Recovery

OD? Janet does not have a cold. #TSJ

I called Connect fist thing this morning and Janet was in the shower. Good sign. Jess called me after the shower to say Janet was awake when she peeked in her room around eight and agreed to have a shower. Another good sign. While Jess was talking to me Janet was eating a piece of toast. Good sign number three and enough for me to think Janet was certainly no worse than yesterday. Jess said nothing unusual was reported from overnight and Janet seemed fine.

An hour or so later I called nurse Jen for her take and she said she didn’t notice any big change in Janet and acknowledged that I see way more of her so would notice things better. All was well as far as she is concerned. We talked a little about my concern with the Dilantin levels and she suggested I bump up Janet’s doctor appointment to as soon as possible. We agreed to discuss things in more detail when I got in this afternoon.

Janet was in bed when I arrived, having been there for a couple of hours. She was awake and greeted me with a little smile. There was good color to her face and her eyes were nice and sparkly. Her speech was decent and she agreed to get up and have some lunch. Jess told me Janet refused lunch from her and hadn’t felt like doing any of her usual activities. She wheeled down to the kitchen and chose to have some roasted red pepper soup which she ate with only a little help from me at the end. Jen came down to chat just as Janet was finishing and we went back to Janet’s room so we would have a better chance of hearing Janet. Her speech remained decent to my disappointment as I wanted Jen to hear the Klingon. She had done a little research into Dilantin as I had and we agreed there are some signs of Janet’s levels being too high or the presence of some side effects. I will take Janet to the lab tomorrow to test those levels and then discuss them with the GP Wednesday morning. Jen assured me she sees nothing to be overly concerned about and said Janet for sure does not have a cold. She cautioned that sometimes side effects appear at the outset of using a drug and then they diminish as your body adjusts. Solid point. I’ve been there.

Still with some energy Janet wanted to watch some TV. Luckily there was a repeat of a pretty good NCAA basketball game on and we enjoyed watching that with Fred and Karl. We especially enjoyed teasing Clint who would come in and try to diss the game of basketball and promote his favorite game of hockey. He stood no chance. Some of the jabs thrown brought a smile to Janet’s face. Another good sign.

Dinner was chili and Caesar salad and Janet did a great job eating everything dished to her. I was impressed with how long she was staying awake for and never saw any signs of fading until half an hour after dinner. She helped wash some dishes, rejected the offer of a tootsie roll for dessert and started her rapid decent to sleep. After brushing her teeth and getting her PJs on she was asleep before I could cover her up. Seriously. She was so soundly asleep that she never flinched as I got my jacket out of the wardrobe, which is very noisy, said a prayer and kissed her goodnight. Didn’t move a muscle except those needed to breath.

A definite improvement over yesterday but I am ever more convinced that her Dilantin levels are too high or it just isn’t the right drug for her. Praying that the sleep she was in when I left continues through the night and she is ready for a productive day tomorrow. Thanking Jesus for the accomplishments of today and the people that are caring for Janet.

Sick Day. Janet still under the weather. #TSJ

Janet had a good sleep last night only waking once that I know of and that was with a smile. Same thing happened this morning but she didn’t want to get out of bed. I convinced her to sit up and drink some water and take her meds. That went well then she went back to sleep for an hour or so.

After that little nap she seemed to have a more energy and managed to sit by the fire and eat half a bagel with jam and drink a cup of water. She started nodding off an hour later and I put her back to bed. That’s pretty much the way the day went. Sleep for a bit, wake up for a bit, sit by the fire then go back to bed. All in about one hour rotations. At times her speech was reasonable and at times it was complete Klingon and she seemed to know that but couldn’t do anything about it. I tried to always ask questions that only required a one or two word response as sentences were pretty much impossible. Throughout the day she ate and drank well considering the way she was feeling and she was really good about taking her meds. I didn’t push the toileting routine on her today and she didn’t seem to want to bother with it. Not much happening there anyways.

By late afternoon Janet had perked up enough to sit and have popcorn with me while watching some basketball and a little while after that she gobbled down a couple pancakes while we watched The Princess Diaries. She didn’t make it through the whole movie but that was her longest awake stretch of the day.

