Rehab

Thorough Thursday #TSJ

Janet was hard at work in the gym when I arrived this afternoon. This was Simon’s first day working with her and he was getting some good results. Garrett had Janet in the gym in the morning to do a good stretching routine and now she was back for a more active workout session. Simon had her doing some leg exercises then Tez came in and helped get Janet onto her tummy for a hamstring stretch and some more on command leg movements. Then came the big test. Yesterday Tez had Janet kneeling on her own a little bit so he was going to try that again. With Garrett watching her back, Tez lifted Janet to a sort of push up position on her way to kneeling. We noticed how strongly Janet was pushing with her left arm so Tez decided to try and have her do a push up. The tears started immediately and Tez let her down a little and Janet responded by pushing part way up. You couldn’t call it a push up but there was an effort there for sure. On her knees the tears were still flowing as they would for the rest of the workout. Undeterred and knowing the tears were a lack of confidence rather than pain, Tez and Garrett gradually let go of Janet until she was kneeling completely on her own. She was able to lift her head and straighten her back so she was up nice and tall. Very impressive and according to Tez, much improved over yesterday. Simon held out some colored pieces of paper an arms length away from Janet and she was able to reach out, grab them and pass them off to me on her left side. Major high five! She cried each time she did it but again, not from pain. At least that’s what she told us. Finally sitting on the edge of the table mat, Janet could relax a little. But not for long. I had told Tez I was doing mainly standing transfers with Janet and he wanted to see her stand as he was surprised to hear she was “stepping” with her left leg. Considering how tired Janet was she stood really well with me, impressing Tez enough that he pulled out a couple of scales and placed them under each of her feet and asked her to stand again to see how much weight she was carrying herself. The left leg registered about forty five pounds and the right leg not quite half that. Pretty darn good and more than Tez thought she could do. One final task for Janet was to transfer herself from the table mat to her wheelchair using the sliding board. Janet didn’t understand how to get onto the board but once she was there it was an easy slide onto the chair. Visibly relieved, her gym day was over and she wheeled her way out and left me chatting with Simon and Tez.

I found Janet in her room ready for a bio break. Success. Our before dinner activity was reading a card and looking at some photos that Gillian had sent us as a thank you from her wedding. Janet surprised me by reading a fair number of the hand written words in the card and a little of the inscriptions on the backs of the photos. When she first started reading I noticed she was only reading the first two or three words on each line so I had her follow along with her finger and she was able to go seven or eight words before losing focus. She did a good job of identifying people in the photos, even Gillian’s husband Josh, whom she’s never met. There’s that improved short term memory again.

Dinner was a fail tonight. Beef stew which I knew would be a challenge and I tried to convince her she liked all the ingredients. No go. I rescued her with half a peanut butter sandwich and a bowl of pears. She is looking forward to making pizza at home tomorrow.

Back in her room it was time for a birthday Skype with Laurel. Janet very loudly and clearly sang Happy Birthday to her right off the top of the call and carried on a good conversation for almost half an hour. Janet is no longer rambling on about nothing. When she does ramble it’s because she is stuck on a word and she is clearly trying really hard to say something constructive. She is even getting mad at herself a little now when she can’t find the right word. So far it is all with a smile on her face. Speaking of smiles, there was another noticeable improvement today. Since very near the beginning of all this I have been randomly trying to tickle Janet, notably at her armpits where she used to be quite sensitive. Up until this evening I had gotten no response. Someone taught Janet to raise her left arm when she is coughing to help her cough bigger. She was doing that tonight and I tried to tickle her and got an immediate pull away reaction with her telling me “stop that, it…” she couldn’t find the word but agreed with tickles. Not sure of the significance but I’m taking it as a positive.

Janet did most of her bedtime prep herself and before I was half way through our prayer I felt her hand relax and she was asleep. Quite the day. Janet is showing signs of improvement in a lot of areas and I think gained some confidence the last couple of days. Praying for a restful and healing night and a fun day of learning before heading home for the weekend tomorrow.

Terrific Tuesday #TSJ

Janet had had another shower, finished her breakfast and was wheeling down the hall looking for help going to the bathroom when I arrived this morning. I reminded her she needs to use the pendant alarm to call for help instead of wheeling around looking for someone. She said ok. She laughed about having a shower this morning after having one last night too. I guess you can’t be too clean. After her bio break we took off for the eye doctor to see what she can see.

