gym

New Janet? Big change from yesterday. #TSJ

Apparently all the sleep Janet has been getting lately is paying off. Hopefully the reduction in Dilantin is helping too. I say this because the Janet I hung out with this afternoon is much improved from the one I saw over the last week or so. Jess told me Janet was laying down when I got to Connect and she had chosen to nap before I came to visit as she wanted to hang out with me. She had been down for an hour so I left her for another hour then went in to wake her so we could Skype Cam. Janet immediately started laughing about how she wasn’t sleeping and was expecting me. I could tell right away that she was way brighter than yesterday. Her voice was loud and the words she was using were real words that I could understand. It sometimes took her a few tries to get the right words but there was no Klingon present.

Our Skype conversation with Cam went really well as he was able to tell Janet about his sports successes and discuss his school plans for the next few months. Janet was tuned in and engaged the whole time needing very little help from me. It was very nice to witness.

Keeping the momentum going I asked Janet if she wanted to go to the gym before dinner or after. She of course said neither but with only a little reasoning she agreed to go before. Rikki took her and Janet returned smiling and saying she had a good workout. Rikki hadn’t worked with Janet for a while and was excited about the improvement she sees. She gave a glowing report which was really encouraging for me to hear and I’m sure Janet benefited from hearing the positive news as well.

Dinner was ready, so down to the kitchen we went and Janet obediently drank her cup of water before eating. Who is this person? With a little prompting she even talked to Fred, especially after he guessed I was fifty and Janet was forty. New best friend.

Our evening Skype call to Andrew was not quite to level of the one with Cam but still pretty good. I can tell Janet is processing information better now, maybe not retaining it any more but in the moment she seems to understand things better. She was wearing out after talking with Andrew and wanted to watch a little TV before bed. She actually told me at eight o’clock that she wanted to stop the TV and go to bed. Very responsible.

Today’s Janet really brightened my day and restored my hope that she can deal with this Dilantin crap. This Janet is the one that can work hard at getting better and make progress and I pray she is here to stay. Praying also for a restful and healing night with lots of energy for tomorrow’s tasks and learning opportunities.

Coming Down. Janet’s overdose wearing off. #TSJ

To my surprise, Janet was asleep in her bed when I arrived at Connect this afternoon. Garrett had put her down for a nap around two saying she was starting to fade and didn’t protest the idea for once. I was more than happy to snuggle up beside her after having enjoyed an awesome first half of the day skiing. Of course she woke up as I approached but only enough to show me that beautiful smile, have a little chat then go back to sleep.

Being comparatively bright afterwards Janet agreed to Skype Heather. The conversation generated a few giggles, lots of smiles and some of the loudest talking Janet has done since her OD. She tired quickly though and agreed to end the talk for today and try again next week.

We made our way down to the kitchen where Rebecca and Humberto were prepping dinner. Janet set the table with a little help from me and proceeded to eat everything in sight including the house’s first attempt at quinoa. She loved it as did most everyone else.

Tonight was ladies night upstairs and I think Janet would have gone had there been something going on other than sit and have a cup of tea. Maybe next week. She opted to play a game on the iPad and did very well naming pictures of places, some of which I had to think about. First time I’ve noticed a weakness in that app as some of the clues and pictures were really obscure.

Bedtime came a little early as Janet has not yet fully “come down” from her OD although she is noticeably improved today. Garrett and Tez had her in the gym for an hour this morning saying she worked hard and did well. Tez tried pushing her to do some standing work with him but she’d had enough by that time. I’m glad he’s considering it at least.

Praying for a good night of rest and healing, a productive morning and some fun in the afternoon.

Getting Better. Janet improves tonight. #TSJ

When I called Connect this morning Lorne was in the process of getting Janet up. Jess told me they decided to let Janet sleep in till nine and that she seemed fine, having slept through the night. When I arrived to take her to the lab she was having a late lunch and seemed pretty chipper. She wasn’t doing too well with feeding herself but she managed and after a pee break we went to the lab. No crying this time as I guess she’s finally getting used to being stabbed.

Upon our return to Connect Janet seemed relatively bright still and agreed to play a game on the iPad. She chose math and did surprisingly well lasting about fifteen minutes with that game then I switched her to a naming game that she succeeded at as well. I took a chance at asking her if she wanted to lay down for a rest after half an hour and she quickly agreed. Two hours later and a little past her dinner time she was recharged and ready to go. It was her night to help with dinner but rest is far more important right now so Humberto took her spot and everything was dished out and ready when Janet got to the table. She was clearly doing much better than yesterday, smiling at the conversation and eating well.

