Music Therapy

Janet, A Success Story. March 16. #TSJ

For a brief moment I thought today was going to be spectacular. Janet woke up at a reasonable time after a solid night of sleep and seemed quite happy. Before breakfast was done a real negative attitude started to take over her and I found myself considering taking her back to Connect early. I contributed somewhat to her attitude by getting quite mad at her for misjudging the need to go to the bathroom. Her lapses in this area have really frustrated me lately because she was doing so well for so long. To help rectify the situation I told (not asked) Janet we were walking to KGH to visit John. I knew if I asked the answer would be no and figured the fresh air would do us both good as would doing something for someone else.

The walk was pleasant with Janet mildly complaining it was cold, I think more out of habit than really feeling cold. Thirty minutes after leaving our house Janet was wheeling down the long hallway at KGH that served as her wheelchair training ground during her 4B and Rehab days. What used to take her more than fifteen minutes took her maybe one and the large threshold at the end that always used to beat her was conquered today with a strong effort. Janet didn’t remember any of it of course but I sure do. As would happen, John was sound asleep when we peaked into his room so we left him a note and a happy face lollypop. Janet called her own successful bathroom break before we left the building and I felt things were getting better.

Our walk home took us a more pleasant way, close to the lake and Janet says some of it was familiar to her. She remembered the house she went to for some singing lessons last summer and knew where we were in relation to our house most of the time. Overall it was a very pleasant outing and Janet’s attitude improved a hundred percent. Mine too.

I read some of The Artisan Soul to her during lunch then insisted on a nap so she could be alert for the St. Patrick’s Day potluck dinner in our clubhouse this evening. We enjoyed the conversation and food and were happy to have the chance to get to know some neighbours better. There are some good cooks in our neighbourhood!

Janet declined the chance to wear green finger nails for St. Patrick’s Day and just wanted to read before sleep time. She lasted a good forty five minutes and answered my questions well as we read. Nice to be reading something she is tuned into again. Praying for lots of energy and a positive attitude for tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. March 15. #TSJ

It was late when we went to bed last night but I was still shocked when I looked at the time when we woke this morning, 9:47! What a sleep in! Janet was quite happy about it, giving one her patented fist pumps saying “yay, I slept!” She obviously had and was bright and full of energy which enabled her to get her own breakfast with a minimum of coaching. Since it was practically lunch time as we were eating breakfast I decided we better answer some emails so we could say we got something done. Janet surprised me by remembering how to activate the speech to text feature of gmail and she quickly knew what she wanted to say for each email so it was a quick and painless task.

In discussing last night’s talk by Erwin McManus and checking the schedule for today at the Levite Summit, Kiko confirmed there was another session with Erwin this afternoon. I sort of had to drag Janet there as she was intent on chilling and watching The Voice. I knew the summit would be a better experience and I was right. Janet confidently took her seat then stood and sang for the entire worship set before Wayne came up to introduce communion. Normally people bring the elements to everyone at their seats but today we were asked to walk to the front of the stage and get them ourselves. To my surprise Janet agreed to walk up there with me. It was about fifteen feet one way and on a bit of a sloped floor and Janet handled it impressively. I was a little concerned while we headed back to our seats as I now had only one hand available to her as I held our elements in the other. Janet was strong and deliberate in each step and thanks to the patience of those around us, made it back safe and sound. Huge high five! Janet listened intently to Erwin’s talk and at the end, with a big smile said, “that was great, well worth coming to”. Indeed it was.

Janet went for a nap after a late lunch and slept through our regular church time. She didn’t really want to go as that would’ve been three times in two days so I let her sleep. We were content to have sushi and watch The Voice during dinner before starting to read The Artisan Soul. Janet tired before we could really get into the book but I think she will find it a good reinforcer of what we experienced this weekend.

Praying for full and complete healing and an always positive attitude.

Janet, A Success Story. March 14. #TSJ

As soon as Janet was done lunch today we headed for home so she could get a nap in before going to Trinity for the Levite Summit this evening. Her morning was routine and she felt pretty good about the gym session she had.

The sun was shining and that made it hard to sleep this afternoon so after maybe a half hour of shut eye, Janet was up helping get our early dinner ready. We ate it while watching Crave: The Documentary, by Erwin McManus whom we were going to hear speak tonight. The film was shot in Vancouver and centres around Erwin asking people for a positive or negative answer to certain words like, religion, God, Jesus, spirituality. The responses and subsequent interviews are intriguing and provide an insightful look at humanity and the role of the “church”. Janet loved it and that set her up well for the event tonight. It was a concert like atmosphere to start the evening off and Janet stood, smiled and sang along for a long time. She even let go for a few seconds to try and clap along at one point. She found Erwin’s talk to be “really good” and “interesting”. We bought his new book, The Artisan Soul, and look forward to hearing more about how we were all created to create.

