memory

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #social

I caught Janet napping again this afternoon which is good as she really does function a lot better in the evening if she is rested. She wasn’t able to give me much detail about what she did with the first part of the day and I trusted her when she told me she did lots in the gym or “downstairs” as she calls it sometimes.

Our drive to the pre SheLife dinner was quite chatty for a car ride as Janet continued to try and tell me about her day. She struggled with details and getting the right word out and seems to be telling herself she can’t remember way too fast. I wonder if writing a note about each task as she completes it would help her remember it longer. Might try that soon.

Janet wheeled herself into her SheLife session tonight with me spying on her just to make sure she found the right table. She seemed more than happy to go off on her own. The session went quite long and Janet said the video they watched was too long but all the remaining ones are half the length so it should be fine. She said she was able to contribute to the discussion and enjoyed the evening. During the drive back to Connect Janet gave me a pretty good run down on what they discussed, much better than her earlier report on the days events.

Once back at Connect it was get ready for bed, read and say goodnight. Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep that provides lots of energy for a busy tomorrow. Thanking Jesus for the community of friends we are able to do life with.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #memory

My day with Janet started with a nap. She had just gone to bed fifteen minutes before I arrived so I snuck into her room, but not very well as she woke up briefly to greet me then had a half hour snooze. Before getting up I tried to get the run down on her day so far but Janet has been having a little trouble with her short term memory lately and she wasn’t able to tell me much without a lot of prompting. I’m not sure what’s going on there and she is definitely worse when tired. It also seems like she gives up a little fast too. I’ll try and talk to Wendy about it this week.

Janet did report that she did everything in the gym this morning. Upon further examination I discovered she only did the Shuttle and mat exercises so after counting some pennies and eating a big dinner Janet reluctantly agreed to a little work on the bike. We tried a few different seat positions this time in an effort to give Janet the best chance at success. She’s a little down on the fact that her right leg doesn’t work that well and that is affecting her efforts on the bike. We found a position where Janet is able to get a few inches of pull up on each revolution and I think she can gain strength enough to complete a revolution soon if she keeps working at it. I’m also hoping for some help from tomorrow’s Botox.

Now that the Aussie Open is over there is nothing on TV and that turned out to be good as Janet spent over half an hour singing with Big Country. They took turns choosing songs from his iPad with Janet doing most of the singing on her choices and Big Country singing most of his. Janet was very supportive of his efforts and really encouraged him along in kind of a mother like way. Following that, Janet asked for her nails to be done and chose Seahawks blue as her colour. Honestly, she chose it with no influence from me at all. After getting ready for bed I read some of what is a very interesting chapter in Open to her but she was sleeping fifteen minutes in and I had to stop at a critical point. Janet denied falling asleep but I know snoring when I hear it.

Tomorrow is Botox day and I have high expectations for this round. If Dr. McCann is onboard we will focus on the right leg and arm, leaving the left leg alone. Janet doesn’t know it yet but as usual her exercise routine will ramp up after the injections too. Fun times.

Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep that brings a positive attitude and a willingness to fully participate in tomorrow’s activities.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #tennis

I snuck up on Janet as she watched TV in the living room at Connect with Jess and Curtis this afternoon. She was pretty tired but not too tired to know right away it was me tugging on her hair. Her day so far had been good with a visit to the gym, working with Wendy the memory coach and a visit from AFO lady. It was definitely nap time when I got there and since Courtney was coming over to our house for dinner and to watch tennis, I brought Janet home so she could nap there.

When I left her last night she was very tired and seemed to heading right to sleep but Janet told me she was awake a lot, “looking at the clock every few minutes for a long time”. I believe her as even after a short nap at home her energy level was pretty low and she just looked tired all evening. She did help get dinner ready and we had a nice visit with Courtney while we watched Genie Bouchard win her match and move on to the semi finals of the Aussie Open. Janet was pretty quiet the whole time but told me on the drive back to Connect that she was happy she got to go home and it was fun to watch the tennis with Courtney.