On the drive back to Connect I actually got a smile from Janet and a little singing to The Most Beautiful Girl in the World by Charlie Rich and she stayed awake the whole trip. Things deteriorated rapidly once there though. Last week we switched her Dilatin to pills from a liquid and apparently the pharmacy can only do her dosage in five separate pills. It has been a battle to get Janet to swallow that many pills at bedtime and tonight was the ultimate. With her not feeling well and being tired and with me not at the top of my game things broke down in a hurry. What to me should take less than a minute took twenty complete with tears from Janet and impatience from me. I’ve requested a change back to liquid so as to avoid a repeat of tonight.

This weekend has taught me a lot. Janet and I were disappointed we didn’t make it to Calgary Friday but even she appreciated being sick at home as opposed to a hotel room somewhere. Today there was a blizzard in Calgary and who knows what the drive out of there would have been like. We were clearly meant to be here this weekend.

Today was difficult for me as there wasn’t much I could accomplish. At least that’s how I was feeling and when it came time to drop Janet off at Connect I was thinking ahead to what I could get done upon my return home. When Janet had trouble taking her meds the delay angered me and I blamed her. She did nothing wrong. She’s sick, she’s tired, she just wanted to go to bed. There was no way to avoid the pills tonight but there was certainly a way I could have helped her, by remembering that Jesus is in control here, not me. I am merely His servant living out the commitment I made to Janet almost ten years ago. By hitting bottom a little bit tonight I realized that the enemy is constantly trying to get at us and I won’t allow that.

With the help of some yogurt Janet got the pills down and was finally able to lay down for the night. I had my jacket on, ready to leave, but felt prompted to stay so asked her if she wanted me to lay beside her for a bit. I heard the sweetest “yes” I’d heard in a long time and watched her fall asleep through watery eyes.

The goals for this week are; ensure that Dilatin is the right anticonvulsant drug for Janet and is not producing negative side effects. If Dilatin is ok then confirm Janet is on the right dose. Discover the cause of the reappearance of Klingon. Confirm Janet has a “cold”.

Truly praying for a restful night of healing and a bright day of recovery tomorrow.

A Reason for Everything. Janet under the weather. #TSJ

Our day started off great. Janet slept well last night and was pretty chipper this morning enjoying our breakfast time together. She enthusiastically helped start the purge of her closet for our morning activity and had a good chuckle over some of the things we found. Some things I’ve never seen her wear before and I’m glad of that. She was able to say goodbye to a lot of stuff and we only did one half the closet.

Lunchtime came and Janet was starting to fade. Even at the height of her chipperness this morning I noticed her speech was mostly in Klingon. She was fine with one or two words but when she tried to put a sentence together it came out a real mess. Not scrambled words at all but unidentifiable ones. I am a little concerned about this as I’ve noticed it happening throughout this past week.

Janet did not fade too rapidly and agreed to go for a walk as it was quite the nice warm day here. We were out for over an hour enjoying the sun and mild temperatures. Really nice to be doing that again.

That was about it for Janet today. As planned, it was nap time after our walk, 3:00, and after the usual “why are you putting me to shelter?” complaint (shelter is not the usual word) she was asleep in minutes and stayed that way till after five. In fact she is still in bed as I write this and I suspect will be for the night. She says she’s not feeling well but has no specific complaint. She wakes up a couple times an hour and each time her speech is better. She’s managed some water and her dinner time meds so I’m thinking the sleep and rest is all good healing and tomorrow she will stay chipper all day. I’m glad she is doing this at home rather than a Calgary hotel room so there’s one silver lining from yesterday’s adventure.

Despite the enormous rest she’s already had I’m still praying for a restful night as Janet clearly needs it. Also praying for a bright and chipper day tomorrow.

The Best Laid Plans. Avalanche! #TSJ

Today started out great and ended great, it just wasn’t that great in the middle.

I arrived at Connect just before ten after dropping Nash off at the kennel and Janet was pretty much ready to go. Our plan was to drive to Calgary to surprise Cam for his final college basketball game of his career tomorrow and things started off just fine. The weather was decent in Kelowna and was forecast to be quite mild in Calgary as well. I was a little nervous taking Janet on such a long drive but knew there were plenty of places to stop along the way if needed and we were in no hurry. She happily sang along to a few songs for the first while then near Armstrong she was nodding off now and then. It’s really hard to talk to Janet in the car as she has yet to get her volume level up where it needs to be so I felt a little awkward driving in mostly silence but she seemed content.