Erwin McManus at Trinity

Erwin McManus at Trinity


On a down note Janet has been reluctant lately to interrupt an activity to go to the bathroom and that happened tonight. I’m concerned at how often this is happening as she was doing so well for such a long time. This feels like a set back but maybe its just a blip.

We got home late but Janet wanted ice cream and to watch The Voice so after more singing along in between spoonfuls I got her into bed where she quickly fell asleep. I’m very grateful Janet can participate and enjoy events like the one we attended tonight and love that she can make sense of it all too. Praying for an energetic Janet and a productive Saturday.

Janet, A Success Story. March 13. #TSJ

My phone call to Janet today found her just getting back to Connect from a walk to the beach with Wes, Curtis, Garrett and Humberto. She seemed quite excited about it and a little concerned that she had to use Wes’s wheelchair as the footrest for hers was in our car. Oh well, it added to the adventure.

Cam and I met Janet later in the day as she was singing and grating carrots in preparation for a dinner she was not going to eat. She wasn’t complaining though. Curtis informed us that he was practicing sit to stands with Janet today and having her not use her arm at all. He said she did very well as long as she followed him very closely. I’ll have to get him to demonstrate so Janet can practice with me.

It was a little early for dinner when Janet was done with the carrots so we went for a little walk around the neighbourhood. Nice to be in the sun again. I chose to take us to Ric’s Grill near the airport as we could easily drop Cam at the airport afterwards. Bad choice. Terrible service, it took forever for our food to arrive and the quality was mediocre, especially considering the prices. Don’t bother. Janet and I were kind of excited about going there as a Connect resident recently was hired as First Cook. We asked the hostess if he was working as soon as we arrived and never heard from her again until we were leaving. She acted all surprised that the cook never came out to see us. Whatever. We enjoyed our time with Cam and that was the main point.

Things went downhill a little further upon our return to Connect. Janet did a great job with the Standing Frame after being a little grumpy going into it. She then went on her own to get her meds and brought them back to the living room to take them. I normally just watch to make sure she gets all four pills and think nothing of it. This time though, I noticed a different pill in the package. I pulled them away from Janet and went to the med room to ask Chelsea to help figure out what was going on. Turns out Janet’s doctor changed her prescription as a result of the blood test Janet went for yesterday but no one told me or the staff that hands out the meds. The change is in a good direction and could have been a positive event, but for me it was a little scary and a lot maddening to discover it after Janet had opened the package. I will follow up tomorrow.

The med issue didn’t concern Janet at all and she happily got ready for bed so I could read to her and she lasted right to 10:30. In fact she was still quite awake when I left so I’m praying she gets a good night’s sleep, has lots of energy and a positive attitude for tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. March 11. #TSJ

Tuesday seems to be the most intensive day of the week for Janet. By the time I arrived at Connect late in the afternoon she had been on the Shuttle, done her stretching exercises, walked a lot at the parallel bars, worked with Wendy her memory coach, had a shower, completed about ten Speech Therapy worksheets and had a nap. It’s all working too!

By the time she was up and ready it was too close to dinner time to do anything so Janet accepted that she would ride the bike and do the Standing Frame after. Not thrilled with the meal she was a little grumpy and confused about the bike ride until she saw the bike. I think she equated it to the Shuttle initially. Under protest she started to pedal, complaining for the first five minutes that it was too hard. By the end she had gone almost three miles at level four and sang for most of it. Too hard?

Wendy and Curtis have developed a “game night” for some of the residents designed to promote cognitive rehab. Janet was invited tonight and after the usual resistance she headed off upstairs to the pool room on her own. I was not invited. She returned an hour and a half later laughing loudly and saying “it was fun”. Curtis said Janet did well playing Family Feud and a look at the pictures, name the commonality game. She answered about a third of the questions correctly and often knew the answer but just couldn’t get the word out. That will come. It was so fun to hear her laugh and to see how an activity like that can get her all fired up. Her brain was really working well after that as we discussed tomorrow’s SheLife session. The group was asked to be prepared to share something a little abstract that we were having trouble with until Janet blurted out the perfect example taken from her life before she got sick. I’m not sharing it with you as it is personal but I am telling you this part because I think it’s amazing she thought of it. More improvement and as a little reward Janet was excused from the Standing Frame tonight.