With Janet seeming so tired today I was concerned with how she would do transferring and such. She was spot on each time. Tons better than yesterday when she seemed to have more energy. Go figure. There was no way I was going to suggest the gym when we got back to Connect though so it was into bed where I could read to her for a little bit. Her tiredness didn’t seem to affect her memory at all as Janet was able to recall a few important facts from today and also knew what is scheduled to happen tomorrow. Praying for an uninterrupted night of deep and healing sleep and a productive tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #memories

Even Janet commented she slept well last night and she was up in decent time this morning and did a good job making her toast and coffee. I still have to verbally coach her through the toaster oven controls but she listened and followed my instructions well this morning. Once we had roughly mapped out our day it was time for the Skype chat with Mary/Gaga. Once again I left Janet on her own and only had to feed her a few questions, otherwise she conversed well. There certainly aren’t anymore issues with the volume of her voice during these chats. Our neighbour, Bonnie, came by for a visit this morning. Janet recognized her but couldn’t quite figure out who she was at first. Bonnie and her husband will be away during the Olympics and asked if we would record the figure skating so she and Janet could watch it together when they get back. Janet is excited to do so and it will be interesting to see how much of it she remembers when watching with Bonnie. Heather and Laurel were up next for a Skype chat and Janet managed that call with very little input from me as well.

The sun came out today and so did we, enjoying a nice walk to part of our new neighbourhood we hadn’t been to yet. We really do live in a great walking area and as soon as it warms up I see no reason why Janet can’t propel herself around a lot of it. Janet refuses to get off the grilled cheese for lunch train so I had her make the dang thing herself today and she did a reasonable job only needing help cutting the tomato and flipping the sandwich.

As we were purging our old house we agreed that after we got settled in the new one we’d make an effort at organizing our photos and memorabilia and today we made a start at that. Janet had a bin full of such treasures and we sorted them all out and made decisions as to how to make them useful. There are lots of things from Janet’s school years and her memory is very sharp in that area. She was naming names and telling stories about all sorts of things with no hesitation, even showing me past boyfriends, something she was shy to do before. We had fun and tomorrow will put some things into a book so they can be enjoyed instead of buried in a bin.

I’m getting more and more confident in Janet’s ability to propel herself around public places and she seems to be as well. She didn’t need help in the church parking lot at all tonight nor did she inside. Getting to a standing position from sitting was a challenge all day for some reason though. You could see the wheels turning but the body not responding and it would take her three or four tries to get up. By bedtime though she was doing it brilliantly. Go figure. I let Janet wheel around a little on her own after church and she visited with a few people without me and I hope she enjoyed those moments of independence. Kiko and Joel had blessed us with a gift card to Bluetail Sushi, a place we hadn’t been to before and tonight was the night to check it out. We approve and were especially entertained by the flaming plate that the Double Salmon came on.

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Janet was so full of sushi she declined ice cream tonight and went to bed after watching a little Aussie Open. Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep and a productive and joyful tomorrow. Go ‘hawks!

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #Reality

Back to reality. Janet seemed quite comfortable and “at home” when I arrived at Connect late this afternoon. Proving her memory skills, the first thing she asked me was “did you go skiing?” When I told I was happily surprised she remembered that she said, “why wouldn’t I remember that?” Nice change from the Janet that couldn’t remember something from an hour ago.

Janet did forget to have a nap this afternoon and was showing signs of being tired but it was too late to nap so she opted for a bike ride instead. Once again I received orders not to make it so hard but being the meanie that I am I never said anything when she programmed the bike to do the same profile as last night and at a higher level. I told her I believed she would do better than last night and she did, tying her personal best but at the most difficult setting she’s tried.

The exercise built her appetite to where dinner was devoured in no time and after hanging out for a little while I asked Janet to practice some walking. She didn’t want to go upstairs to the parallel bars so I had her free stand for almost ten minutes in her room then walk the fifteen feet or so across the hall to Kieran’s door, turn around and walk back to her wheelchair that was beside her bed. The last ten feet were really taxing on her but she maintained as good a form as possible and was able to perform a very controlled landing back into her wheelchair. High five!

We joined Wes and Willie’s wife Val in the living room for a little TV and conversation. Janet tired quickly though and just wanted to get her pjs on and have me read more of Open to her. Because she went to bed so early I was able to read a full chapter to her and she was able to tell me the highlights of what we read despite being ready for sleep. Her memory really is improving and I have to be careful what I say around her now. When I first got to Connect today she told me that there was only one person working all day as Jess was sick. Janet described that person as being Curtis. Later on and in front of Janet, I asked Tiffany if Curtis was working alone all day and Janet got a little offended that I doubted her. That is a real sign of the former Janet returning. Nice!

