. Janet was appreciative of the day off from exercise and ought to be ready to hit it hard tomorrow. I’m certainly praying for that and continued healing.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #trinitykelowna

From a secret location very close to Janet.

Tomorrow we get the keys to our new house! That means this is my last night at the secret location very close to Janet. I’m not sure if I’m more excited see the house and get started on the renovations or be able to empty the stuff out of our new car that I’ve been packing around the last week. It feels like I haven’t really been able to drive it out of fear of sending something crashing. Both will be exciting I’m sure. Janet reminded me tonight that she’d like to be a part of things as they go along at the new place and when I asked her if she wanted to drive by the old house today she said “no, it might make me wish we lived there”. I asked her that as we dropped off some dog food for Nash and she didn’t want to see him either as “it would make me sad”. It would not have been fair to have him think we were picking him up then take off on him again so I’m glad she said no.

Janet’s day prior to that had been good with Garrett taking her to the gym this morning for a good long workout. We offered Janet the chance to go to sledge hockey again but her fear of being cold made that decision for her. Garrett said they did a really good stretching session and a decent job on the Shuttle. After lunch we got Janet into the Standing Frame putting as much weight through her right leg as possible and despite a few complaints of pain early on she tolerated it well. I still feel like we haven’t found the optimum positioning for her yet.

We attended the service at Trinity tonight and for the first time Janet stood and sang the entire first song! I held her the whole time and she wasn’t exactly elegant but she managed and it was cool. She enjoyed Wayne’s message so much she asked to go down front to say hi afterwards. She never does that and told me later that she is better able to follow Wayne’s talks as opposed to anyone else’s.

After a stop for dinner we arrived back at Connect with enough time for a Popsicle before bed. Today was a solid day for Janet and I’m praying for a night of deep and healing sleep and an exciting day tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #turkeydinner

From a secret location very close to Janet.

Janet’s morning was rather routine today. Breakfast, Shuttle, shower, Standing Frame, lunch, then a little time with me to respond to an email from her dad. Janet hasn’t been typing on the iPad for a while and was quite reluctant to do it thinking she couldn’t. I need to keep working on this with her as I believe it’s an important skill and she’s not as bad at it as she thinks. She also doesn’t think she can read but yes she can.

Knowing tonight was the big turkey dinner for everyone connected to Connect, Janet agreed to a nap after the iPad work. I quickly painted her nails after she got up and we went to the Winfield Memorial Hall for the Fall Social. Janet went in saying “your going to know everyone and I’m not going to know anybody”. Before we sat down she had been welcomed by at least six people and had changed her tune to “lots of people are saying hi to me”. There were some little kids there and one at our table that kept Janet’s attention for a good part of the evening. The dinner was very good with Janet gobbling down a large portion of turkey. Pun intended. The staff had put together a slide show featuring all the residents from the past year. Janet said “there won’t be any pictures of me”. Two minutes in she had appeared four times with each one making her laugh. She was well represented throughout the show and wondered why because “I’m never out doing anything”. Funny how she perceives herself sometimes. Janet says she would have danced with me but “not to that music”. That’s a line I used to use while waiting for the scotch to take effect. I didn’t push the dancing on her and we got back to Connect in time to read a little, watch some TV and go to bed.

Today had a nice steady pace to it and Janet was good throughout. Praying for healing sleep and a willingness to try sledge hockey one more time tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #cold

From a secret location very close to Janet.

Swimming day! I was looking forward to seeing how fun the outing to the Y would be and can now see a lot of value in the trip as far as socializing goes. The swimming aspect was not good compared to KGH as Janet found the water in the big pool to be way too cold. I agree and after the session we went wet suit shopping for her. I think there’s huge benefit to Janet going out to public places like that and if she needs a wet suit in order to do it, so be it. Despite the cold water at first she agreed to try the kiddie pool which was warm enough and just deep enough to allow her to swim and it didn’t take long for the smile to come to her face. Janet didn’t totally relax until she was in the hot tub a half hour later though. That was the most social area and I had to almost coax Janet out of there twenty minutes later.