Every time we came near a gas station I asked her if she needed a bathroom break and she said no every time. We made it to Revelstoke and our planned lunch break by 12:30 despite some slow traffic and a delay for avalanche control. Speaking of avalanches the potential for such was extreme today in many parts of BC and that caused the powers that be to close the highway between Revelstoke and Golden ten minutes before we got there. So instead of a four hour drive from there to Calgary we faced a twelve hour one through the Kootenays or wait for the highway to open. The ETO was for eight or ten tonight and as I write this they are estimating eastbound traffic to start moving at 10:30. That would have gotten us in at around 3:30 local time which is likely the same as if we’d have driven through Nelson etc.

I was not interested in subjecting Janet to that amount of time in the car and with no hotel rooms available in Revelstoke we made the call to head for home. By the time we got there we should have been in Calgary and I got a really good look at Janet’s tolerance level for car travel. Next trip to Calgary will be by plane. Janet was uncomfortable on the way back and found it hard to sleep. She would have made it to Calgary but it would not have been pleasant. I think she’d be fine with the four hours to Vancouver but seven is too much. Good to know.

Nash was extremely happy we decided to go home and Barb made our decision seem right when she had Gary bring over two warm pieces of fresh baked apple pie soon after we got home. Mmmmm.

Janet was pretty out of it tonight but ate a good dinner and was happy to get to bed. I’m praying for a good nights sleep that recharges her for a fun day tomorrow.

Math. Janet smartens up. #TSJ

Jess was just putting Janet to bed when I arrived this afternoon. They had been in the gym with Tez and Janet was nodding off so they called the session short and Janet wasn’t complaining at all. The day had been a full one to that point. That was her third trip to the gym already, having gone with Jess after breakfast for the usual stretching then with Garrett just before lunch for some good Shuttle work then with Tez so he could get her on her tummy to stretch those hamstrings. They also tried the transfer belt but that’s when Janet started nodding off. More work on that next week. Mary Lou spent time with Janet this morning as well, working out of the new Speech workbook. Apparently Janet was a little tired during that session as well but overall had a good first part of the day.

Since she was headed for bed just after two I anticipated a nice long nap in hopes she would recover for a good evening session. I got my wish this time as she slept for a good two hours and was noticeably refreshed afterwards. I really think she’s not sleeping well at night for some reason and hopefully she’ll snap out of it soon as she normally does.

It took Janet the better part of an hour to come fully awake after her nap and she made a good effort at getting up from bed and “stood” really well for me transferring to the toilet. While she waited for dinner I gave her the med book and asked her to get Bob to get her meds for her. She thought about it way too much and by the time Bob came asking if she was ready for her meds she was a little confused and needed quite a bit of coaching to get through the process. Janet really enjoyed the dinner prepared by Chris especially the asparagus in cheese sauce but as expected was more excited about the Tootsie Roll for dessert. Unfortunately there was no Ladies Night tonight as this would have been a good time for Janet to try it out as she was pretty bright still. She was denying she wanted to go but I think would have a good time once there. Maybe next week. Surprisingly she agreed to play the math game on the iPad and she did remarkably well, the best she’s ever done with me at both answering the questions and tapping and swiping her way through the various levels of the game. She still neglects the right side of the screen a little but not as much it seems. It was fun watching her and only having to help occasionally and it was especially nice to see a little confidence showing in her.

Praying for a solid nights sleep that brings healing and lots of positive energy for tomorrow.