Curtis took Janet to the gym for a late night stretch which I thought would be short considering the time but Janet came back grinning and feeling proud of herself after eight o’clock and had enough energy to watch some of the hockey game with Chris and Humberto before going to bed.

I’m very impressed by the improvement in Janet today and especially with her interactions with others. For the last while she’s not shown any interest in the other residents but that flipped around completely today. She’s still not conversing with them but she really enjoyed listening to the chatter and reacted with smiles when appropriate. Janet’s talking to me was much clearer today with no major occurrences of Klingon but her volume level was really low. Her toileting routine was very good and I’m feeling a little like nurse Jen may be right about Janet adjusting to the Dilantin. Anxiously awaiting the test results and answers to my many questions.

Praying for another good night of rest and healing and a day of learning and progress 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.

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.

Wonderful Wednesday #TSJ

While reclining in her comfy chair in the living room watching Ellen, Janet gave me a pretty good report on her day so far when I arrived this afternoon. Once again she was very smiley and talkative saying she’d had a good day and that Mary Lou had come to see her and Brian did some awfully hard things with her and she was almost in tears. She mentioned she went to the gym and helped in the kitchen. The staff gave me a more accurate report saying Janet did go to the gym with Lorne then Tez showed up again and that’s where the awfully hard things and tears happened. From the sounds of it Janet had a very good workout again even getting onto her knees and balancing quite well. I notice Janet getting stronger in the legs despite the spasticity holding steady. Brian reported that he had a good session with Janet, taking her to the kitchen where she cut an apple for her afternoon snack.

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Brian also mentioned how impressed he was with Janet’s speech volume and her overall alertness and ability to answer his questions. That was reinforced to me when we made a Skype call to Nancy to wish her happy birthday. Janet talked very loud and clear and made some good comments and observations. Probably her best conversation to date.

Continuing in her heightened state of alertness Janet asked if she could go and help with dinner. Garrett was very accommodating in trying to get everyone involved in the meal prep. Janet set the table with a minimum of assistance and seemed ready to do more but there wasn’t anything left to do but eat. She was happy I had some leftover skiing lunch with me and was eating with her. Usually part way through dinner she will ask me “where’s yours?” And I’ll have to explain I’m eating at home. But not today. She made quick work of her fish and chips and vegetables but was not too excited about drinking her water. Garrett has teamed Janet up with Fred and Humberto for dinner menus and prep. They will eat essentially the same meals at dinner and share in the making of them. He also put together a shopping list of groceries for Janet but she declined the invite to go to the store with him tonight.

Winding down to bedtime I read some of Slow Dance to her and she was able to recount the basics of what we read when I asked her right after I stopped. Good to know she’s paying attention and nice to see more improvement of her short term memory. I’m often tempted when reading this book to tell her that similar things happened to her but I don’t want to cause tears. I did ask if she thought any thing similar had happened to her and she said no. Probably a good thing.

Today was another really good day for Janet with a good workout in the gym, some good experience in daily kitchen type activities, good standing transfers and excellent conversational skills. Praying for more healing overnight and a good day of learning tomorrow.

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.

Gourmet Puréed #TSJ

When I got to Connect this afternoon I asked Janet how her day was so far. She was happy to report that she “got up this morning”, had a smoothy for breakfast and did not go to the gym. I thought that was pretty good reporting on her part. Turns out she did go to the gym but shortly after arriving a new resident with some behavioral issues came in and disrupted things enough that Janet started crying so Garrett took her back to the “house”. She had some Speech therapy before Rikki made her a colorful lunch of green beans, carrots, cottage cheese and pork. I was surprised to hear about the cottage cheese as Janet had thought it pretty disgusting at KGH but apparently lapped it up today.

Our chat took place in the living room while waiting for Brian to come and meet with us. We talked to him in detail about the wheelchair and now have a plan in place to get Janet’s chair set up ideally for her so I can actually buy the darn thing. Brian offered a few accessories intended to make Janet’s day to day routine easier. Most of them I found to be too compensating and Brian agreed that we need to have Janet learning and re-learning to do things rather than having something do it for her. One useful item is a short easel that sits on top of her desk at an adjustable angle and allows a book or the iPad to be positioned in a more useful way for her. Some of the items were food related and we agreed to leave food prep out of Janet’s itinerary until she is cleared to eat real food. That brought up the question of the swallow X-ray. Connie had emailed today saying KGH has yet to receive the doctor’s order. I phoned her the doctor’s office right away and was told she had some things to do to it before sending it off. Translation, she forgot about it. Grrrr. We had a good long talk with Brian and Janet was very patient throughout and near the end she went off to explore the living room a little. She returned with a pillow on her lap so I invited her to a pillow fight. She thought that was great.

