From Heidi

Jack joined me (Heidi)Yesterday during our reading time with Janet and it turned into an exciting event for us. I have never see her so beautiful and alert. From all those outdoor beach strolls with Larry, she has acquired a gorgeous tan.
Between our bouts of reading we pulled out the large mirror, handed Janet the hair brush and asked her to brush her hair. It took a moment but then she did exactly that. Today she also turned the book in the books each time we asked her to…without hesitation. High fiveing, brushing her hair, putting up one finger, putting her glasses on and off and flipping through books and lovingly holding my hand was one of our most precious times with her. Tangible and evident progress. Before we left we again prayed over her that God would completely heal her and restore all that has been broken. We are grateful for Larry, Laurel and all the wonderful people God has placed in her life. Love and Hugs…Heidi

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From Laurel

We began the day with some chatting and some sign language. Mom didn’t seem very cooperative with signing, so I ditched that and began her morning stretch. She was somewhat tight but loosened up relatively well. This also put her to sleep, and she had a solid 30-45 minute morning nap. After that, I got out the mirror and played around a little with that. Mom really stared intently at her reflection, and moved her hair around a little while looking at herself. I tried to get her to copy my mouth movements (e.g., “open your mouth on 1, 2, 3…”), but didn’t have any luck. However, she did slightly open her mouth once or twice when I touched it on the third count. We did some reading to allow her to relax, and then I tried signing again. A great surprise: all I said was “Mom, show me yes with your hand” without doing any hand motions myself, and she lifted her hand, did a small wave but then actually did the yes sign!! Either she has learnt that doing that is the only way to shut me up, or she actually put together yes and the hand motion! Pretty excited that it may be the latter! She didn’t repeat it when I asked again later, but you really have to catch Mom at the right time for these new things.

Physio was a fill-in for Tom today so she didn’t make it by until 1130 or so. It was Jane, who Mom had for physio several times when in the surgical ward. Jane was tight for time so didn’t do much other than the basic range of motion, but she really did push Mom past her usual stretches with Tom. A few painful/worried expressions from Mom, but it generally seemed like a good sign that she was being pushed further than usual. Jane noted that it really is not Mom’s left hip that is limited in range, but her knee, which was clear when she dropped Mom’s leg over the bed. Mom relaxed after Jane left, and I read her some Anne until she fell asleep. A well-deserved nap. She will soon be treated to a visit from Kiko, and then I’ll return later in the afternoon.

From Laurel

A solid afternoon shift with Mom. I arrived and we spent some time chatting and doing some signing. She still never used “yes” or “no” signs in response to a question, but she did quite methodically figure out how to do the “no” sign and imitate it back for me. She was soon put in her wheelchair and we headed down to the beach. Larry was riding by on his bike and joined us for a bit. We all gave Gaga a call together and it was nice to see Mom focusing on the phone as her mom chatted to her. Larry even caught Mom looking over to me a few times when Gaga directed questions to me.

Once back inside, Mom quickly appeared uncomfortable in her chair, lifting up her left leg and moving forward lots. I asked her if she wanted to go back into her bed, and prompted “yes” or “no” signs, but no luck. However, she did start motioning to the bed and leaning over to try to touch it, increasing this action over time as we waited for the nurses to come to move her back to bed. It was very clear she was trying to communicate she wanted back in bed. She also leant over to put her magazine and glasses on the bed, and threw them at the bed when she realized couldn’t quite reach that far. Both objects hit the bed – who knew Mom was the one we all got our basketball strokes from???

Once in bed, she still appeared uncomfortable or distressed about something, and nurse Arlene decided to give her some Tylenol. She settled down enough for a little snooze while I was reading to her, but then woke quickly and began Houdieno. I attempted to play a game of Tic Tac Toe with her. Although I wouldn’t say she actually made a move, she did attempt to make a scribble (which happened to be on the board). She also successfully took 2 pillowcases off of her pillows. It seems clear her bed cleaning skills have been spared!

