Trinity

Janet, A Success Story. April 26. #TSJ

Thanks for complying with the new settings to the emails you receive for this blog, there was a nice spike in the numbers today and that is encouraging to me.

Our morning was leisurely today and Janet started off with a decent Skype chat with her mom. She seemed a little quiet to me in spite of a sleep in but she did toss and turn quite a bit last night so maybe the sleep in just kind of evened things out. Janet came outside with me as we met with the Gardening Committee from our Strata to discuss what shrubs we would like removed and who’s responsibility each one is. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that costs would be shared and most of what Janet and I want to do is likely to be approved.

It was just warm enough outside for Janet and the gardening ladies but not enough to stay out any longer than that so we scanned old photos into the computer until we were hungry for lunch. I made sure Janet helped as much as she could in the kitchen today and she did a solid job. I did give her a break from chopping duty though as she does that a lot at Connect so today was largely assembly practice and Janet is improving nicely.

After a decent nap we went to church this evening where Janet got her first real walking done today. She bravely walked the entire length of the aisle to her seat with me in front acting as her cane. Her steps were large and fast and wobbly at times but got praise from Tim who saw her without the wheelchair and came over to encourage her as did Randi and Wayne a little later. We had a nice long chat with Randi after the service that Janet chose as one of her highlights of the day tonight. He is a kind man going through some tough times and we are grateful we get to cheer him on a little. Janet then walked back up the aisle to her wheelchair more confidently than she did down. Soon I won’t have to be her cane. Walking around the house didn’t happen as much as I wanted to today but when Janet did, she did well. I’ll try again tomorrow to get some video.

Janet and I hadn’t watched a movie for a while so when I pitched the idea, Janet actually got excited. We chose Philomena, making sure the only options were Janet appropriate films. I only had to explain a couple things as the movie went along and Janet remembers seeing the great Judi Dench in other films but couldn’t name them. Unlike Noah, there was not a lot of discussion afterwards but Janet and I both enjoyed.

Praying for a night of uninterrupted sleep and a productive Sunday.

Janet, A Success Story. April 23. #TSJ

Remember those toileting issues Janet was having recently? They appear to be gone, at least for now. Janet had just rung her alarm when I walked into her room this afternoon. She had been in bed for an hour and a half, not sleeping she says, and needed to go to the bathroom. Often this requires some pretty fast action but today she said there was time to put her AFO and shoes on and I actually had her walk to the toilet. She held it all the way and walked back out when finished. High five!

After a little chat and opening a very nice card made by our neighbour Bonnie, we headed out for dinner and SheLife and arrived at the church with lots of time for a bathroom break and some walking. Janet did the same distance she’d done the first time walking into SheLife and did it considerably faster tonight. I’m still not happy with her tendency to walk a little sideways but she’s working on it. Janet enjoyed the session tonight and was happy she got to share Willie’s story with her table. Other than that, she said she didn’t say much but enjoyed listening to the discussion.

Back at Connect while Janet was taking her meds and enjoying some Easter chocolate we watched another TEDx talk from Dr. Grahn. This one was on the myth that listening to Mozart makes you or your baby smarter. There is one line in the talk that I thought really pertained to Janet, watch it and let me know what you think it is.

Praying that Janet realizes full and complete healing soon.

Janet, A Success Story. April 22. #TSJ #firstrealsteps

This is one of those days where I could just post a video and let it speak for itself but there is more to today than that. Janet continues to amaze.

The first part of her day seemed routine and she was giggly and doing fine when I called at lunchtime. She was awake in bed when I arrived a few hours later and was happy to open a package from her mom while I did some light maintenance on her wheelchair. In addition to some Easter treats, the package contained info on a lecture Mary Gaga and Keith had attended given by Dr. Jessica Grahn, a cognitive neuroscientist who studies music. Check out her talk at TEDx Waterloo, it’s fascinating and we’ll be checking into her studies more as we all know Janet has benefitted hugely from music during her recovery.

