Rejoicing in this day that God has made.

Janet was awake and being prepped for the day when I arrived. We went right into some stretching and all went well save for her left leg. Quite tight at the knee. She fell asleep as I was working on that leg and actually slept for over an hour. When she woke I did a little more and got the left leg stretched out pretty good. It was then time for lying on her tummy. Once over her left leg totally relaxed and was nice and flat on the bed. I asked her to lift and lower it a few times which she did very well as long as I got her leg up that first fifteen degrees or so. You could see everything working hard to get her lower leg vertical. High five!

I sat her up on the edge of the bed for some sitting and standing and she performed really well at that too. Nice and tall with the standing and she gave me two nice hugs and one great smile.

I got a huge smile when I got home for my break as well. I have been talking to four different lawyers in regards to Committee of Estate (like power of attorney)and all have said I’m looking at $3,000 at least. One said we might be able to get enough of a response from Janet to do a power of attorney but that seemed a little shady to me. I had asked Wendy if she knew of any lawyers around Trinity that might work with me. She put the word out and Darcy, our Executive Pastor approached Kiko today with some fabulous news. A lawyering couple that only live in Kelowna in the summer have offered to do a Committee of Estate for us for free! Yes, free! I continue to be amazed by God’s grace and power and am grateful to these kind people that I don’t even know.

Looking forward to a fun in the sun afternoon.

I’m so excited to write this to you all I don’t know where to begin so I’ll begin at the beginning, which wasn’t that exciting. It was actually a little disappointing.

I arrived back in the room just after three and Janet was awake but looking a little uncomfortable. After a couple minutes I realized her feed pump was still running. I looked at the total delivered and quickly hit the off button. Instead of the prescribed 325ml of formula she was to get, Janet had 1,023ml pumped into her! I got her nurse (the LPN that started the feed) and she acted as if it was no big deal and started to give Janet the water she always gets after to flush the line. That’s another 120ml of fluid with no explanation for the overdose! I went and got Arlene and she reassured me that as long as Janet stayed a little elevated in bed for a half hour she’d be fine. She compared it to eating a massive turkey dinner. I was ok with that and told her I wasn’t too upset about the pump problem but was concerned that no one had checked on Janet from when I left at 12:15 to when I got back at three. She agreed that was not good and had Allison the nurse manager come and talk to me then Janet’s RN came in and said she had checked on Janet at two. I asked ” didn’t you notice the pump still running? No. Huh?

Ok so I guess that was kind of exciting just not in a good way. Janet was fine and by a little after four we were on our way to the beach. Janet was way more comfortable in the wheelchair this afternoon and seemed to really enjoy soaking up some rays. We managed to get close enough to the plum tree for Janet to pick one. She did so effortlessly and I thought she might try to eat it but she put it straight onto her lap and it stayed there the rest of our outing. Not that exciting but positive.

Back in the room I just had time to get Janet into bed and confirm with her nurse she was skipping dinner then I was off to Trinity for the 5:30 service. I’m so grateful to be able to attend such a loving and inspiring church. Wayne’s message was hard hitting, truthful and motivating, the worship team led by Storm was great. Allison, it is always an honor to hear you sing and Kiko your smile and love for God is as inspiring as your talent. The day so far had me feeling a little down as I’m facing some major decisions in the next while but to connect with friends and “family” at Trinity is a huge gift. Thanks y’all! That was exciting but there’s better yet.

After lingering at church dealing with a Twerp and knowing Kiko had gone to see Janet I arrived to find Kiko trying to wake Janet up. Lovingly of course. She did eventually open her eyes and had a little visit before I moved in for the bedtime stretch. I went pretty easy on her as she seemed pretty tired and after I got her gown and splint on for the night I knelt beside her and started saying goodnight. For some reason my emotions snuck up on me and I lost it. I put my head on her chest and through the watery blur I could see her smiling! She started patting my shoulder then rubbing my arm. Smiling all the time. I talked (whispered actually) to her trying to explain how much I love her and how well she is doing and how many people are helping her and praying for her. She kept smiling, raising her eye brows occasionally and blinking her eyes fast as if coming out of a fog. I had to leave a few times to blow my nose and each time I came back there was a new smile for me. These were whole face smiles too, not little mouth smiles, one even showed teeth. I kept expecting her to blurt out a word but smiles will have to do for now. It was incredibly hard to leave and I didn’t until almost nine. I believe she understood every word I said to her. I believe God is doing something amazing with her and I know our lives are never going to be what they were but I believe our lives will be amazing. That is exciting!