Uneventful. Janet tired today. #TSJ

Today was one of those days where I feel incredibly blessed to live in Kelowna. I woke up to sunshine, went skiing for a few hours in powdery snow and sunshine and on my way to Connect saw the first golfer of the season and a kid riding his bike in shorts and t-shirt. Spring has sprung and it’s awesome. Janet was really happy to see me and we had a good talk for about forty-five minutes with her sitting on the couch with me in the living room. She tried real hard to tell me about her day and managed to get the basics right with some prompting. Brian joined us for a brief chat prior to his week away in Cabo San Lucas starting tomorrow. We wish him a well deserved relaxing vacation. When he returns we will start looking to upgrade Janet’s bed, the falls mats are gone now, using a transfer belt for transferring Janet to the toilet and Shuttle etc., and getting started at the KGH pool. Tez spoke to pool guy Jim and it was agreed to wait two weeks for Janet’s former peg site to heal completely and then she can go “swimming”.

Brian exited around four and Janet said she had not had a nap so I suggested she have one even though it was kind of late. I was hoping for a more energetic Janet at dinner time and through the evening and she agreed. I had to wake her at 5:30 and she didn’t really want to get up then but it was dinner time and I was worried she’d be up really late then too. Quite the opposite. Her energy level was quite low all evening. She ate a good dinner cooked by Chris and monitored by Connie who was checking Janet’s swallowing and chewing abilities. No real change from the last time Connie saw Janet and she recommends we watch the Chipmunking Janet is doing on the right side and encourage her to chew on the left. Also, Connie wants us to monitor Janet’s coughing to see if it only happens when her head is lifted up or if it also happens with her head down. So far I’ve only associated the coughing with tiredness so it will be interesting to watch for the other trends. Apparently head down is a safer position to swallow in as the airway is restricted and Connie would be concerned if Janet were coughing then. The conversation at dinner was really good tonight but Janet was too tired to participate or maybe overwhelmed by it all. Often the table is on the quiet side so maybe tonight was hard to process for her. It was fun though.

Garrett weighed Janet after dinner and recorded another small gain. I asked her to put away her laundry which she happily did but needed a lot of coaching as she was very tired. I even had to rebrush her teeth tonight as she seemed unable to master the needed motion for that task. I had asked for her bedtime med to be switched to pills from liquid and tonight was the first go at that. Should maybe have stayed with the liquid. Hopefully she’ll do better when not so tired.

A rather uneventful day for Janet. She did have Speech and used her new workbook but could not remember doing so. I saw it on her desk after getting her into bed and asked her a couple questions from it and she answered correctly with a smile. Tired but not out of it. Praying for a restful and healing night and for a good day of rehab tomorrow.

Sing Song, Janet and John hit it off. #TSJ

SORRY. WORDPRESS APP GIVING ME A FEW PROBLEMS SO THIS POST DIDN’T PUBLISH YESTERDAY. WEDNESDAY’S UPDATE COMING SOON.

I arrived a little earlier than usual today as I wanted to meet John who is going to spend some time singing with Janet. Lorne was in the process of toileting Janet as I walked into her room and we just had time for our daily debrief before John showed up. The gym was really busy when Janet went down there this morning so Jess did some stretching with her on her bed and said that worked fairly well. Janet remembered that she didn’t go to the gym and that she did some stuff in her room. She told me she had sandwiches for lunch but wasn’t sure what kind. The rest of her report was pretty garbled so I focused on getting her ready for singing with John.

We met John in the Den and Janet had a nice smile for him right away and kept it on the whole half hour they were together. John has a very positive attitude and an energetic personality and I could tell Janet liked him right from the start. I left them alone partly because I don’t sing but mostly because I want Janet to feel that is her time to learn and have fun on her own. I came back after a half hour and Janet was still smiling and gave a nice encore performance of My Grandfather’s Clock and a song about Titanic. John asked if he could come back next Tuesday and Janet said of course. When I asked her what she had done today she couldn’t remember most of it but when she and John started singing songs she hasn’t sung in years, the lyrics were rolling off her tongue like she wrote them. Blows my mind. That, combined with the big smile is more than enough to keep this going.

Janet reluctantly agreed to a rest time after her session with John and slept for almost an hour. Once again she denied sleeping so I think it might be fun to record her snoring away and play it back for her sometime. Because of the nap we were a little late in Skypeing Mary/Gaga and Keith and Janet wasn’t totally back in form but had a nice conversation anyways.