The test Janet did is a standard vision field test and was quite difficult for her. I can now see why Dr. McCann was reluctant to send her for one while she was in the hospital. If you’ve never had one, you stare at a little pin point of light in the centre of a vertical bowl while other pin points of light randomly flash around the bowl. You are to click a button every time you see one of those random flashes. Those flashes are fast but the test is not nor is Janet’s response time. Each eye took about nine minutes to test including a short break mid way through each eye so Janet could rest. Dr. Percival came in after to review the results and as expected Janet’s vision is noticeably stronger on the left side of each eye and in the lower half of the field of vision. He showed us an example of someone that suffered a stroke and how their entire right side of both eyes was blacked out initially then after six to eight months some vision was starting to return to those quadrants. I think Janet has been through a similar pattern and may still be changing so we’ll likely run the test again in three months. There is nothing medically that can be done to improve Janet’s vision but at last now we know what’s going on and can monitor any changes.

We spent the rest of the day at home having lunch, playing with Nash, doing a really good job of asking and going to the bathroom, having a long nap, Skypeing Mary/Gaga and Keith who are heading to Africa in a couple days, watching Pick a Puppy, rearranging furniture in the family room, having dinner and watching American Idol. My contribution to Janet’s rehab lately has been more involved with common things she would do around the house. One reason for moving the furniture around is to try and position a comfy chair for her to use instead of being in her wheelchair all the time. She can now get a treat for Nash out of the fridge by herself but her voice isn’t quite loud enough to get him to sit and wait while she puts it in his dish. The singing is helping with her volume and with her state of mind too. She always sings with a big smile on her face. She’s getting better at setting the table but her vision is hampering her a little there so I’m going to try and set things up in the drawers differently so she can see them better.

The drive back to Connect was fun with Janet singing a lot especially to The Carpenters, Close to You. Great moment. Praying for a good night of rest and an active day of learning tomorrow.

Jumping the Gun #TSJ

I had an early start to the day today as I met with Janet’s GP this morning. She wanted to follow up on Janet’s seizures and increase the medication for that slightly. In my opinion Janet has rebounded very well from that day and is gaining cognitively quite well. Her doctor is confident in using Dilatin for Janet and has not experienced any real difficulties with that drug. She confirmed that she will remove the peg tube on Valentine’s Day and will talk to Janet’s GI before doing so just to make sure she does it right as this will be her first. Since Janet is eating real food now and trying to swallow her pills whole I asked if we could dump the horse pill sized multi vitamin she gets and the doc agreed. So once I check with Connie and she approves there will be no more crushing of meds for Janet. Yay! I enjoyed the chat with her doctor this morning and appreciated her calling me in to follow up on things. We will continue doing so rather than dragging Janet in when not necessary.

After doing some investigating on the condo we are looking into buying I made my way out to Connect. Janet was sitting on the couch in the living room with a big smile on her face watching TV. She seemed quite proud of herself for doing so and was in a great mood. She described her day so far as good and tried really hard to tell me she had pushed her pendant alarm for help in going to the bathroom. Garrett confirmed that she had done just that both for needing to go and when she was finished. High five! They had a reasonable workout in the gym and Garrett said he was pleased with the way her legs stretched out.

Janet and I made our way downtown for a meeting with a lawyer regarding Power of Attorney and when we informed the receptionist we were there I could see someone elses’ name in our time slot. Sure enough two minutes later that person came in. I quickly checked my calendar then the email I got from the lawyers office. Turns out my calendar app had synced a reminder from a calendar I no longer use and it appeared as an event for today when the actual meeting is tomorrow. Silly me. We used the extra time to do a little drive around downtown since we were there thinking we might see a building that looked interesting to live in. Knowing that there are few condos the size we want and most are in the complex we already looked at and didn’t like, the drive around confirmed that Invue has a lot going for it. I will take Janet there one more time before making a decision to try and buy there or not.