Praying for a restful and healing night and smile filled day tomorrow.

A sleepy Saturday.

Janet was sort of awake when I arrived this morning mostly because she was getting cleaned up and dressed. We chatted for a little while then I started stretching her. She was back asleep before I finished. By the time she woke it was getting close to lunch time so we did some sitting and standing then it was into the wheelchair for what I hoped would be a lap around the ward. She seemed pretty groggy all through the sitting session and wasn’t that interested in standing. She did give me a couple of really nice hugs though. Surprisingly as soon as she was in the wheelchair it was like “ok, let’s go!”. I hardly had to get her going and out the door we went. The ward was too busy so we headed for the elevators and the nice wide hallways of the main floor. Janet is starting to catch on to how she can get more power by starting higher on the wheel and she set a personal single push record today and a speed record. Back on the ward Dr. Jones watched her coming down the hall and was impressed Janet was watching him and continuing to drive. Previously she would stop whenever she felt she was being watched or she was too close to someone. Back in the room she stopped just short of the bed and I tried to get her to go that extra little bit but she refused. I went to get a gown and when I turned back into the room Janet had grabbed the end rail of the bed and was pulling herself past the bed. When she ran out of bed she grabbed the wheel and got herself all the way to the window. High five! I made sure Dr. Jones was aware of her determination to do that on her own.

Janet was also pretty determined to get back into bed and was asleep fifteen minutes later with her lunch feed pumping away.

Praying for communication and readiness for rehab.

The last day of “free” hospital care. I wonder if the quality will go up now that we are paying?

It was a much quieter afternoon for Janet. I got back at two and she was doing a little Houdieno stuff. We chatted for a bit then I rode downtown to meet with a lawyer at three. When I returned it was off to the beach. Janet was determined to drive the wheelchair to the elevators and she did quite well. Marie from Physio joined us for the ride down and liked how Janet was pushing the elevator buttons and she watched her drive down the hall to the outside door. Janet clearly heard someone coming up from behind and Marie was pleased to see that. Always good to perform well in front of the pros.

It was another gorgeous day here and the sun felt really good, however after only a few minutes at the beach Janet started to get restless and had on a frowny face. We started walking back and she seemed ok as long as we were moving. Out on Pandosy St. we stopped for a bit and she started frowning again. I asked her to tell me what was wrong and all she could do was reach way down her left leg, almost touching her foot. I had put different shoes on her today as the back of one of her sneakers is kinda worn out. I thought maybe she wanted to take the shoe off so I took it off. Seconds later she reached down her right leg and untied that shoe. I took it off. She was not out of pain completely and when we got back to her room she did the quickest unassisted lay down ever and relaxed immediately. I would love to know the reason! Needless to say, the shoes are back at home and maybe headed for the garbage.

I tried a little speech therapy singing with her and other school type stuff, I even read some more Anne to her but she just kept rolling onto her right side and ignoring me. Diana came in to hook up the dinner feed and I did her mouth care which she was very cooperative about. So much so I thought she might be willing to have her teeth brushed. Diana brought me a cool self suctioning toothbrush and a little tube of Crest. Janet was extremely cooperative and her teeth cleaned up real nice. She even showed me her teeth afterwards when I asked to check them. When I just randomly ask her to open her mouth she won’t really do it. With a clear purpose she hardly hesitated. Wish I could come up with a clear purpose for all the things I’d like her to do. Soon after brushing her teeth she fell asleep and I spent the next the next hour monitoring her feed as the line kept getting air locked. I had to clear it three times. Another notch on my resume.

I woke Janet up briefly to change her for the night. She was pretty groggy so I made sure in our goodnight prayer that I emphasized her need for rest and healing.

A busy day for Houdieno so far.

Houdieno was at it strong when I arrived this morning and she gave me a nice smile. Diana came in right away and I helped her clean and dress Janet. Since she was so awake I sat her on the edge of the bed for twenty minutes. We brushed her hair and did some arm exercises but mostly just unassisted sitting. She’s getting better at catching herself when she leans too far to the right. After twenty minutes her eyes were getting heavy so time to lay down. I got really good stretches from her hips and legs today and she stayed awake the whole time. We were waiting for Tom when I realized he wasn’t going to be around till eleven so I had Janet sit up some more. I tried to get her to talk or make some sounds or open her mouth or stick out her tounge but all I got was a slight mouth opening. I will say I thought she was trying a few times.

