This post brought to you by Heather

Mom woke up this afternoon after a short nap in order to talk to Aunt Leslie. Mom was pretty quiet but managed to tell Leslie she loved her.

After her chat with her sister, Mom and I did some sitting. Mom tried to stand and I told her she couldn’t, at which point she started to cry and said “Why does it matter if I stand” After that it took her a while to calm down, but eventually we read a bit more about Narnia and then Mom rested a little more.

Off to dinner we went and Mom ate all of a big bowl of what looked like cream of broccoli soup and then had half of her pureed apricots. After dinner Mom and I watched some youtube clips, chatted and waited around for Larry. When Larry showed up Mom broke into the biggest grin I have ever seen from her. She gave him a big hug and managed to use her loud voice to answer most of his questions. Larry helped her stretch and did a bit of standing exercises before we tucked her and headed home for some sushi and a visit with Ethan.

I have to say I was so moved watching Mom and Larry interact. Mom’s whole demeanor changed when Larry came in and I was so reassured seeing how much they loved each other. For those of you who knew my Mom before the aneurysm, you know she wasn’t the most emotive person; one of the blessings that has come with the injury is seeing Mom being so much more expressive, and that is most true when it comes to her with Larry.

I am sad that tomorrow will be my last day with Mom until late December. I am looking forward to an expressive day with Mom, and know that I am leaving her in the best possible care with Larry.

Janet was all snuggled into bed still when I arrived this morning. She had been changed but not dressed but I didn’t clue into that for a long time so I talked to her while waiting for nurses to appear. By 8:30 there was no sign of anyone then I realized I hadn’t left any clothes out for Janet and that’s why she wasn’t dressed. We made it out for breakfast with Sharon and Luella and Janet was happy to be there and ate most of her yogurt and some of the pureed peaches and a little thickened orange juice. Surprise.

I decided to give Janet a pretty good stretch this morning as I haven’t been able to for a few days. I know Moira and Jessica have but the more the better. We started with her sitting on the edge of the bed so I could stretch her ankles. They seem really tight today. Her right arm is a little tighter than yesterday but I was still able to work it pretty good. I spent a lot of time on her legs which seem to be getting tighter and tighter to me yet Janet is using her left leg really well and has had some moments of good movement from the right one as well the past couple of days. Confused. We ended the session with some standing practice. First with Janet trying to get up herself and she made a few strong attempts, one resulting in a very loud grunt from her followed by a little chuckle. I did one of the old style stand ups with me basically lifting her and that doesn’t work so well now without a wedge for her feet.

It was well after eleven by the time I got her into the wheelchair again and I wanted to do some talking exercises with Janet but her left foot hit the floor and she took off out the room like it was on fire. I followed her and she had a really good exploring session of the entire unit before getting herself to the table for lunch with Mary, Sharon and Edna. At one point during her adventure we passed Nick’s room and Janet cruised right in to say hi to him. I was happy to see soup on the tray when lunch arrived but was a little concerned when I saw it was beef barley. Janet is not a beef eater and would not have gone near it prior to May 15. SHE ATE IT ALL along with a little strawberry Ensure. For her reward she does not have to have a lunchtime tube feed so she is resting in bed listening to music until I get back this afternoon.

I returned to find Mom still curled up in her bed, but reporting that she did not rest. I have noticed that whenever she is in bed she is often trying to figure out how to sit up, get out, or otherwise move around…probably a good thing, but not so good as far as getting some rest. It was just about time to Skype with Aunt Leslie, so I started searching for the Ipad and by the time I turned back around she was half of the way to sitting on the side of the bed. Mom seemed to enjoy our chat with Aunt Leslie despite some difficulties with the connection, and had a good laugh when she saw Aunt Leslie almost fall off of her chair. We then did some more stretching and Mom seemed very intent on trying to get her right leg to move through the different sequences I was suggesting. Afterwards we watched some more YouTube clips of X-Factor and some old So You Think You Can Dance highlights. Larry surprised us as we were getting ready to head for dinner and Mom flashed her biggest smile of the day. Throughout the afternoon, she had a couple moments when her “loud voice” seemed to pop out, though what she was saying wasn’t always clear during these times. So nice to hear her voice, though.

After dinner we finished off the “Ramona and Beezus” movie, with Mom staying awake for the whole thing. She was quite agitated when the volume got loud, but once that was fixed she appeared to enjoy it. Some tears before bed but after a little pep talk she seemed content to drift off to sleep. So thankful for all of the time with her this weekend.