At home and after she played with Nash, Janet and I enjoyed a cup of tea together. Can’t remember the last time we did that. We read a letter from some family friends of Janet’s in Ontario and prepared some cards for our World Vision kids. I also showed Janet some pictures of her new found old friend Karen. Janet definitely remembers her but doesn’t recognize her yet. She gobbled down a bowl of fruit and yogurt after complaining she was hungry then I could see her getting pretty tired. It was late in the day and she had not had anything close to a rest time so I got her into bed as she complained “why are you putting me here?” Fifteen minutes later she was snoring.

I got Janet up just before Kiko and Joel arrived with a boat load of sushi for dinner. Janet had regained some energy and an appetite eating probably more sushi than she would have before getting sick. I poured some wine for Kiko and I and Janet almost immediately asked for some. I was very tempted to let her but have been told alcohol is a big no no for ABI patients. I promised her I would talk to her doctor next time we see her and also Dr. Miller. I’m sure they will say no but maybe its a soft no and a little sip here and there won’t hurt her any. I hope so as it would be really nice to enjoy some wine with Janet again. Much more fun than tea.

Janet was tucked into bed at Connect pretty late tonight, full of sushi and ice cream. Before we left the house she asked me why we were spending all that money keeping her “there” and why couldn’t she stay “here”. She got quite upset about it all but resigned herself to the situation after agreeing that working with Brian, Tez, Mary Lou and all the others was best for her right now. She asked why she only did that “in little bits”. I reminded her how tired she gets if she works out too long or plays a game too long and she totally agreed and was fine after that. Janet continues to move into a higher state of awareness and has a greater ability to express her feelings than ever before.

Today was a busy and good day for Janet. Thanks again Joel and Kiko for your friendship and food. You made our evening very enjoyable. Praying for a night of rest and healing and a productive day tomorrow.

Good to See You #TSJ

Janet was very bright and cheery this morning when I arrived before taking her to the eye doctor. The dietician had already been and gone and Garrett reported that she had a little conversation with Janet and reviewed her chart and said all looked good, carry on. I was hoping to speak with her but maybe next time. Janet said she slept well and had a good breakfast. She knew we were going somewhere this morning but couldn’t remember where. I was encouraged by her responsiveness.

We had a good appointment with the eye doctor, spending an hour examining and chatting about Janet’s condition and he will prepare a detailed report for Connect over the next couple of days. From what I saw and from what he told me, Janet’s eyes are healthy, they are aligned almost perfectly with the left one maybe very slightly deviated but not nearly what it was a few months ago. There is a large floater in the right eye. This likely occurred at the time of the rupture or soon after and there is no treatment needed for it. Janet’s vision may or may not be affected by it and she may not even know it’s there. Janet is displaying some right side neglect and just how much will be determined when we do a vision field test next week. There was not enough time to do one today and the doctor wants Janet at her best and brightest to give the highest probability of success. Janet’s prescription is fine for now and her glasses are still good for distance as prescribed and she should not wear them for reading. With her glasses on Janet tested at 20/20 or close to it and she was able to read impressively well. As we have known for some time, she often gets stuck and repeats a word or number, she did that today a number of times during the exams and it was interesting to see the visual cues the doctor gave her to erase what she was stuck on and start fresh. Covering an eye briefly, looking up at the ceiling briefly or closing both eyes then re focusing. He would like us all to start teaching Janet some of these cues and feels she can regain a strong ability to read one day. She currently can go four to five words before stalling and that is impressive considering.

Home for a wintertime lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup was next on the agenda followed by an afternoon nap. Yes, Janet slept for over thirty minutes this afternoon and quite deeply too. I had to wake her up so we could get back to Connect in time for a workout before dinner. We managed to Skype with Mary/Gaga before leaving and enjoyed a good conversation with her. Janet was pretty loud and was able to answer some questions about what she had been doing. I’ve noticed a real improvement in that area lately. Earlier in the day I had read an email to Janet sent to me from an elementary school friend of hers who found this blog and wanted to get in touch. Her name didn’t register with Janet when I first read it to her then when I told Mary/Gaga who very clearly remembered her, Janet’s memory kicked in as well. Her and Karen were close friends in grades five through eight and we look forward to at least virtually reinstating that friendship.

