Recovery

Janet, A Success Story. May 26. #TSJ

I considered having Janet attempt a wheelchair free night tonight and she was off to a great start until I suggested we go for a walk in the sun to watch some soccer. She’s not ready to actually walk long distances like that and is a little uncomfortable with uneven surfaces still. It was nice to sit in the sun with her for a bit after she put in a hard days work. JanetSoccer

Walking was the theme of the day today and Jess had Janet walk to the gym and back this morning. Janet is less resistant to longer walks like that as long as somebody is helping her and her conditioning has improved to the point where a walk that far no longer exhausts her. For me this afternoon and evening, Janet walked everywhere except the soccer field and that included two trips to the gym as well as back and forth to dinner. All those were with assistance because of the frequency and the fact she was going to workout in the gym but her trip to get her meds at the end of the night was done freestyle and in record time.

Her cognitive work of the day came in the form of reading an email then counting out and rolling up two rolls of nickels. I am enjoying reading One Hundred Years of Solitude but Janet just isn’t getting it so we are switching books again. We are going to try the newly released memoir of Toni Braxton called Unbreak My Heart. Janet really likes Toni Braxton’s music and is excited to read her story.

Praying for a night of rejuvenating sleep and a productive Tuesday.

Janet, A Success Story. May 25. #TSJ

Mornings are becoming pretty routine around the house as Janet gets more familiar with things. She’s doing more of her dressing and personal grooming and I didn’t have to coach her on breakfast at all today. At lunch she turned the oven on with no assistance. The cooktop is still a challenge as its hard for Janet to see the controls while sitting in her wheelchair so as soon as she’s more confident with standing and walking we’ll get her working that more.

Janet eagerly practiced her reading this morning and read out loud to me using a bit of expression. Nice to hear! The Skype chat with Mary/Gaga seemed fine and brought the good news that Keith is home from the hospital and “doing well”. We seem to have sent our nice weather out to them for the day so Janet and I had to come up with inside activities today and she chose scanning old photos. That was a good call on her part as we are a long ways from being done and hadn’t worked on it for a while. Its not a lot of fun but we are both glad we are making progress and can see it will be cool when we are finished.

After a long and late nap Janet re hydrated herself while I made dinner. She was in no mood to return to Connect and took me up on every offer that kept her home a little while longer. Including watching the second half of a basketball game and then a little French Open tennis. I made sure the music was playing as we drove to Connect so at least the ride was happy and by freestyle walking all the way to her room Janet was too tired to be sad at being back.

Walking attempts were few today but of high quality and there was no mention of the sore right foot. Praying Janet gets lots of sleep tonight and is willing and able to fully participate in tomorrow’s activities.

Janet, A Success Story. May 24. #TSJ

During breakfast this morning Janet remembered that Mary Lou had asked her to bring in a children’s book to practice reading with. Janet was excited to look through our collection and wasn’t at all upset by the thought of reading a kids book, until she tried reading one. She is still figuring out how to compensate for her right side impairment so when she reads a long line of text she misses the last three or four words. Being able to read a children’s book well enough to present it to a Pre School class is Janet’s goal and the book she has chosen is The Hallo-wiener. We will try and find a Pre School that will let Janet come in and read and with five months before Halloween she should have enough time to get to that level. I love that she set that goal.

Not wanting to hog all the sun to ourselves today we drove out to see John and as soon as he saw us he asked if we were going outside, even before he said hello. He seems much more with it today and we enjoyed a long leisurely stroll where he was able to tell us a bit of his life story. John has always been a great talker and he got on a roll with us today.

We arrived at church with enough time to allow Janet to walk freestyle most of the way through the lobby. She tired out close to the door we enter the auditorium by and that’s where I was going to start helping her anyways as the floor slopes from there. I noticed Janet’s pace was slower during this walk partly because she was distracted by the other people milling about. Solid effort though.