We spent our pre dinner time talking and learning and after a good dinner I challenged Janet to walk back to her room. Her acceptance was reluctant of course but for once there was no real complaining during the walk. She asked a few times to stop at the Den and complained once of feeling a little dizzy. I asked her to stop and stand tall and stretch a little then she was able to power on, reaching her bed in a record smashing thirty five minutes! Her technique has improved for sure, larger steps, much larger steps with her right leg, and managing to stay on a better angle. Janet was visibly pleased when it was over, both that it was over and that she had done it. Chelsea and Curtis stopped by and encouraged her a little and when Janet stood up for a reason I can’t remember, I felt prompted to ask her to step to me without hanging onto anything. Without hesitation she made three steps toward me in succession. Chelsea agreed to be camera operator and here’s what happened next.


So exciting!

Janet repeatedly said she was not going to Games Night but she did and she participated well and said it was OK afterwards. Willie stopped by to tell us he was able to share his story at his church this weekend. There seems to be a lot of that going on lately. Good stuff.

After Janet shared and ate more Easter chocolate it was reading time and we shared a lot of chuckles from Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. Feeling very blessed for the gains Janet is making and praying for Janet to be a willing participant in everything she’s asked to do tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. April 19. #TSJ

I could go on and on about today but I won’t. It was our eleventh anniversary and we celebrated that as well as our risen Lord. Happy Easter!

Anniversary dinner at Quail's Gate.

Anniversary dinner at Quail’s Gate.

Janet, A Success Story. April 18. #TSJ

A Good Friday it was! Janet was up early and I’m glad now that she was as we had an unhurried breakfast and a smooth trip to church for a 10am service which could have been a real scramble. Had we been five minutes later we would not have gotten our usual seat, which is important to me as we’ve chosen one that allows Janet the best view. Janet really enjoyed the service as it was done in a narrative form with four different readers and interspersed with songs. Janet said she could follow it the whole time.

Since we were in the area we stopped by to see John, Janet’s first visit to his room. She commented on the way up that “this place is really run down” and on the way out “I hope I never have to be in a place like that”. I reminded her that she was in the queue for just such a place even as she transferred to the Rehab ward and because of her hard work she progressed past that. John put on a good show for us but I get a sense he’s not too happy and maybe concerned about something he’s not sharing with us. It was also evident that no one is pushing him to do anything, if he wants to sleep until 9:30 and not have breakfast, they let him. Not cool. Please keep him in your prayers.

Janet helped make lunch before we both had a nap this afternoon which for some reason I seemed to need as much as her. The sun was shining when we got up and Janet went for a nice walk around the kitchen area. It was her first time on this particular course and it included lots of turns, even a 180 degree one that she executed very well. High five! Tomorrow I’m going to try and have her take a step without hanging on to anything. She sort of did it at bedtime tonight and I think she can, I just have to convince her she can.

Our evening was quiet save for a nice conversation with Cam who is in snowy Saskatoon and we got a picture from Laurel in snowy Calgary.

Good Friday?

Good Friday?


Glad we live here!
Our sun bathed tulips

Our sun bathed tulips


Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep and a day of celebration tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. April 16. Video of SheLife Speech #TSJ

During my lunchtime phone call with Janet I encouraged her to have an early nap as we had to leave earlier than usual to get in a doctor appointment before SheLife. No surprise that when I got to Connect, Janet was hanging out in the living room and telling me she couldn’t sleep. Oh well, I was confident the adrenaline would keep her going and it did, she even managed a 23 minute walk down the hallway before we left.

Her doctor doesn’t feel there is anything physiological causing Janet’s “accidents”. She feels it’s more likely Janet is distracted or stressed at the time, which makes sense in a lot of ways looking back on the incidents. The plan for the next little while is to ask and encourage Janet to go to the bathroom more frequently and assure her that it’s OK to stop what she’s doing and go. She reminded us that although Janet is improving overall, the rate of improvement will not be constant. There will be moments of decline but overall the trend will continue upwards. I’m glad we went to the doctor about this and now I can be more patient and understanding going forward. As a side note Janet’s Dilantin levels were nicely in the therapeutic range so it’s safe to say that is not a contributing factor.