In the gym today we had only a small battle about working on the Shuttle. Janet gave in a worked hard with some good results. It helped to have Phil getting his first workout at the same time as the therapists encouraging him could be heard easily by Janet. Phil was with us at KGH Rehab and is doing really well. Glad to have him at Connect. Janet’s legs are quite tight, maybe tighter than the last time I worked with her but I still managed some pretty good range and she was able to do lots of movement in both herself. She gave two strong attempts at the stripper pole but was pretty tired so was not that successful. All of the transfers I did with her today were standing, except for the car, and she did very well with most of them.

Dinner was another beautiful Rikki creation followed by a nice warm shower, some reading of Slow Dance and a Janet initiated prayer. She was very tired and only managed “thank God for Andrew and his…” The rest was Klingon but I’m sure God understood. We prayed as always for rest, healing, restoration of the ability to walk, use of her right arm and hand, complete restoration of her vision and ability to talk loud all the time. Looking forward to a fun day of recovery tomorrow and a nice sushi dinner at home with Joel and Kiko. Thanking God for them and all the other cool people in our life.

Swallowing #TSJ

Janet and I are home for the evening and I’m sure a lot of you are interested to hear the results of her swallow X-ray so here is an update on the day so far.

Lorne took Janet to the gym after breakfast and got her on the Shuttle after some stretching. He reports that she did very well, doing thirty reps with one band and sixteen with two. She only had one melt down during the entire session and it was minor. When I arrived at 11:30 Janet was finishing making her bed and “looking for some after school type work to do”. Since we had to go soon I got her what I hoped would be her last mushy meal for lunch and she ate that quickly while we had a brief chat with Tez. I asked him about Janet being home on weekends and missing a day in the gym. He feels the different therapy experienced being away from Connect is just as valuable as being in the gym and having the weekend off would not be detrimental to her treatment. In light of that Janet will be home Friday and Saturday nights from now on. As to my concern about Janet’s leg work being done in the mornings we agreed to leave it up to the staff as to which workout they could do best with the time available. Tez feels there is no measurable difference between working the legs in the morning as opposed to the afternoon.

We raced off to KGH and despite the expected parking challenges arrived on time for Janet’s swallow X-Ray. She was in and out in twenty minutes with the Speech Pathologist (not Connie) seeming to make a real effort at qualifying Janet for as unrestricted a diet as possible. After the test she couldn’t tell me anything specific as she wanted to review the video recording and as it turns out Connie would review it as well. Janet and I visited the old gang at Rehab which brought out lots of big smiles from Janet and everyone who saw her including Moira, Cathryn, Dr. Miller, lots familiar nurses and especially our long time table mate Barb who is now walking with a cane! The visit there was very good therapy for Janet as she was reminded of how many people love and care for her.

As soon as we got home Connie called with her results from the swallow X-ray. Janet’s diet has officially been elevated to “Easy Chew, Thin Liquids”. Translated that means pretty much anything Janet wants to eat with the exception of tough meats or hard vegetables and fruit. Raw carrots was mentioned as a no no but when I told Connie how much Janet loves baby carrots she agreed to allow those and anything similar including sliced apples. The main precaution with Janet’s eating now is to ensure someone is always with her and to monitor the pace with which she eats. There is still a little bit of residue in Janet’s throat when she swallows but it’s not nearly what it was during the last X-ray and clears with a second swallow. One thing she failed at was using a straw but that’s no big deal. Connie will go to Connect tonight and give them the written instructions so that Janet can start eating real food there tomorrow. For her first authorized meal she has chosen steak fajitas which we are going to start making now.

Praising God for all the good people in our life and for the success of today so far.

Planning #TSJ

Janet was happily eating a bowl of what looked like soup to me when I arrived at Connect this afternoon. Turns out it was actually chicken pot pie, or at least it used to be. Hopefully we are nearing the end of the pureed diet. Mary Lou dropped by the table and gave a very positive report on Janet’s Speech session for the day. They have been working towards getting Janet to turn up the volume and part of that process is being able to string at least five words together on one breath. Janet is now doing that and Mary Lou is quite happy with her progress. Mary Lou was standing and talking to us on Janet’s right and I noticed a couple of times that Janet turned her head way to the right to look at Mary Lou. I have noticed Janet more aware of things on the right side lately but have not seen that extreme of a turn before and asked Mary Lou if she is noticing more right side awareness and she said yes. Good news. Janet seems to be responding well to Mary Lou and I think she’s got a good program in place for her. Once Janet was finished her “soup” I took her for a bathroom break before our meeting with Brian and team. The bathroom breaks have been going well lately, Lorne even took her for a successful one this morning.