Planning seemed to be the theme of the day as we set tentative dates for a number of activities we hope to do this summer. Janet agreed that there’s no point in having an idea if you don’t take any action on it, so we did and the calendar is filling up fast.

Praying for a happy Sunday.

Janet, A Success Story. May 23. #TSJ

Garrett knew Janet wanted to leave for home as soon as possible today so he had her working hard in the gym all morning long and even into the afternoon. Janet was really happy to get everything done and was in a great mood while finishing off the Standing Frame as I got to Connect. Its great to have the kind of help Garrett provides as he always seems to keep Janet talking while exercising which distracts her from the drudgery of some of the things she needs to do.

We made our escape and got home so Janet could nap before our Small Group meeting tonight. After helping make dinner she had a quick chat with Heather about some wedding thats coming up soon. The excitement is building.

Our Small Group was very small tonight with only one other couple showing up but we had a good conversation and Janet likes how honest and real they are. We had both been waiting all week to watch the finale of The Voice and Janet insisted we stay up and do so tonight, hence the lateness of this post. Janet really enjoyed and sang along to a lot of the last performance show but was too tired to really enjoy any of the results show so we pretty much skipped right to the results and were in agreement on the winner. No Blizzards owed by anyone this time but So You Think You Can Dance starts soon and the bet will be on.

There was a lot of sitting going on tonight but Janet did get in a few freestyle walking trips and did very well. She even transferred herself from wheelchair to sitting on the bed twice all by herself which I think is pretty big as that involves a lot of turning and backing up. Her confidence continues to grow and I can see her walking around the house soon without me hovering near, maybe Sunday?

Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep and a positive attitude for tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. May 22. #TSJ

A rare thing occurred today. I snuck into Janet’s room this afternoon and for once she was sound asleep and she never even woke up as I entered so I snuck back out to let her rest. She rang her pendant about twenty minutes later as she needed to go to the bathroom. Apparently she called for help a short while after I left last night for the same reason and that is an encouraging sign.

The day up to that point was once again busy for Janet as she completed all her therapy sessions with the exception of the Shuttle. After a freestyle walk to the patio for some sunshine and then setting the dinner table it was off to the gym to complete that task. I intentionally made it quite hard for Janet wanting to really workout her right leg. She did well but happily pedalled away when done.

Our evening together was quiet with Janet checking emails, reading in preparation for our Small Group session tomorrow night and standing on one leg for as long as she could. I’m looking for ways to get her to trust her right leg more and figured if she stands on it alone she’ll recognize more what it can do. Janet surprised herself in begin able to lift it high to stand on her left leg and also to stand on the right one for a few seconds. She was hanging onto the transfer pole for support while doing this so not all her weight is going through her legs but some confidence was definitely gained. More was built near the end of the night when she walked from the bed to the bathroom without me hovering over her. She also never once argued about walking today.

Praying for continued strengthening physically and mentally.

Janet, A Success Story. May 21. #TSJ

Tez put Janet through her paces this morning and when I called her at lunchtime Janet was feeling good that Tez praised her for how well she was doing. I’m not sure what all they did but Janet described it as “a lot of walking”. She did a lot with me this afternoon as well, the first trip being freestyle from her room to the patio to enjoy some sun. There was a little protesting along the way but each time I do this with Janet the need for me to be right there to catch her is lessened, in fact her last walk of the day was from her bed about four feet to her wheelchair and I let her do that with me still sitting on the bed. I had to help her with the very difficult pivot move before sitting down but the whole point was to give that feeling of independence. I think I saw in her face some satisfaction in getting there on her own.

The only other exercise activity Janet needed to do tonight was the bike and again I had her sitting farther back than what was usual and kept the degree of difficulty high. She did well and felt the difference in both legs. I tested her in pedalling with just her right leg after her ride and noticed some improvement but really shouldn’t compare as I left her in the new riding position which she’s never done a one legged pedal from. Maybe tomorrow we’ll test for real.