The doctor’s appointment ran late leaving us very little time for dinner and we arrived at Trinity with just enough time for a pee break and a quick run through of Janet’s speech. She was pretty amped up heading into this as were her table mates.

After her run through

After her run through

Standing confidently

Standing confidently


She did a fabulous job standing at the podium confidently and speaking clearly and loudly. Janet ad libbed a lot of it, maybe in part because I forgot to give her her reading glasses, but mostly because she really wanted to speak to the ladies rather than read to them. It worked and she made all of the points she wanted to make. Here is the video.

And here is her original script.
SHELife Speech
Janet was very pleased she made her speech tonight and was surprised at the reaction she got. I’m not. As I said goodnight I told her she was awesome and her reply was, “I’m wasn’t awesome but sure was on tonight”. Indeed you were Janet.

Praying thankfully for all that Janet has accomplished, for everyone that has helped along the way and that this is only the beginning of more improvement.

Janet, A Success Story. April 15. #TSJ

A nice bounce back by Janet today. No accidents, good workouts, good reading practice on her SheLife speech and even a little participation in Games Night.

Janet seemed in a good mood when I called her at lunch time. Jess had taken her to the lab for another blood test in preparation for her doctor appointment tomorrow and she had gone for a bike ride and some stretching. When I arrived at Connect I was surprised to find Janet in the living room “supervising” Brian and a wheelchair tech working on Big Country’s new wheelchair. She had napped a little bit and was eager to practice her SheLife speech so that’s what we did first. The more she read it the better she got and as long as she doesn’t over rehearse and has a good nap tomorrow afternoon she should do well.

Chelsea joined us in the gym to learn Janet’s Shuttle routine. I hadn’t seen Janet on the Shuttle for a while and was impressed with her effort. I’d say there is some improvement since last time. After dinner Janet managed a decent walk from her room to the lobby, which is about fifty feet away. I hope to talk to Tez about helping Janet to walk straight ahead instead of angling to the right as she mostly does. She doesn’t quite understand that she’s doing it even after I tried to show her how much shorter she’d have to go if she went straight. Anyways, it took a lot of convincing to get her to practice walking tonight but when she did she did well. I had her take a few steps holding onto me so I could gage how much she’s using the cane and there was hardly any pushing down on my arm leading me to think she could take a step completely free but she’s scared to try. The idea of practicing that in the pool crossed my mind but I didn’t mention it to Janet yet.

It was a struggle again to get Janet to go to Games Night and this time she didn’t participate much except for singing the Barney theme song during a guessing game. There was one more reading of her speech, which was too much that late in the day, then some email replying to do before bed. Praying that Janet is well rested, confident and focussed for all that she’s asked to do tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. April 14. #TSJ

Today started off great with Janet waking at a decent hour after a good sleep and easily taking a bath before breakfast. She was bright and alert and seemed ready for a good day. I left her and Heather for a little bit to attend to an appointment I had and when I returned they were sharing the couch watching Ellen. I asked Janet if she needed to go to the bathroom and got what I felt was a confident no. Minutes later it was like the flood in Noah and I was not in the least bit impressed. I got quite angry with Janet and I know she didn’t intentionally do this but she’s been doing so well and this is such a sudden and inconsistent change that I get really mad when it happens and take it out on her. We had a good talk with nurse Jen at Connect this afternoon and have an appointment with Janet’s doctor Wednesday and I think with an understanding of what’s happening I will be better able to handle it. There are two likely scenarios, one physiological and treatable the other neurological and not treatable. Pray it’s the former please.

In spite of my grumpiness the rest of the day was pretty good. Janet really enjoyed her time with Heather and is very grateful for her taking the time to come all this way to visit. Janet is very aware that the next time she sees her will be at her wedding and “that’s a big deal”. After we dropped Heather at the airport we went back to Connect and worked on Janet’s speech for SheLife. It’s been hard for me not to put words in her mouth and Janet has done a great job of constructing what she wants to say. We wrote it up on her iPad and found she was having a lot of trouble reading it as the page was too busy so I transferred it to a presentation app with one or two sentences on each slide that Janet can see clearly, read then tap to see the next slide. Should work.