Brian led us through the first of what will hopefully be a bimonthly team meeting. Janet’s ABI Coordinator, Terri was there along with Lorne and Jen, the house manager. It was a good chance to get to know each other a little, especially for Terri as we had only spoken on the phone previously. She won’t be as directly involved as Cathryn was during Janet’s stay at KGH but once we get closer to Janet moving home then Terri will become the key player. One priority for this meeting was to come up with a rough schedule for Janet’s day. That schedule will be built around meal times and a quiet time in the afternoon. We know that Janet likely will not sleep and will not want to go to bed during that time so Jen came up with a good idea of putting a lazy boy type chair in the living room and having Janet chill in it from two ish to three ish each day. Worth a try. We also agreed to let Janet try and sleep at night with no rails on her bed. Connect will procure a couple of fall mats and once in place the experiment will begin. I’m confident HouDieno will exit the bed at least once but I believe she is more aware of her surroundings now and will learn from any such fall. Janet says she doesn’t remember any of her previous escapes but accepts her nickname for what it’s worth. I can understand Connect being nervous about doing this but I really don’t see how else Janet will progress if we don’t give her the chance. There are a few things to discuss with Tez before finalizing Janet’s schedule and hopefully we can do that before the weekend. Brian says he has feelers out for a music therapist for Janet and has a couple nibbles. I’m really hopeful we can get something going that way as I believe Janet will respond very well to it. Today’s meeting was a good foundation builder and I am confident Janet has a good team looking after her.

After another successful bathroom break I took Janet to the gym for a good leg stretch and some work on the Shuttle. She set a personal best today going for thirty two reps at two bands of tension, then six reps with three bands and thirteen reps with one band using her right leg only. High five! She required a fair bit of encouragement during the routine as she keeps saying things like “it doesn’t matter” and “so what” when given the reason for doing something. I’m confident these responses are coming from a lack of confidence place rather than an unwillingness to get better place. She managed a big smile after doing the thirty two reps as I reminded her she only did sixteen the last time.

Dinner was fun tonight as Janet reluctantly chowed down on pureed Spaghetti and all the guys were BBQ’ing steaks and Leanne was making baked potatoes for them. The chatter was good and that helped Janet plow through her mush. We played a game of Chutes and Ladders before bed and Janet won easily. She had a lot of trouble spinning for her turn no matter where I placed the spinner. She said she could see it fine but couldn’t make her hand do it. I noticed a few times today that she was trying to get her right hand involved in things and she did try and lift it to spin a couple times. I want to think this is a sign of something coming back to her right arm but won’t go there yet. She asked if I would read some Slow Dance to her in bed and four pages into it she was snoring. It really is an interesting book, she was just played out from a busy day.

Praying for rest and healing tonight, a good workout in the morning and a bright and ready to swallow strong Janet for the afternoon.

Sing Sing Sing #TSJ

For the first time in a long while Janet was smiling at me as soon as I entered the house today. Typically when I arrive she doesn’t clue in until I’m a couple steps away from her but this time I saw her smile as soon as I cleared the door. She was holding a picture of her four kids and was proud to show me Andrew and Laurel but she couldn’t get Heather or Cam. Lorne told me he experienced the same thing earlier as he had been using the picture to have a little conversation with Janet. She would often get parts of questions right but not the whole thing. That’s been the more common result with Janet for a long time. We started playing match the Sesame Street characters when I realized it was time to Skype Mary/Gaga.

We got to Janet’s room just in time and Janet was all smiles throughout the conversation blowing her mom many kisses at the end. A call to the birthday girl, Leslie, was next. Janet is always happy when its her younger sister’s birthday as she catches up to her in age. Like Janet, Leslie is not the most technologically adept person so her husband Gavin has to set things up for her prior to each Skype call and we usually get to say hi to him as well. Many of you don’t know Gavin, or do you? I made sure to get his permission to release this photo of him as identified by Janet today.