Dr. Jones came in to see how Janet was doing and commented that he sees significant improvement since he last saw her. He’s the one she waved to. He mentioned that the psychiatrist had been in to see Janet this morning as well as Dr. McCann yesterday. I’m a little upset I missed the shrink and disappointed he came in when she was likely sleeping or at least sleepy. I’m going to try and find out who he is and what he thinks.

Tom showed up at eleven and we put Janet on her tummy. Tom did some range of motion with her in that position and had Janet raising and lowering her left lower leg on command a number of times. High five! She lasted a good forty five minutes before I flipped her over and Diana plugged her in for lunch. Despite all the activity she was in slight Houdieno mode when I left.

Looking forward to an active afternoon.

Some of you are asking questions about the Alberta rehab facility. That’s great!

It was mentioned in a post August 13th. Dr. Jones the Hospitalist that week thought it was a possibility for the future. Cathryn is familiar with it and has referred patients to it previously.

Located in Ponoka Alberta The Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury is known as “the” place for brain injury rehab in western Canada. I will pass on the details of what Janet has to be able to do to get there after our meeting with Cathryn next week. It’s not necessarily the best place for Janet but could be at some point.

I hope y’all are going to the blog site frequently and not just reading the updates from email. On the site you are able to read comments to each post from your fellow Teammates and post comments yourself of course. Brenda visited Janet this afternoon and posted a comment about it. I hope you’ll read it along with all the other comments and contribute some as well. It’s more fun that way and I can read them to Janet too.

I arrived just as Brenda was leaving and Janet was awake but as I was stretching her in preparation for a walk outside she fell asleep for an hour. I used to be a little upset about these frequent naps but I’ve come to realize that Janet is so much more aware and responsive when she’s awake now that maybe the naps are what’s helping her get there and not just a result of being awake and active. She seems really peaceful during these sleep times I pray there is healing going on.

We got outside and down to the beach on a spectacular late afternoon. The water was very sparkly and the sky very clear and blue. There were more people there than I expected and Janet enjoyed watching two little girls play in the waves and sand. We took the long way back to the hospital and Janet picked some grapes from a vine hanging over the sidewalk. I put her hand up to touch them and she felt around and looked at them for a bit then pulled a small bunch off and put them on her lap. We stopped at a plum tree but couldn’t quite reach them and she wasn’t interested in some larger grapes we saw. Probably knew they weren’t wine grapes. Back in the room I thought we would do some sitting and standing but Janet wanted to lay down right away so she did and I read an article about the Me to We Foundation to her before she went for another nap. This one lasted right through dinner and she only woke up in time for me to read a little more before saying goodnight. I still got my kiss but she was right back to sleep as soon as I changed to leave.

I spoke with Cathryn tonight and she said she has the criteria that Janet needs to meet to get into KGH rehab and the facility in Alberta. We are going to meet next Wednesday to discuss. Apparently Dr. McCann stopped by Janet’s room today while I was gone and Cathryn was please he is keeping tabs on her. I figured he would not have seen much as she likely was sleeping the whole time I was gone and she said that’s ok as he would be reading her chart and noting what the nurses and Hospitalists are entering. I asked her to mention to him that I want to chat and I will continue to try and track him down. I updated Cathryn on Janet’s latest achievments and she was excited to hear about her progress.

Praying for a restful and healing night and the ability to communicate.

A stand up day for Janet. Just not where we thought.

Because Janet is officially C diff. positive she is not allowed to participate in any rehab games. She can roll through but not touch anything. Tom came in around nine to tell me that and Janet seemed visibly disappointed she wasn’t going as I believe she had herself psyched up to go. Not sure why this wasn’t pointed out during the set up phase, I thought of it but wasn’t going to bring it up as I really want Janet to have a shot at this. I spoke to Dr. Sharko and she agreed that Janet isn’t displaying any symptoms of C diff. but until she is off the antibiotic she can’t even be tested. Dr. Sharko set up a test for Monday and Tom will set up an appointment in rehab for next week.

The day got off to a busy start with nurse Diana in the room when I arrived. She is nice but not the most detail oriented or delicate person so she made more of a mess around Janet than when she came in and I had to get Janet into the wheelchair so the bed could be changed. So after all the rolling around and shifting up and down Janet was relieved to sit in the chair for twenty minutes. I sat her on the edge of the nice clean bed and she insisted on staying there for fifteen minutes before her eyes started closing. I started stretching her as Tom was coming soon with the tilt table.