After an early and quiet dinner Janet agreed to a bike ride. I wasn’t expecting much from her as she had no nap at all today but she put in a very solid performance with no complaining. Her next choice was more mine than hers and that was a walk. Again, I didn’t expect much but started her out at the kitchen table with the goal of making it to her bed and I was willing to let her bail at the Den. No need, as forty five minutes later she plunked herself down on her bed. She was exhausted but somewhat happy with what she’d done, I certainly was.

There wasn’t much to the rest of the evening other than some well deserved chocolate and once in bed, Janet was sleeping ten minutes later. Praying for a complete and immediate resolution to Janet’s incontinence issue, a deep and healing sleep tonight and a great Tuesday.

Janet, A Success Story. April 12. #TSJ

Shopping day was finally here. Janet remained lukewarm this morning to the idea of shopping for a dress to wear to Heather and Allan’s wedding in June but promised to give it a good go. I wasn’t that confident, as Janet seemed low on energy and certainly not her brightest. I went to the first store with her and Heather and thought it was cool the owner came right over and offered to help. Janet was quiet about everything and a little disinterested and it seemed like this was going to be a long day. To take some pressure off, I dropped the ladies off at the mall and went to visit John for a bit. He’s in a temporary care home now and starting to settle in there a little. Please keep him in your prayers as he has to adjust to some big changes in his life. Upon my return to the mall Janet happily informed me they had found something. Turned out she wasn’t a hundred percent sure on it so the hunt continued. A little while later I got another report of success and the mission was being declared a success. Janet had steadily declined in energy level and to me didn’t seem to be having any fun at all. She was really neglecting her right side, frequently crashing into things. Thinking some food might help, we grabbed mall food and Janet only ate half of hers so we headed home for what I thought would be a good long nap.

An hour’s worth of rest helped Janet a little and happy hour on our patio helped more. This was the first time we’ve sat outside in the sun at our new house and it felt really good. Janet didn’t want it to end but a cloud covered the sun just as it was time to get ready for church so with her seeming more like herself, off we went. Tonight’s service “was a good one” says Janet and she was able to follow along with Tim’s message. By the time we were most of the way through our sushi dinner after church, Janet was fading again. She didn’t eat as much as she usually does and wasn’t really initiating any conversation. Back at home it was time to try on the dress and the other clothes Janet got today. She was pleased with her dress but Heather and I are so so with it. What do you think?

Potential mother of the bride dress.

Potential mother of the bride dress.


Heather and I like the top.

Heather and I like the top.


By this time Janet was quite out of it and should have gone to bed but she wanted ice cream so she quietly enjoyed that before getting ready. There was a return of her toileting challenges from last week this evening and put me in a foul mood. I don’t understand how she can be so bright and with it most of the time then have lapses like this. I pray that tomorrow, Janet is refreshed, rejuvenated, positive and energetic.

Janet, A Success Story. April 10. #TSJ

I’m not sure how to start this post as Janet and I along with a few other Connect folks saw the movie Noah tonight and I’m still rather consumed by it. I didn’t meet up with Janet today until she and the others got to the movie theatre but I did call her at lunch time and she was quite excited to be outside at Beasley Park having a picnic with a bunch of Connect people. She also was excited to tell me she had done some walking from the breakfast table to somewhere she couldn’t name, I’m thinking the Den but it may have been further. Point is, she was excited to have done it.

Janet expressed all emotions except laughter during Noah and overall thought it was a good movie with a lot of parts she didn’t understand. I would concur and Janet and I had a good talk about it in the car and right up until bedtime and would love to hear from any of you as to what you thought of it. It was exciting to be able to take Janet to a movie and for her to sit through a long one like that. Her sitting was made more comfortable in that she was able to sit in a theatre seat after a difficult transfer that included negotiating a three inch step down to get to her seat. Popcorn and pop helped too of course.

Praying for a restful night of sleep tonight and for an energetic Janet tomorrow and also for Heather to arrive safely and on time.