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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.
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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.

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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.

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

Another day, another milestone. We had Janet’s team meeting this morning at Connect and in amongst the usual progress reports we discussed the transition home. That’s right, home. Sometime before the 24th of December Janet will be living at home full time! Exciting and scary. Exciting in so many ways, scary in that we have no idea what being at home full time looks like at this point. Janet continues to make progress and will likely do so over the next nine months or more and that makes it hard to plan for the amount and type of care she will need at home. The good part is there is a nine month window with which to work out all the details. For now, the focus is still on getting more activation from Janet’s right leg with an eye towards walking with/without a cane by June. The other goals set out in the meeting were to improve Janet’s reading and hand writing, improve her knowledge of the medications she takes and to gain independence in taking them. Janet was a full participant in today’s meeting and asserted herself well. High five!

To further demonstrate her progress Janet stood at the kitchen counter after the meeting and made herself a grilled cheese sandwich. She had minimal help from Jess in the process and even managed to turn herself around so she could grill the sandwich once she had built it.
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As soon as lunch was done we took off to KGH to visit John. He seemed tired and not quite his positive self today but was happy to see us. Please keep him in your prayers. As is common with hospital visits Janet was in celebrity mode. First up was Jane her Occupational Therapist from 4B. Janet didn’t remember her but was excited to tell Jane how well she is doing. Jane made a very clear point to Janet how thrilled she was to see her and how far she has progressed also saying it’s important and exciting for those that work with patients like Janet to see the progress after such a long time. All good for Janet to hear. Up on 4 East we saw Emma, Janet’s first nurse in Rehab. Same sort of feedback and encouragement from her and again, Janet was proudly reporting on her progress. Love it.

That was a very busy first part of the day and Janet was out like a light as soon as we got home. I had to wake her once I had dinner ready just in time to eat and get to SheLife. It took her a while to get her energy back and I was a little concerned with how she’d manage the session. Heidi excitedly informed that Janet prayed out loud tonight for the first time and everyone at her table could hear her too. Janet said it went well but she isn’t understanding any of what the video segments are supposed to be teaching. That’s OK because the social aspect is far more important for her anyways, proven by how her ability to participate has increased. Janet agreed and added “they all really like me being there” in an almost Sally Field at the Oscars kind of way. Cute.

This marks the end of The Team Save Janet Report as we aren’t in “save” mode any longer. The “team” still exists I guess but really only figuratively. Tomorrow, I hope to have re named this blog site to something that reflects Janet’s determination, hard work, perseverance and inspirational qualities as we work our way towards coming home. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears, or eyes.

Praying for a solid night of sleep and a productive Thursday and thanking Jesus for His many blessings.

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

Talking on the phone with Janet at lunch time today she mentioned she had been up at the parallel bars. I asked her how that went, expecting the usual, “terrible”. Instead she surprised me with “fairly well”. In fact, according to Jess and Tez, it went “quite well”. Janet said she was in the sling and walked around the bars a few times while holding onto the bar. In fact, she did eight laps of the parallel bars using a cane! Why she didn’t tell me that I don’t know and when I congratulated her she was her usual self in saying, “it’s no big deal”. Yes it is.

The only exercise Janet hadn’t done prior to nap time was the Standing Frame and she chose to get in it soon after I arrived. She is standing straighter than ever these days and putting a little more weight through her right leg.

Dinner time was a little quiet with Kieran not around but still fun and Janet had a decent Skype chat with Andrew afterwards. The big event of the evening was baking granola bars with Chelsea. Janet’s table is responsible for bringing snacks to SheLife tomorrow so Chelsea offered to help Janet bake something. Janet seemed a little tired half way into it but contributed well and had the whole house wondering what the yummy smell was. We’ll find out tomorrow if they taste any good.

After some YouTube and reading Janet fell asleep earlier than usual closing out a successful day for her. Praying for a night of deep and restorative sleep allowing for a productive tomorrow.

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

I called Janet while she was having lunch today and she was a little bothered by the intrusion. Seems Wendy had been calling her numerous times throughout the day as a means to practicing answering the phone and Janet was a little fed up. On the bright side she is increasingly competent at answering and is down to about two swipe attempts before successfully unlocking the phone each time. There seems to be some resistance to memorizing her phone number although she did blurt out her old North Vancouver number for me today.

Janet was napping as I snuck into her room and stayed that way for an additional forty five minutes. Instead of lying around chatting, she woke up and immediately asked to go to the bathroom and that is a very good thing. She was quite pleased she had completed all her exercises earlier in the day so we had lots of time to talk and find a new book to read. Thanks to a suggestion from the audience we are reading Come On People, by Bill Cosby. So far it is much more in Janet’s wheelhouse and has generated a couple of chuckles and some parenting memories already.

To work off her dinner but not repeat exercises already done I had Janet do some walking. We started near her bedside and made it about twenty five feet out and down the hall before she asked to turn around. The return trip was tough at times but she fought through and made it back. Janet’s steps were OK for the most part, I pray she tries to trust that right leg more. It’s really impeding her progress.

Still faced with a part filled jar of pennies on her desk Janet agreed to count some so we could roll them up. Her math skills are strong as are her reading comprehension. She had worked by herself on a number of Mary Lou’s worksheets and let me mark them. This batch is noticeably harder than the previous one and Janet’s scores reflected that. Most of her struggles seemed to be her vision as anything to her right was begin completely ignored. I think Janet has improved dramatically since her last eye exam so I’ll get her in for another more accurate one soon.

Connect will be a lot quieter starting tomorrow as Kieran in transferring temporarily to a facility in Kamloops. We all had chocolate cake tonight to wish him well and Janet encouraged him and gave him a big hug as we said goodnight. As much as we tease Kieran, he will be missed.

Praying for a restful night of sleep for Janet that provided ample energy for a productive Tuesday.