20130122-223658.jpg Cute isn’t he.

The highlight of the call to Leslie came when Janet sang in loud voice the Happy Birthday song to her sister. It was kind of a karaoke thing as I played the song on my iPhone and Janet sang along. Pretty cool.

With the chit chatting done we went to the gym and I tried putting Janet on the Shuttle to start this time. Fail. All she did was complain how “everything hurts”. Off to the mat we went and had a good stretch. Bob joined us for part of it and reminded me of a couple things Tez wants Janet to do on her own while stretching. Both exercises involve Janet moving her legs individually and I’m really glad Bob got her doing them as she did really well. I’m impressed considering how tight everything seems. After a couple of goes at the stripper pole it was back to the Shuttle and this time Janet worked hard with only a minor breakdown. She managed thirty reps at one band, twelve at two bands and six with her right leg only and one band of tension all done at a nice controlled pace. Good workout.

Janet gobbled up her dinner then played a good game of match the Sesame Street characters. She is improving on naming them and matching. She was reluctant to do any sing along stuff but jumped right in as soon as I started playing the songs. She sang My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, Row Your Boat, You Are My Sunshine, Take Me Out to the Ball Game and Zippadee Do Dah nicely loud and clear and smiling all the time. Really fun to watch. To continue the singing theme we watched a little YouTube before shower time including Susan Boyle’s audition on Britain’s Got Talent. Janet really enjoyed it and was very surprised she sounded so good and even said she “remembers her winning”.

We had a little time after her shower before bed and Janet asked to watch something funny on YouTube so I found some clips from the Carol Burnett Show. One of which featured a young Robin Williams that Janet laughed out loud at a couple of times. We ended with Carol’s closing theme song and Janet had a huge smile on her face as she clearly remembered I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together. I’m glad for every minute I get with Janet and today’s were all positive. Praying for a restful night and a day full of recovery and learning tomorrow.

Back to Business #TSJ

According to Garrett, Janet had a great first half of the day eating a good breakfast then going with him to the gym for a workout on her right arm and shoulder. Garrett says that went really well with good range of motion from her arm and shoulder. Carl did some Speech with Janet and he says that went well for about twenty minutes then Janet seemed to get stuck repeating a couple of words and seeming tired. She did tell him she’s married to Larry and has daughters named Heather and Laurel and a son that starts with S. Two out of three ain’t bad. When I arrived this afternoon Janet had just fallen asleep in the living room watching tv with the staff. She woke up five minutes later, smiled and laughed that she was sleeping but agreed to go lay down in bed for a rest. By the time I got her to her room she was denying she agreed to rest and being quite defiant about it. I laid her down anyways and joined her, ten minutes later she was snoring and slept for an hour and a half. I think the busy weekend took a bit of a toll on her.

When Janet finally woke up we went to the gym and had a strong leg workout. Her tone in some ways seemed less today so maybe the day off yesterday helped? I spent a lot of time stretching and am using all standing transfers now so I didn’t have her stand at the stripper pole today. I did get her on the Shuttle and she did her best yet. Sixteen reps at two bands, five reps at three and ten reps with one band using her right leg only. She still got all upset at the end but seemed to quickly realize the good that machine is doing once I explained it to her.

We were late for dinner on account of the workout and had the table to ourselves. Janet ate well and was happy to head back to her room afterward to play the Sesame Street matching game. I put the cars on the easel Brian had brought for her and that seemed to improve Janet’s ability to see them. She did very well, getting through about two thirds of the deck before tiring out. We then listened to a Stuart McLean story which brought us to bedtime.

A solid day for Janet and good for her to get back to a little routine around Connect. Praying for an active day of learning tomorrow and restful and healing night tonight.

Sleepover #TSJ

My day with Janet began with a good workout in the gym. At least the first part was good with lots of good stretching. When it came time to pole dance Janet started getting all emotional and lacking confidence again. I talked her into trying to stand three times and each time she gave a good effort and by the end of the third try I think there was a glimmer of belief in her eyes. I got her over to the Shuttle after that and she strongly did thirty reps with one band of tension. No emotion. Yet. She managed four reps at two bands then broke down completely. The loudest cries I’ve heard from her. All based I believe on a lack of confidence. One band is really quite easy for her and two requires some effort but not what should be an overwhelming amount. Next time we’ll try fewer reps with one band and see if that helps and maybe we’ll start on the Shuttle so she’s not as tired.