Garrett and I took Janet to the gym for some leg strengthening work on the Shuttle. Janet complained about pain in her right knee a lot, could be from her fall off the toilet, but tried really hard with only one band of tension. I was happy she tried but disappointed with the results and hope that was a one off and not a trend. In the interest of helping reduce the pain and relax her legs Garrett suggested getting Janet onto her tummy so we took her back to her room thinking she’d be more comfy on the bed. That turned out really well and her legs relaxed nicely and I was even able to massage them for a while. I’d like to see that be an every other day type of thing and will talk to Tez about it.

Tonight was Janet’s night to help make dinner and she chopped onions and tomatoes and helped make seasoning for tacos. She was pretty tired after her workout but really wants to do this sort of thing and was determined to it well and she did.

Andrew was up next for a Skype chat and for a while Janet had Andrew on the brain, referencing him repeatedly when trying to talk about Cam even though she was looking at Andrew. Janet read a little bit for me afterwards then it was time for bed. We are still watching her former peg site closely. It is healing well but still oozing slightly and based on that we are delaying her start at the KGH Rehab pool. Don’t want her getting infected or causing anyone else too.

Praying for a healing night and a productive and fun day tomorrow.

The Hangover. Janet recovering from the weekend? #TSJ

As usual Janet was hanging out in the living room when I got to Connect this afternoon. She was lounging in her comfy chair, legs up, pillows in place, all she needed was a nice cocktail and she’d be set. She agreed it was pretty comfy and that’d she’d even closed her eyes a bit. Jess was there to help with the report of the day so far. Janet had trouble getting started in telling me what happened and couldn’t remember what she had for breakfast. Pancakes. She remembered going to the gym but not what she did there. Garrett told me it was a tough session with lots of tears. Janet refused the Shuttle and said her legs were sore and Garrett found the range of motion on her right shoulder to be less than previous. I found her legs to be quite stiff today and am hoping its just from her overall state of being as she seemed quite tired all day. That’s as much of a report as I got as Janet surprised me by agreeing to lay down for a while. She did so for about an hour but didn’t sleep much.

With a little more energy than before her rest time Janet got up and we went to see nurse Jen about her former peg site. On my way out to Connect today I got a surprise call from the KGH Rehab Pool saying Janet has been accepted into a program there for the month of March. Since I was on the road I couldn’t get details and I was really excited and shocked at the news. I figured there would be a lengthy wait list to get in there and when Dr. McCann’s office called this morning to say they had sent in the referral I thought it would be a few weeks before anything happened. What do I know. The down side is I’m not sure Janet has healed enough from the peg tube removal to go “swimming” and Jen isn’t sure either. We agreed to have another good look at it tomorrow. Janet is a little blasé about using the pool but I think she’ll like it once she starts. Dr. McCann’s office also said he is very supportive of more Botox for Janet’s legs but officially can’t get her in until July. His lovely assistant Pam will try and get Janet in before then. I have confidence in Pam.

Janet was able to set the table for dinner but needed quite a bit of help as she was tiring again. She gobbled up her dinner though and that gave her energy to Skype with Laurel afterwards for almost a half hour. Her voice was reasonably loud and she mostly responded appropriately to Laurel’s questions and comments but had trouble telling her own stories with a lot of them referencing Jews. The only association I can make for this is from the Academy Awards show when Mark Whalberg and “Ted” were telling Jewish jokes. I didn’t even think Janet was that awake during that part of the show but I have no other idea as to how she got onto that tangent. She was petty funny though. Funnier than “Ted”.

We watched a little YouTube and that was about it for the night. Praying for rest and healing and a hard working productive day tomorrow.

Sparkling. A bright day with Janet. #TSJ

Janet awoke rested and ready for a good day today. The morning routine went well especially since we weren’t rushing off anywhere. We lingered over breakfast looking at the real estate paper just for fun. Nothing terribly interesting to be found but it was fun looking.

Wanting to be productive Janet elected to start purging her dresser drawers. I have been in her sock drawer before and knew it was full but never realized what full meant until we emptied it onto the floor. I had no idea she was such a sock hoarder. I gave her the task of matching all the singles we found, and there were a lot. Working with the socks spread out on the bed so she could reach Janet did an outstanding job of matching then deciding which ones were worth keeping and which could go. She still has a pretty full drawer but at least now they are all useful socks in there.