I moved her onto her back and stretched her out and this seemed to relax her, enough to put her to sleep. I then left her for the night looking quite peaceful tucked in bed.

Busy day so far. Janet popped her eyes open as soon as I said good morning. She was in a half Houdieno move and gave me a little smile. Christi came in and we cleaned her up and changed her. Janet is a favorite of so many nurses, it’s pretty cool. Christi did mention Janet’s heart rate was up a little, around 104. She checked back in the chart a ways and it appears Janet is often in the 90’s and low 100’s. I asked Dr. Price about it and he says it’s likely a switch in her brain stem telling the heart to beat faster. As long as it doesn’t sustain at 120 or 130 he’s not worried about it.

Because of her high heart rate I let Janet rest a little before starting our stretching routine. Tom came in later on and we put Janet on her tummy. She tolerated it very well with little change to her heart rate and lots of good movement from her. She even helped me roll her over after 45 minutes. After a short rest I sat her up for some standing then Christi and I weighed her. She gained almost a kilo from last week. Good news!

We did some more work on talking and signing etc. No luck on the talking yet and Janet refused to do the sign language thing today but she repeatedly closed her hand to a fist then lifted her pointer finger as instructed. She seems fascinated by her hand and fingers so maybe that’s the way to go for yes and no.

Heidi came in to read with Janet and I took off to deal with LTC financial issues. Thanks to Laurel I’m going to Nanaimo tomorrow to see my parents. Praying for immediate and full healing and the ability to talk.

From Laurel

Mom was in her chair when I arrived this afternoon but looking somewhat uncomfortable so was fairly quickly put back to bed. She had a good snooze once in bed, and then woke up for some chatting and reading. I felt she looked more “focused” on listening as I got to some particularly good parts in Anne of Green Gables today, but that may have been an overly optimistic impression on my part. She didn’t want to try any writing/scribbling today, but when I gave her the hairbrush and asked her to brush her hair she quite quickly used it to appropriately stroke the side of her head. Nice job, Mom! She also was very quick and “on target” with her high fives today. She later had another nap and then woke up for a nice visit from Wendy. We did some stretching and then it was time to say goodnight.

Oh, and good news of the day…the lab test indicated C Diff is gone! Apparently we are to keep the gowns and gloves on for another couple of days, but the end is in sight!

Sleepy day so far for Janet. She was in Houdieno mode when I arrived and her nurse came in to clean her up. A test is being done to see if the C diff. is gone. Sure hope so. Started stretching Janet and despite being quite tight to begin she loosened up quite well. Likely due to her falling asleep half way through the workout. I waited for Tom with Janet all limbered up and ready to go but by 10:30 I had not even seen him on the ward yet so I sat Janet up on the side of the bed and did some standing with her. I also just let her sit there for about fifteen minutes and each time she leaned over to the right too far she would grab my arm or shoulder and correct herself. Nice. Got her into the new wheelchair using the sliding board and was already for a drive around the ward and back to sleep she went. I sat with her for a few minutes to see if it was just a power snooze then Tom came in. He used the sliding board to get her back on the bed and she woke up as soon as he started working with her. Seeing Tom work the sliding board was good for me as I now know to put Janet’s arm out way farther than I was so she can pull herself more than lift and slide. I put Janet into the regular chair after her workout as she was sleepy again.

I went roaming in search of Dr. McCann and saw Cathryn. She is still working on the rehab criteria. Progress is being made on the LTC rates thanks to lots of help from the Access Coordinator. Had a chat with this week’s Hospitalist and he was pleased to hear of Janet’s progress. He actually had an aneurysm that was diagnosed before it ruptured. Obviously he was treated successfully and I look forward to talking to him about it some more.

Praying for full healing.