I arrived around 7:50 this morning and found Mom already sitting out in the dining hall waiting for breakfast. She looked very spiffy, wearing a sweater, a scarf, and her glasses, and with her hair neatly combed. Apparently Nurse Jason had done a very nice job this morning. She wasn’t too interested in eating breakfast, and indicated that she wasn’t feeling so good, hadn’t slept well, and was tired. It was nice to see that she was responding to questions more like usual and talking again, however. In fact, she was quite chatty and really fun to hang out with throughout most of the morning. A definite improvement over the past two days. The unit appears to still be struggling with a change in the computer system, however, as she was oddly offered pancakes and sausage this morning, as well as medications to take orally, none of which she is cleared to have yet. The good news is soup finally came with her lunch today – yay!

Mom and I had a good walk around the hospital this morning, with her steering well when driving “Bam Bam” style. She was also able to clear both legs over the side of the bed when trying to sit up after a stretch. My favourite moment of the morning came as we were looking at the framed picture from Carrie and talking a little about her when Mom whispered, quite clearly, “I should send her something.” So sweet, and so very Mom-like. Love when those moments happen. She was quite often taking the time to swallow before responding to my questions today, which seemed to help make her voice more clear, and just generally quite a bit more understandable and more aware until she began to tire around lunchtime. She enjoyed a visit from Suzanne over lunch, and I definitely enjoyed the extra conversation at an otherwise very quiet lunch table. Looking forward to more hanging out this afternoon and finishing our movie tonight!

Update from Laurel:

Mom continued to be a little “groggy” for the remainder of the afternoon. She did perk up at times (including during a short “Kardashian skit” that we were able to perform for Larry when he arrived…no questions please…), but she definitely seemed to be bogged down by something. Wondering if she is perhaps coming down with a bit of a cold; perhaps feeling side effects of the muscle relaxer; or maybe just having an “off day.” Nonetheless, she had some nice smiles as we read Anne 2, and she stretched out pretty nicely during a pre-dinner stretch. In particular, her right leg appeared much more flexible than when I had last been in town, as I found I hardly had to work on it at all to get it almost straight. She smiled during a quick visit with Brenda, and appeared to enjoy a little DQ ice cream that Larry treated her with over dinner. She additionally finished all of her banana cream pudding at dinner – go Mom.

After dinner, we returned to her room and when I gave her a list of ideas for things that we could do, she quickly repeated “X Factor,” so I cued up some X Factor youtube clips. I then attempted an impromptu eye exam, and was surprised by how well she did when I was across the room and she had her glasses on. Finally, we read some more Anne 2 until Mom had her eyes closed and appeared to be ready to drift off to sleep. I said goodnight to her and was treated to some really nice smiles. Looking forward to more smiles and hopefully a lot more energy tomorrow.

Larry, Nash, and I all headed down after lunch to see Mom. We got Mom in her wheelchair and we all headed outside for a walk together. Mom was able to hold the leash as we went along, and she even did well at pulling on the leash as needed to keep Nash in line. Mom used to walk Nash very frequently, so it was really nice to see her getting back into an old activity. She also had a mocking smile all over her face when I struggled at one point when Nash went to the bathroom on our walk one more time than the number of bags that we had…I’ll spare the details, but long story short it is clear that she has not lost her sense of humor. We sat in the sun at the end of the walk and had Nash on Mom’s lap, and she was clearly trying to hold him up close to her. At one point, she even leaned down to try to give Nash a kiss on the top of his head…one of the sweetest moments I’ve seen.

Back inside, Mom’s voice was getting increasingly quieter and more difficult to understand, and eventually she broke into a prolonged crying session. When I asked her if she was sad or frustrated, she was able to whisper “sad,” and later when I asked if she was sad or in pain, she was able to whisper “both,” though not able to tell me what hurt. Hoping that her communication about what’s bothering her will improve soon so that we can better tend to her needs and understand what’s going on for her…

Later in the evening Mom and I watched the “Hairspray” movie on the Ipad in bed. Mom watched it very intently for the entire hour that I played it. Eventually she was yawning (and I was starving!) so I thought it was time to turn it in for the night. She seemed quite content as I said goodbye, and had a smile on her face when I mentioned some of the plans for tomorrow. A really nice way to end off the day with her.

I would love a favor from a lot of you please. If you are reading the Team Save Janet updates directly from email, Facebook or Twitter only, please go to the blog site and “follow” the blog so I have a more accurate idea of how many readers there are. If you have created a WordPress ID and are following, thanks, but please give yourself a name. I can’t always figure out who Anonymous is and I do read the comments to Janet so it’s nice to know who wrote them. Thanks!

You can now read the entire Janet story on the blog site. I have added a History tab and all the Facebook Messenger conversations are posted there chronologically.

Added a new page to the blog. Symptoms. Some stats and facts about brain aneurysms.