Before starting her night routine we checked over some of the worksheets Janet had done today and her scores were very high this time on questions where she had to identify the category the examples belonged to. Also, her accuracy in circling the answers was much improved too.

We took another suggestion from the audience and started reading “Let’s pretend this never happened“, so far a humorous memoir with a lot of swearing. We’ll see how it goes and are still welcoming suggestions.

Praying for a restful night and lots of enthusiasm for tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. March 10. #TSJ

As I walked into the Connect dining area Janet looked up from her dinner plate and loudly said, “You’re late!”. I was later than usual but had told her that was likely today as I was bottling wine at CedarCreek. She remembered the bottling part and forgot the late part. Janet described her day as “OK so far” and we deduced that she still had the Shuttle and Standing Frame to do and Janet wanted to get them done as soon as possible. That didn’t mean she was happy about doing them.

The gym was busy and that gave Janet a chance to cheer Big Country on as he worked on the Shuttle. The machine is just barely big enough for him and it’s pretty cool to see him all stretched out on it. When Janet got her turn I think she was motivated by Big Country’s efforts and put in an excellent performance pushing the most weight ever with me. Outwardly she was kind of mad about it all but inside I think she knows she did well and is getting stronger.

The Standing Frame was met with grumbling and fortunately requires no real effort once she’s up and standing so even with a negative attitude she gets an awesome hamstring stretch.

With the dirty work over the rest of the night was Janet’s and it started with watching a little bit of The Voice then turned into reading as the commercials were just too annoying. We’ll watch at home on the weekend. The Bill Cosby book we are reading is turning into nothing but a rant by Bill so we’ve shelved that one and are on the lookout for something entertaining. Suggestions? One good bit of reading tonight was an email from Heidi in regards to the upcoming SheLife meeting. When I told Janet about the email she immediately brightened up and asked “is it about Wednesday?” That may not seem too important to you but I can’t recall another instance of her connecting a future event with the present like that. I was very impressed by her correct association of the message and the enthusiasm with which she responded to the content. I think she will be well prepared for this meeting. Another example of Janet putting two and two together came when I asked her what she’s going to do tomorrow. We had gone over her calendar a few hours earlier and she remembered the event we added which was to work on her Speech Therapy worksheets. High five!

Praying for a Tuesday of progress.

Janet, A Success Story. March 9. #TSJ

Sunday arrived early thanks to Daylight Savings Time and our need to be on the 10:30 ferry to Vancouver. Janet was up with lots of energy probably because of her good night of sleep using the entire queen sized bed except for a few inches she kindly left for me. More justification for the king size we have at home.

The ferry ride was made more enjoyable by a massive pod of dolphins that crossed ahead, underneath and astern of us. I’ve never seen so many in one pod before, ever, here’s a little video but it doesn’t do what we saw justice at all. Very cool.

We met Brittney, Ethan and Julian for lunch in New Westminster before the long drive home. It had been a long time since we’ve been able to visit and we enjoyed our brief time together today. No surprise that Janet and Ethan got along as if they’ve known each other all his life and Janet lit right up as soon as she saw him. Call it what you will, there’s something special about Janet and little kids.
Janet Ethan 2
The drive to Kelowna was sunny and easy with Janet staying awake all but a few minutes. We stopped for dinner before the final leg to Connect and Janet faded fast as dinner progressed. There was only some minor complaining about going back and after reading for a bit she was all settled in and ready for a good night of sleep.

Janet enjoyed her weekend away saying her highlight was “seeing everyone again”. She did amazingly well on all of the driving, her transfers and walking continue to improve and I never once had to be concerned about toileting. She was on top of that situation the whole time. It was a fun weekend.

Praying for Janet to have a productive day tomorrow and all week.

Janet, A Success Story. March 8. #TSJ

Today was a day of visiting for Janet and I and it started with a chat in the lobby of Mom’s building with my third grade teacher Mrs. Brett. Janet thought it was hilarious that a teacher from that long ago would still ask about me. I guess she feels she’s the only celebrity in the family.

We drove in the torrential rain to Port Alberni for lunch with the cousins. Janet did well with the drive and had every reason why we moved to Kelowna validated as we sloshed our way along. It was well worth the effort as we got to spend time with some quality people whom we don’t see often enough. Thanks for lunch Marina! And thanks for taking time to hang with us, Richard, Tina, Brent and Kai.