Janet was raring to go when I arrived just before three. She was in Houdieno mode and very bright. Even bright enough to smile at me a couple times. The smile quickly vanished as I started stretching her as the left hip/pelvis and leg are still tighter than I think they should be now with the Botox. She started smiling again when I sat her up on the edge of the bed then did some “standing”. She really does enjoy sitting by herself especially when I help straighten her back. Her face lights up each time. She even brushed her hair a few times. We went for our customary walk to the beach with Janet wheeling her chair from her room to the elevators in record time. By the time we were at the beach Janet was clearly not comfortable. She was leaning forward a lot to grab her left knee and move that leg to the right. She seemed better as long as we were moving but I did cut the walk short and as I sat her on the edge of the bed she very deliberately put her left arm down and started to lean over clearly “saying” she wanted to lay down. She seemed relieved almost immediately.

After a short rest we called Heather and Janet was focused on her voice most of the time. She looked perplexed sometimes too but that is a common expression people have when listening to Heather.

School was in for a while next. Janet seemed very interested when I wrote her name on the iPad using iblackboard. Maybe she recognized her name or maybe my writing, nevertheless it was a good reaction and I will try other words with it next. Tried to get her to write or draw something on it but only got a few taps out of her. I played a couple speech therapy songs for her and she seemed to watch each one very closely.

I had lots of interaction with Janet today. Lots of eye contact, touching, it even felt like she leaned in to give me a kiss once. She fell asleep by six and was still snoring at 7:30 when I left but the time she was awake she was very awake.

Praying for a productive day tomorrow.

From Laurel

A quiet morning with Mom. She appeared to be asleep when I arrived, but opened her eyes as soon as I began talking. Worked a lot with her right arm, making it reach around to touch other parts of her body and helping her to move it around. She appears very focused when this is happening, although I don’t know on what. I again gave her the pen and paper, and with some prompting she made some more scribbles. She doesn’t ever want to do it for long, but she doesn’t seem to mind it as she’s doing it. I used her hand to write a (very messy) sentence – thought it was worth a try. Later, Mom was put in her wheelchair but fell alseep just as we were about to head out. Fortunately, she woke up as we got to the elevators and Suzanne stepped out for a visit. Nice timing! We went outside for a little, but Mom needed to be back for lunch, and on the way back she fell alseep. Proceeded to sleep for almost two hours before I decided to head home for some lunch. Hopefully Larry can have some more awake time when he arrives this afternoon!

It turned out to be a fairly bright day for Janet. Her morning nap was brief and we did some reading, writing, grooming, talking and gawking over lunch. When Janet wakes up she is usually a little slow to get going so I gave her a magazine to look at first. She leafed through a bunch of pages first then went one by one till she found a very colorful ad on one page and she really looked at that for a while. She also paused at a half page photo of Ellen and I reminded her who that was but I think she recognized her. I tried with the pen and paper thing again with no luck but Janet did finally brush her hair! Just a couple strokes and not well aimed but she did it without coaching or hesitating. I sensed she was quite bright so I tried to get her to say something like hi or aah. She will open her mouth on command now sometimes but there was no real effort to speak today. Janet is getting better with the sign language as she now will mimic the sign for yes consistently. I used the speech therapy mirror with her as well but I don’t think she sees well enough to really know what she’s looking at. She was comfortable touching the mirror today so that is a good step.

After lunch it was back to bed for a stretch and some sitting/standing. Janet stayed awake through that so into the new wheelchair she went. By far her best effort at driving today. Long spurts of wheeling and way more confident in the chair. I can walk beside and in front of her now and she’ll follow where if I did that before she seemed scared to do anything. Good progress.

I drove as we walked to the beach and back. The sun felt good and Janet was looking around a lot. I stopped a few times where she could look closely and touch some flowers. Previously she would be startled a little to touch something like that but she seems more confident now. I put her into bed to wait for Laurel and headed home for lunch.

Laurel reports that her mom slept till about 4:30 then was quite active the rest of her shift. Laurel was successful in getting Janet to write on some paper! Well, scribble, but still. Apparently the pen I was giving Janet was not good enough for her as she loved the clicky pen Laurel gave her. She started clicking it right away and when Laurel held a piece of paper out in front of her she put the pen to it and made scribbly marks. Cool.

Praying for a restful and healing night and a communicative day tomorrow.