Janet woke up as I was finishing her legs and was good and ready for some serious standing. She set a record today going almost an hour at seventy degrees. Tom was happy the way her legs stretched out and she seemed to handle the pressure on her feet and ankles well. Leanne did some range of motion with Janet while standing and Janet followed Leanne’s command to raise her left arm above her head and let it down ten times back to back. High five! She gave a better one to Leanne than me and seemed sad when Leanne left. Janet’s vitals stayed very stable throughout and she had a real good sweat going by the end of it all. Back in bed she was asleep before I could change her shirt so I headed home for my break with Brenda coming in to visit a little before two. Hoping Janet is well rested and raring to go.

A rather mellow afternoon with Janet.

I arrived to find her in Houdieno mode and Janet F. in the room for a visit. Interesting to see how close Houdieno comes to actually falling out of bed head first. She’s getting close folks. Janet had a little nap towards the end of Janet F’s visit and when she awoke we just had time to drive around the ward in the little wheelchair before dinner. Janet did well and I got excited when we saw a baby visiting someone in a hallway bed. I thought Janet would be all over seeing a baby. We made it up to the bed and I was telling Janet how there’s a baby there and the mom picked the baby up so we could see and the kid smiled and laughed and blew bubbles with her tongue stuck out, could not have been cuter, seriously. Janet looked at her like she was from Mars for about a minute then put her hand on the wheel and drove off.

Back in the room I sat Janet on the edge of the bed for some unassisted sitting before dinner. I did help her straighten her back a few times, she loves that, but overall she sat there for a good forty minutes. About fifteen minutes in Naomi came in to start dinner and Janet clearly wanted no part of lying down yet so we started the feed with her sitting up. Cool. A silly preschool song came on that has a bunch of actions to it for waking up in the morning and exercising. I tried doing the actions with Janet and thought I was in total control of her and she wasn’t paying attention until the guy singing said “stand up”, and Janet leaned into me and put her hand on my shoulder like let’s stand up. I was not in position to help her stand but congratulated her on the effort. High five! She did finally indicate she wanted to lay down and when she was all comfy I read some more Anne of Green Gables to her. She was totally in to it again and when I stumbled over a couple of lines she shot me a raised brow look like “you dummy” then smiled. She knew I screwed up. I didn’t laugh or anything but I guess she could tell my cadence had changed and maybe she didn’t understand some of the words. Impressive.

She very willingly gave me a goodnight kiss followed by a “we just kissed, hee hee hee”, kind of smile. Love her.

Praying for a very alert, responsive and strong Janet during her physio workout at rehab tomorrow.

A decent day so far.

Janet had already been cleaned and changed when I arrived at eight this morning, the music was even playing, well done Naomi. Only problem was Janet was sleeping. She woke up at nine and we got into some stretching and sitting and standing. A solid performance by Janet, not her best but solid. She of course had a little nap after that then we did more sitting. This time totally unassisted and I tried giving her tasks to do while sitting. She managed a couple of weak hair brushing strokes by her left ear and a few more on her cheeks and chin. She has always been concerned about facial hair but hers isn’t that long. I don’t think she fully gets the hair brush thing yet and after each stroke she wants to look at the brush to see if there’s anything in it. I held up the mirror so she could see herself brushing but that had little effect. I did get a hug out of her so that was worth the effort right there. With a little prodding she managed to lay down almost unassisted then I sat the bed up so we could do a little iBlackboard work. Right off the bat she was drawing a circle on command. Many circles all in one again but a circle none the less. That seemed to tire her out so nap time it was.

Tom came in around 11:30 and slid her into the little wheelchair. From there he did this cool standing exercise where Janet has her left hand on the bed rail pushing herself up as she leans forward into Tom who is picking her up from the hips. She was a little scared or uncomfortable the first couple times, leaving her head on Tom’s shoulder, then I tried it with her and she straightened right up and was looking all around quite confidently. This kinda feeds my suspicion that she doesn’t really connect with Tom right now. He has arranged a workout session for Janet in rehab tomorrow around eleven. I look forward to taking her down there for that and have been telling her continually she needs to do really well there.

Naomi came in to start the lunch feed around 12:15 and I mentioned that this round of C diff. doesn’t seem nearly as intense as the first. She agreed and doesn’t think Janet has it right now. I asked if we could send another sample away and she agreed to as soon as they are able to collect one.

Praying for some clear communication from Janet.