20140308-233031.jpg
The drive back to Nanaimo wasn’t quite as wet and Janet enjoyed a little nap before we took Mom out for a birthday dinner. The place Mom wanted to go turned out to be an Irish party pub type place so we diverted to the Bayshore Restaurant and had a very nice meal.

My second cousin Katie came over for a visit after dinner and once Janet saw her she remembered her from being at our house in Kelowna a year ago. More signs of improvement. It was really nice to chat with Katie and a good ending to a busy day of visiting for Janet. She hung in there very well, did some good walking and transfers, into the car especially. I’m trying to have her walk as much as possible now as I can see improvement in her balance and stepping ability.

Praying for an uninterrupted night of sleep where daylight savings time has no negative impact on Janet and a safe drive back to Kelowna tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. March 7. #TSJ

Road trip day! Janet was up in time to have a bath this morning after what she said was a so, so sleep. I beg to differ after the day she put in. We got on the road early to avoid any stress about missing the ferry at Horseshoe Bay and left the Okanagan sunshine expecting to hit rain before too long. It never happened really. I fully expected Janet to fall asleep an hour into the drive but she was chatty and bright the entire four plus hours. Stopping twice for bathroom breaks and once for gas/lunch and we were in North Vancouver with a little time to spare. I suggested we drop by and see Nancy briefly and Janet was all over it. We parked in Nancy’s driveway and I helped Janet walk the twenty feet to the front door. There is only one step leading to the front door but it’s a little high and Janet didn’t want to try it so I knocked and stood waiting with Janet. Shannon answered, surprised, called her mom who came to the door with a huge smile of surprise. Janet was excited to see her and we had a nice little chat sitting on a bench before walking back to the car. As we drove to the ferry Janet said, “Nancy’s really nice, we are lucky to have her as a friend”. Indeed.

We found a comfy spot to sit on the ferry and settled in with Janet finally showing signs of needing sleep. She napped for maybe ten minutes only and spent the rest of the time chatting and watching the various kids seated around us. It was a pleasant trip and as we recapped the drive I just had to praise Janet on how impressed I was with her identifying Merritt as we drove by, Hope and Chilliwack as we drove through and recognizing a lot of other things along the way. This is a very different Janet from our last road trip.

Neither of us was hungry on the ferry but Janet was as we neared Nanaimo so we ordered a pizza to pick up and take to Mom’s. Janet must’ve been hungry as she out ate me three pieces to two! That pretty much did her in and she was in bed soundly sleeping by ten o’clock, fourteen hours after getting up and with only a ten minute nap. A so so sleep last night? No way.

Praying that Janet has a solid night of sleep and has just as much energy for Saturday as she had today. Praying for a safe and enjoyable trip to Port Alberni to see the cousins.

Janet, a Success Story. March 6. #TSJ

I really wasn’t sure about the new title for this blog site but Janet, through her hard work today, has legitimized it for me. When I called her to see how her day was going she very proudly told me she walked all the way from the gym to her room using a cane. That is over 100 feet! Jess held her a little from behind and the rest was all Janet. I’m super glad she told me in such a positive manner too! She actually realizes this is a huge accomplishment.

By the time I got to Connect Janet was watching Ellen in the living room with Wes and Humberto. I had brought her a sketch book and pencil but she wasn’t interested at that moment saying, “I was a good drawer but I used my right hand then”. Valid point, we’ll try some other time.

After dinner I gave Janet the option of a bike ride or walking combined with the Standing Frame and she chose walking. We didn’t have a cane so I stood in for that, I’ve asked Tez if we should buy one now, and Janet made it all the way from her room to the living room, about 70 feet. She was pretty tired by the end of that walk and was using my arm as a cane pretty heavily but there were moments along the way where she took strong steps with little pressure on me. Janet was nice and straight and tall in the Standing Frame and kept a very close eye on the time to make sure she didn’t spend one minute more than she had to.

With a very successful day behind her and facing a long drive to Nanaimo tomorrow I surprised Janet with an invitation to come home tonight. Her face lit right up and if she didn’t need to put a jacket on I think she would’ve gone straight out the door. It was bedtime when we got home and there was no arguing about it at all. Janet smiled and seemed to totally relax as she hit the pillow in our bed saying, “this is so much better than the other place”. I explained that she had earned this visit home by working really hard today and she said she’d do that more if coming home was the reward. Hmmm.

Praying for a night of uninterrupted sleep and a fun and safe trip to Nanaimo tomorrow.