In chatting with Christa on the way out of the gym I told her I was taking Janet home for the rest of the day. She asked why not overnight. I didn’t think we were allowed to do that yet but Lorne confirmed we are so as I write this at 11:08 pm, Janet is sleeping in our bed right beside me. First time in over eight months!

We arrived home to an overexcited Nash then had a nice Skype chat with Heather and Allan. An unauthorized lunch followed as we watched a little tv before Skypeing Leslie. Janet was showing signs of tiring so with no pressure to do anything or be anywhere she agreed to lay down for a bit. That helped a lot as she had a nice burst of energy for the evening and ate two servings of a delicious manicotti that Kiko made for us. Instead of desert Janet elected to have chips and pop while we watched some Aussie Open tennis. I saw a lot of old Janet tonight as she very stubbornly stayed up until just after ten. She helped me in the kitchen before we went to bed and I saw some signs of confusion as she tried putting some things away. I can’t blame it on the drugs though as I think she was like this before and I’m just hoping for more improvement.

Janet is very happy to be home tonight and actually found it a little surprising that we were going to sleep in the same bed. Looking forward to waking up with her in the morning and praying for rest and healing. Thanking Jesus for my beautiful wife. Even as she snores.

Yes and No #TSJ

So now my name is Roger according to Janet. Not sure how I got that one but the only Roger I know I like so that’s cool. Christa mentioned to me that Janet refused lunch so after our little what’s my name chat I asked her if she wanted something to eat. She proceeded to eat a whole can of beans! I’m sure she’ll be able to eat more exciting things this time next week as her swallow X-ray has been booked for Thursday. Thanks again Connie! I met with Janet’s eye doctor this morning and he agreed to do an exam with Janet on the 29th. The value of the exam will be to give her therapists an accurate account of Janet’s field of vision. It is unlikely that whatever deficiencies she has can be corrected or healed but she may gain functionality through rehab once her exact condition is known.

After her late lunch I took Janet up to get weighed. She lost a little bit this week and we had a good talk with the staff and agreed to up her meal portions a little and offer her snacks in between meals as well. One contributing factor to her loss could be the increased activity in the gym and in general. Standing takes a lot of energy and her workouts have been rather intense so I think she’s likely burning more calories now than before.

Janet struggled a little with putting away her laundry today but did a great job of helping me make the bed. Before heading to the gym Janet took a pee break and for the first time did a standing transfer from the wheelchair to the toilet. She had to stand for quite a while as I haven’t perfected my technique for a one handed pant removal or replacement. She was very strong and worked hard to stay up long enough for me. We took Christa and Suzanne to the gym with us as they had not been trained on Janet’s routine yet. Janet was very patient and cooperative as the three of us stretched her out. Janet did very well at the stripper pole today, needing only a slight boost to get started then getting up pretty good herself after that. She still gets very emotional doing this but today she did not pee, hopefully because she went before going to the gym. Janet managed one set of thirty on the Shuttle with one band of tension and when I suggested thirty more with two bands like she did yesterday she very sternly told me no way. She had been through a lot by that then with no nap time so I relented and said we’d do more in the morning.

Dinner was more of Suzanne’s stew and we only shared the table with Chris tonight. I don’t ask the other residents what their deal is and some have offered little bits of their story but this was the first time Chris said anything other than he was in an accident. Turns out it was a motocross accident almost nine years ago. He was in a coma for seven months and has not walked until just a couple of weeks ago. The smile on his face as he told us that was really something to see and I’m glad Janet heard it first hand as that is a true story of hope. It made an impact on Janet as I included Chris in our goodnight prayer she asked me about his story again. I gave her a recap and she seemed genuinely touched and impressed.

When I asked Janet if this was a good day she said “yes and no”. She couldn’t defend her no response at all and agreed to all my yes suggestions so the final answer was a big smiley yes. Praying for rest and healing tonight and recovery and learning tomorrow.