Praying for a night of uninterrupted healing sleep that provides lots of energy for a busy day tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #celebrity

Janet had another Christmas present arrive this morning. It came in the form of a text message to me from Curtis at Connect reporting that swimming was cancelled for today. Janet was very happy as she insists she does not like going swimming. Truth is she doesn’t like all the preparation for it and the coldness and I understand that and she even admitted later that she would like it more if she could say what to do in the pool. As long as she doesn’t go straight for the hot tub I’m good with that.

Since we no longer had a fixed appointment to go to Janet was able to enjoy a leisurely and complete breakfast before we took off to take our Christmas tree to the chipper and drive out to Connect for a workout. Either Janet is a true celebrity or everyone at Connect is really bored these days because within minutes of me texting that we were in the gym we had Curtis, Garrett, Carly and three other residents in there with Janet being the only one really working out. That attention must have motivated her as she completed her toughest bike ride yet in a personal best tying fashion. Janet recognized that it was a hard ride and blamed me for setting it up that way but I reminded her she peddled her way through it very very well and she acknowledged that with a hint of a smile. Janet left the room and so did most everyone else to a lot of giggles for the following Janet has.

Our next stop was the parallel bars for some walking practice and getting into the elevator we were intercepted by Wendy, Janet’s memory coach. We had a good chat about her plans for Janet which are to work with her three or four days a week, sometimes twice a day for about thirty minutes at a time building Janet’s “future” memory and her “what did I just do” memory. The tools Janet will use are a calendar app on her iPad for the future stuff and a hard copy journal for the past. One short term goal will be to train Janet on the use of an iPhone as she can carry that around easier than a tablet. Janet is a little unsure of it all but Wendy promises it will be a long process with no pressure to hurry up and do something. Janet will learn at her own pace and I think she’ll surprise herself.

Curtis and I helped Janet with some side stepping along the parallel bars and Janet put in a fine effort. The Botox is definitely wearing off of her right leg and she must be noticing a change too as a couple times a day now she is asking me when are we going to see about the AFO. I notice sometimes now her balance and mechanics aren’t quite as good as they have been and I’m hoping that improves once she’s back into her routine at Connect.

After a very productive visit to Connect it was home for a late lunch then some chores. Janet wiped down the outside of all the cupboards and drawers she could reach then had a little power nap. She was a big help in prepping dinner tonight, getting things from the fridge and chopping. She wanted to watch another movie tonight and we chose Hugo. Janet said she didn’t understand even as I explained things as they happened. When I had her retell the story she got the vast majority of it right and decided she did actually understand it.

Praying for a night of uninterrupted and healing sleep that provides lots of energy and a positive attitude for tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #Team

Renovation Day 65. All quiet on the renovation front today as Randy worked from home again and all I did was finish readying the ensuite.

Today was team meeting day for Janet so I was out at Connect for 10am to join the conversation and Janet was waiting in the Den. I tried sneaking up on her but she’s getting smarter about that sort of thing and caught me before I got into the room.

Our discussion about and with Janet was a good one as she participated and responded appropriately throughout the hour. Brian, as Head Coach, led the meeting and provided reports from the coaches that couldn’t be there. Mary Lou is changing the focus of her therapy away from Speech to Reading and Writing. Janet’s speech is now at a point very close to “normal” so it’s time to bring in some other skills. Wendy, Cognition Coach, is beginning a training program with Janet to help her memory and to plan and be responsible for her daily activities. Delivering the envelope yesterday was part of that and this morning Janet successfully delivered a birthday happy face lollypop to Brian without prompting. One of Wendy’s tools she will provide Janet with is a daily journal type of book. I hope to meet with Wendy before her plan is implemented to see if using the iPad would be more appropriate. Given the choice, Janet would default to the book but she admits her writing is poor and that she’s getting better using the iPad. We will go with whatever has the most upside for Janet’s future. Nurse Jen wants to reinstate the Self Medication Program with Janet. We tried this a few months ago with zero success and feel Janet has progressed to the point where she should be able to gradually catch on to managing her meds herself. This ties in nicely with Wendy’s plan too. Tez would like to see Janet using a cane as much as possible so as soon as he tells me what kind she should have we will go cane shopping. He also wants Janet to continue her work in the pool. I think that means doing a little more than swimming in the deep tank so tomorrow we are going to try some walking and balancing in the kiddie pool. Curtis thinks its deep enough and we know for sure it is reasonably warm. For a few months now, myself and other family members have used Heather’s upcoming wedding as motivation for Janet to start walking. My pitch was I want to dance with her there and she has been pretty positive about trying to make that happen. Today Tez made that an official goal for Janet. Unassisted walking by June! Its very exciting to have that be a real goal instead of just wishful thinking. The team believes Janet can do it and she certainly wants to. The big challenge is her right leg and I followed up on the AFO situation today and hope to have an answer tomorrow as to when we’ll have it. Janet is kind of holding out for that to arrive before really getting going on walking practice. I can’t blame her seeing how much her right ankle rolls now.