Since we were now going shopping we went out for lunch to Red Robin in hopes of sitting outside. Alas, even though today was nice, there have been enough ugly ones lately for them to close their patio already. We still had a nice lunch and I was able to let Janet eat without being covered in napkins. As long as she thinks about what she’s doing she spills a lot less food now and I can see the potential for being bib free one day. Wet suits are not easy to find in Kelowna but the local dive shop has ordered one in for her to try next week. Here’s hoping.

Back at Connect after a short car nap Janet mustered enough energy for a Skype chat with Heather then asked to have a nap. She woke up from her “nap” quite grumpy and argumentative. I don’t think she slept at all and when she’s tired she gets upset with herself and her situation. Even with the bad attitude she wanted to get her exercises over with and once into the Shuttle routine she started to cheer up. There was a little complaining during the Standing Frame but she still made it through the forty five minutes. We had dinner on our own as it was seven o’clock by the time Janet was ready and everyone else had long since finished. I let her chose the activities the rest of the night and after watching X Factor she asked to get ready for bed. More evidence she likely didn’t nap this afternoon.

So ends another pretty busy day and if you take out the late afternoon melt down, a good one for Janet. Praying for a rejuvenating sleep and a positive day tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #speakingout

From a secret location very close to Janet.

The first major event of today was this morning’s team meeting. These are held every couple of months to ensure we are all up to date on how Janet is progressing and to evaluate her goals in each area of her rehab. Janet has been present at all of these meetings to date with today being the first time she really spoke out and lead the discussion in part. Her voice was loud and clear and the comments she made were appropriate and allowed for feedback from the group. It was really encouraging to witness. Our time with Tez yesterday took care of a large chunk of the agenda and allowed for more time spent on topics that usually don’t get much time. Mary Lou continues to be impressed with Janet’s Speech improvements and will be retesting Janet very soon to see if a different approach to Speech is warranted. The thought is that one to one therapy may no longer be the best method and some sort of group situation may be better. When I informed the team that Janet is starting the She Life program at Trinity tonight they were thrilled to hear that and thought that would be a perfect next step. Overall the meeting was a big success especially with Janet participating so much.

Jess took Janet to the gym then she chose to get the Standing Frame done as well. She spent forty five minutes standing nice and straight with no table to lean on and weight going through both legs. Her right arm relaxed enough to almost completely straighten out too. I think that’s a good thing but will check with Tez to make sure its not too hard on her shoulder. A light lunch signaled the end to a busy first part of the day and with a busy evening looming Janet agreed to a nap.

To make the most of the outing to church we left early to do some shopping for the new house at the mall and were very successful in our efforts. There was time for a stir fry dinner before going to the church and Janet was well fed and ready for the evening when we got there. Janet was greeted by lots of friendly ladies as we wheeled in and she was made to feel very comfortable. Heidi escorted her to her table and promised to “take over” from me for the evening. Almost two hours later I got a text from Heidi saying they were done and found Janet still smiling and in a good mood at her table. She said “it was fine” and “I’m glad I went and met all those ladies”. That’s more than the best feedback I could have hoped for from Janet and she is looking forward to returning next week. I am too as I get to serve with the Tech Team again, not that I need anymore projects but I’ve really missed hanging with Dave, Joel and the rest of a very talented and inspirational team of people.

I sensed Janet needed a little time to wind down when we got back to Connect so we watched X Factor before getting ready for bed. Turned out to be a good call as Janet enjoyed the show then fell asleep almost as we finished our prayers. Once again I was able to list a lot of successes for Janet today and she gave very little resistance to my list. Either she was too tired to argue or she’s starting to believe me a little more. Praying for a night of uninterrupted sleep and lots of energy for tomorrow’s activities and thanking Jesus for continuing to place the right people and right opportunities in our lives at the right time.

Finally, most of you figured out which car Janet and I bought. It is a 2012 Subaru Outback that was taken on trade only thirty minutes before we showed up at Anthony’s Subaru to look at an older model they had. The car only has 15,000 kilometers on it and so far seems to be a really good choice. Janet can get in and out easily. She can fasten her seatbelt without assistance and her wheelchair fits in the back no problem. The dual zone climate control actually works so her side of the car can be ridiculously warm as she likes it and mine can be comfortable. As soon as I figure out the Bluetooth function for my iPhone I’ll be really happy.

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