After dinner we tried our first neighbourhood walk in the sun of the year but some high cloud and wind made it a little too cool for Janet. We did get a little ways along our route and Janet remembered it from last year which is a good sign. Janet did a great job counting out pennies to be rolled up tonight. It had been a while since she’s done any of this and I noticed her stacks of five more often actually had five pennies in them this time and she was better at counting in general. Curtis mentioned he noticed an improvement in Janet’s cognition and that goes along well with today’s report that her Dilantin levels are back into therapeutic range. They are still a little higher than I would like but nice to see some correction taking place.

We read quite a bit of One Hundred Years of Solitude tonight and Janet had a little difficulty figuring out what is happening. Fortunately not a lot is happening yet as we are still reading the set up parts. Janet is enjoying the language and has answered all my questions correctly as we read along so at least she’s paying attention.

Praying that Janet sleeps well tonight and continues to get stronger and smarter.

Janet, A Success Story. May 20. #TSJ

Janet was busy doing laundry when I got to Connect this afternoon. She told me she had a little trouble getting to the bathroom on time this morning but she was OK now and remained so the rest of the day. She didn’t seem all that tired and agreed to a Shuttle session before dinner. Slowly but surely she’s getting stronger as evidenced in this picture modelling a pair of jeans Jess gave her. Notice she’s standing alone with no AFO or shoes on and looking pretty good. Thumbs up!

Standing strong

Standing strong

Jess had Janet walking everywhere again today including from the car into the lab this morning so Janet never argued about walking from here room to dinner. She didn’t even argue about walking freestyle and made it all the way! There were a couple of pauses and she grabbed my shirt a couple of times but that was it. A new record that she tied going back to her room after dinner. That was enough though and the only way I could get her up to Games Night was by letting her hold my hand. There had been no mention of a sore right foot until the end of the trip upstairs and Janet said it seemed to be getting better.

Games night was quite challenging tonight but Janet managed to contribute and I’ll keep taking her in hopes she gets better at some of the games which should make it more fun. Janet did not think it was fun freestyle walking down to get her meds and it was late in the day especially not having had a nap so the effort she made was commendable even if her performance wasn’t her best. There is obvious improvement every day.

Tonight we started to read One Hundred Years of Solitude and wow what a difference from the last book we read. I know I’m going to enjoy it and so far Janet is keeping pace. Praying for rest and healing tonight and another day of progress tomorrow.

What she does when I'm not around.

What she does when I’m not around.

Janet, A Success Story. May 19. #TSJ

Since this was a holiday Monday a lot of residents were still away for the weekend so Jess and Curtis were able to spend a lot of time with Janet. Almost all of her physical therapy stuff was done by the time I arrived in the afternoon and she had also done some reading practice and gotten her nails painted. Janet felt good about it all saying her right foot was not as sore as before even after Jess had her walking everywhere she went today.

The walking continued with me this evening and one interesting thing came out of that. I constantly need to remind Janet to walk straight ahead as she tends to skew her body to the right easily. Today she said she does that so her foot doesn’t hurt as much. Good information I told her to mention to Tez tomorrow. Twice I had Janet freestyle walk tonight and both times she was going so fast it was difficult for me to keep up in a way that I felt I was ready to help her if needed. One of those fast walks was from the Den to her room, a Connect distance record.

We had a lot of time to work on cognitive skills tonight since the physical stuff had been done. Janet reluctantly played Four Pics One Word with me and I found she was more willing if we alternated guesses. She is quiet good at figuring out the word if she really tries. Janet’s reading skills are slowly improving as evidenced by her reading to me a half a page without missing a word. She didn’t think it was that great but it was a definite improvement from going six or seven words then skipping down to the next line. Janet is unhappy she can’t remember or clearly understand what she’s read but that will come once she gets to a level where she’s not trying so hard to see each word. Reading provided the most excitement of the night as we read a chapter from Lets Pretend This Never Happened about a lady getting bitten by a couple of dogs. Seconds after reading that story I felt something touching the back of my shirt. I turned to see a large black dog staring at me! She was wondering around looking for attention and was not nearly as startled as I was. We found out it belonged to a staff member working in one of the other houses and Janet and I had a good visit with her and a laugh.