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Janet went for a shower before dinner and we hung out in her room for the few minutes we had before heading down to eat. Rikki made another colorful plate for Janet, carrots, mashed potatoes with a little yam in them, cottage cheese and chicken. The best looking meal Janet has had at Connect and apparently a tasty one too.

Since Janet missed out on the gym this morning I took her in for some leg stretching and got her on the Shuttle as well. I wasn’t able to set it up as well as Tez had it but Janet still got a decent go at it. She was reluctant to try standing so I tricked her a little bit into doing a standing pivot off the Shuttle. She did really well once I got her started towards standing.

Bob was leading a bunch of the residents in a poker game tonight and Janet enjoyed watching for a little while. She didn’t understand the game of course but liked the loud action. She also really enjoyed watching some YouTube before bed and after being tucked in agreed that today was a good day.

Praying for rest and healing and a productive day tomorrow with positive news about the swallow X-ray.

Month Eight #TSJ

Day 246 was a good one for Janet. Lorne and Garrett worked with her this morning in the gym and with some Speech. She didn’t fall out of bed or her wheelchair and ate well. When I arrived she was waiting in the living room to go back to the gym with Tez. The guys were updating Janet’s chart and agreed that she needs to be on a regular toileting program. I talked to nurse Jen about that later on and she will develop a routine so Janet gets plenty of opportunities to go to the bathroom. Today was much better in that regard. Lorne and Garrett also started making up a bunch of side dishes for Janet to eat so she gets more vegetables and then the only thing that needs to be cooked at meal time is the protein. Food has been a challenge and will continue to be until Janet passes that swallow X-ray. No word yet as to when she gets a chance but the word has been put out to Connie to see what’s happening.

Janet failed the “who am I” test again but caught on quicker today for sure. We played an expanded version of it at bedtime and she did really well naming family members except her own kids. Usually she nails those easily but tonight it was everyone but. Still waiting for Tez we played a naming game on the iPad and Janet did reasonably well after getting two or three clues. She definitely knows things once she sees the word the problem is in pulling that word out of her memory bank on its own.

Tez was finally ready for Janet around three o’clock and he worked her pretty hard again. This was another training opportunity for the staff and Tez wanted to add some more hand, arm and shoulder exercises so there is a solid routine for those in the mornings and one for legs later in the day. Janet’s right arm continues to be nice and loose and Tez got some good range from it and even though Janet cried you could see improvement from last week. Tez got Janet to hold her right hand with her left and intertwine her fingers then lift her arms up high. Janet was straining hard to touch Tez’s hand about a foot and a half above her chest but she did it!

Getting Janet on her tummy was a challenge today as she was pretty worn out from the arm workout she had. Tez only kept her there long enough to get her doing some pushing back with her legs as he applied resistance. From there we got Janet on her knees again and she really seemed thrilled once she got there. It took a tremendous effort on her part as Tez had everyone back off on supporting her so she was doing almost all of it herself. Excellent effort.

The next stage in transferring for Janet is going to be using a circular pivot board that Janet will stand on, spin, then sit. We tried it a couple times and its still really hard for Janet to do on a regular basis but will be incorporated into her workout.

Finally Janet got to try the Shuttle Machine. This is a piece of equipment I noticed as something Janet could maybe use when we first toured Connect. As you can see from the video she caught on real fast. Using this regularly will really help Janet build some strength in her legs.

After all that it was time for a bathroom break followed by a Skype session with Mary/Gaga and Keith. Janet was able to converse reasonably well and I think enjoyed the chance to see and talk to them both. Dinner was a massive bowl of puréed spaghetti and meat sauce. It looked disgusting but Janet gobbled it up then enjoyed a desert of “yummy” pears.

It is truly amazing to think back eight months and see just how much progress Janet has made. Seeing her “kneeling” and “standing”, working on that Shuttle Machine, talking, laughing and eating well is truly a blessing. Thank you Lord for every minute I get to spend with her and for the healing you are bringing to her. Thanks to all of you for the prayers, love and support. #Team Save Janet