The next drawer down was bras and underwear. Not quite as crazy as the sock drawer so I left this one totally up to her. She made a pile of each item on the floor then I held each one up for her to decide if it was a keeper or not. Most things were kept.

What seems like a mundane chore was actually really good therapy for Janet. There was matching and grouping involved along with some hand eye work and decision making. It took us well over an hour or sort those two drawers and Janet was pleased with the results. We enjoyed a relaxing lunch together then I insisted on a rest time as we had guests coming over at four. Janet was not happy about rest time but slept for half an hour or so after saying “I love you too just not when you do things like this”.

Janet was a big help in prepping for Barb and Gary’s visit. She got the crackers out of the cupboard, the pâté and sausage out of the fridge and made a nice display of the crackers while I sliced things up. We are blessed to have high quality neighbors like Barb and Gary and it was very nice to sit and chat and enjoy a glass of Grey Monk Sparkling Rosè with them. We are two for two in wine selection from Discover Wines, thanks again Kris!

After all the late afternoon snacking we kept dinner simple and and watched Cam’s Futsal game webcast while getting it ready then eating it. This was the gold medal game of the league championship and Cam’s team won with him getting a shut out and player of the game honors. Very exciting. Janet seemed eager to watch another movie tonight hoping for a comedy but we didn’t notice anything that peaked our interest so I got my choice of Skyfall. Janet was OK for a while but an hour in said she was tired, couldn’t understand the movie and wanted to go to bed. I got her all tucked in and told her I was going to finish the movie before coming to bed myself. She was fine with that and rolled onto her right side as she often does when first going to sleep. Five minutes later I heard her making some sort of noise so I ran down to the bedroom to find her crying and laying on her tummy. I rolled her onto her back and calmed her down. She told me she couldn’t get back over and that’s why she was crying. Scared herself. I told her I thought that was very cool that she could get herself onto her tummy. I’m pretty sure that’s a first and she said it didn’t hurt, she was just scared. Thinking she was back to sleep I got up to go finish the movie but of course her eyes popped open immediately but I went anyways. I came back a few minutes later to check on her and she was still awake. I snuggled up with her for a longer time this time but got the same result so decided to watch the movie tomorrow and join her in bed. She has been sleeping lightly while I’ve been writing this post occasionally opening her eyes to check on me. Could be a long night.

Praying for rest, healing and happy thoughts tonight and for a fun day tomorrow.

Free Friday. Home for the weekend. #TSJ

When I arrived at Connect this afternoon Janet was just about to take another successful potty break. Today was very good in that department and I’m very happy about the improvements she is making there. She wasn’t interested in wasting any time in going home but we did stop and have nurse Jen look at her former peg site to see if we needed to keep the wound care protocol going. Jen suggested we give the whole thing a rest for a couple of days and see how it goes. I brought the kit home with us just in case but so far it looks like it is continuing to heal very nicely and some air will probably do it good.

With our only plans being to watch a movie tonight Janet thought that reason enough to avoid having a rest. I explained I’d like her to stay awake during the movie so carried her straight from the car to the bed so she had no choice. She didn’t sleep long but it was long enough to give her a nice energy boost for the rest of the night.

Janet’s training as a prep cook continued tonight as she tore lettuce and chopped peppers by herself with the rocker knife and sliced grape tomatoes with my help. The only help she needed in setting the table was identifying my napkin. She hasn’t grasped the concept of the napkin ring that’s on it even though it was her idea way back when we got married. An outstanding job none the less.

Comedy was the genre of choice for our movie and without searching too much we chose Easy A. Turned out to be a good choice as Janet said it made her laugh. I saw her smiling but didn’t hear any laughter. She said she “was laughing on the inside”. I thought the movie had just the right pace for Janet to keep up to and some of the jokes were quite intelligent and certainly not crude. A good Janet movie.

Thinking she had a second wind Janet thought she could stay up late and it was already nine when the movie ended. She was sound asleep by 9:45. So much for the second wind. Our time today was nice and relaxed, unusual enough that Janet even asked a couple of times, “how much time do we have” when I asked if she wanted to do something. It was nice to be able to say “as much as we want”. Praying for a restful night of healing and a relaxing day of learning tomorrow.