Janet seemed very bright today with good memory recall and she was physically strong too. Praying that doesn’t mean her Dilantin levels are too low now.

Janet, A Success Story. May 17. #TSJ

Today you could really sense the rhythm of Janet being at home for an extended period. Our morning was relaxed and talkative with no urgency to do anything in particular. We continued to discuss the movie Heaven Is For Real and watched YouTube clips of the real people plus a young artist who painted an image of Jesus around the time the real events of the movie were happening and the little boy from the movie said that was the Jesus he saw. Janet was fascinated by it all.

We went downtown to pick up a book we had ordered, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and cruised through “the store we never buy anything at”, just in case there was something to spend the gift card we’ve had for three years on. Nope. If any of you have legitimate use of a $100 Lakehouse gift card, it’s yours.

The only physical workout Janet got today was walking from the car to her seat at church and back out again. On the way in there was no mention of a sore foot but it did come up on the way out without impeding her performance though. There was no mention of it the few times she walked at home.

It was sushi and movie night at home and after rejecting Her thirty minutes into it we both enjoyed August: Osage County. There was not one happy person in the entire film but somehow we enjoyed it anyways. Janet understood it and gave a good recap after and did the same for the day as well even as she was falling asleep. Her memory is improving and I suspect the Dilantin situation has improved, allowing her some cognitive gain.

Praying for a long night of healing sleep and an energetic Sunday.

Janet, A Success Story. May 16. #TSJ

I was so pumped to write yesterday that today seems a little anticlimactic but here goes.

My intention for the day was to let it unfold at a Janet pace with therapy taking place covertly and I think that’s how it ended up going down. We were up at a decent hour and Janet elected to have a shower to start off with. That made breakfast to be more like brunch which also set back the planned trip to the grocery store. Janet wasn’t too into that idea so she was thrilled when I offered to go alone and have her vacuum while I was gone. That is a challenging task for her and she was still working at it when I got back although more accurately she was trying to free herself from the hose so she could go to the bathroom. High five for effort.

The sun was shining again so we went for a nice long walk then sat out and had a late lunch while trying to get some colour on Janet’s legs. She’s been somewhat shy about showing her AFO and I’ve had to really insist she wear shorts or a skirt so far. She’s getting more confident about it though and was pleased to see some tanning happening on her legs today.

We simplified our dinner plans to take in a movie tonight, something Janet was very excited to do. When asked what it was that was so exciting about going to a movie, she was like a little kid saying, “just the whole thing about going out”. There aren’t too many Janet movies out right now and we agreed on Heaven Is For Real. Janet said she was “into it right from the beginning, I couldn’t even eat the popcorn”. I wasn’t sure if she was into it or zoning out so was glad to hear at the end that she really enjoyed it. Janet also mentioned its not a movie for everyone but really was for her. A big part of her connecting to it was the fact its centred around a four year old and we all know about Janet’s connection to them.

I mentioned there was to be some covert therapy today and it came in the form of purposeful walks, like to and from the bathroom. Janet really complained about her sore foot and I’m starting to think she’s psyching herself out about it more than anything now. There is nothing to indicate any soreness anywhere except when she puts weight through it. She said tonight that she felt like she hadn’t been walking enough and things felt stiff. We’ll change that tomorrow. The rest of the therapy was focused on independence with Janet doing a lot of “everyday” tasks on her own. I tried to get her to tell me what she thought she’d be doing with herself once she’s home full time and neither of us has an answer for that right now. That’s a little scary I must admit.

Praying for a solid sleep and a Saturday full of progress.