That was a full morning mentally for Janet and she hung in there really well. I went to work at the church for a bit while she did the rest of her Wednesday activities. She was watching Ellen when I got back and said she had gone for a bike ride, had lunch and watched soccer on TV. She was in a good mood and quite chatty so I didn’t rush her off to the gym feeling it’s OK to change up the pace now and then. One of the kids presented us with a little drama via text message this afternoon and Janet and I had a good long discussion about how to respond and our plan actually got some good results. I feel blessed to be able to have discussions like that with her as she always was a great parent.

With dinner done and things settled down around the house, Curtis and I took Janet upstairs for some walking practice. She worked really hard but was using a lot of negative self talk and didn’t have Big Country there to cheer her on so had a few frustrating moments. Hopefully that type of work can take place during the day when she has more energy and hopefully we can get that AFO soon.

X Factor had already started by the time we were done walking and with Janet being tuckered out from the hard workout she barely made it through to the end of the show. Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep and lots of energy for tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #walking

Renovation Day 64. Randy continues to work from home while I readied the ensuite for operation and hung around while flooring guy did the last little bit of that work. The end is very near.

Janet was sitting up in bed, in the dark, trying to read her watch as I entered her room late this afternoon. I reminded her she has a digital clock beside her bed and she giggled and checked the time. It was past time to get up but she hadn’t slept at all so we discussed the day so far before starting phase two.

Janet says she tried to give that letter to Wendy this morning but didn’t know where to take it. I was too late getting there today to see any of the day staff so I’m not sure what happened but the letter is gone from her room and she says she tried and I think that was the point.

Tez worked with Janet this morning and apparently was a little upset that Janet wouldn’t go in the sling walker. It was explained to him that she’s scared of it and that Curtis and Tiffany and I have been walking her at the parallel bars with some success and he seemed OK with that. Janet said the work this morning was hard and her feet hurt a little.

Singing with John made up for the pain in the morning and Janet agreed it was fun as they sang a little with Big Country and a little on their own. I’m still hoping that a group of them will sing at the Christmas party Friday night. Janet and Big Country sang after dinner tonight and it’s so much fun to see the smile on Janet’s face and to note her happy body language when she’s singing. It’s awesome. Big Country had some words of encouragement for Janet tonight as he very seriously told her to stop saying “it doesn’t work” and “I can’t”. He explained that she can do a lot of things he can’t right now and I think that really made Janet think. Awesome moment.

Janet’s bike ride tonight was a personal best using level three for the first time and going the whole thirty minutes making 2.6 miles! She once again admitted the bike is fun. I hope to get one in the house before Janet comes home for Christmas so she can exercise there too and keep this progress going.

It was a little bit of a struggle getting Janet to the Shuttle after dinner but she cooperated in the end and showed Curtis and I some notable improvement. Her right leg extension has increased and the strength of that leg is far greater than a month ago. I used to have to hold her right foot and knee in place while she pushed or her leg would fall away from the push plate. Not tonight. All on her own. Hoping to feed off the success of the Shuttle we had Janet on the wobbly board for a bit afterwards and she was not impressed. She did manage a few shifts from side to side but was clearly too tired for any more. Good effort though.

Earlier in the day I had mentioned to Janet that we needed to complete her list of people she wants to give Christmas cards to and when we got back to her room after the gym she remembered that and suggested we do it then. An impressive display of her short term memory coming back. That took us until it was time to watch The Voice and sadly for Janet her guy was sent home and my girl was voted safe so I get another Blizzard from Janet. Yeah!

This was a very solid day for Janet and I pray for more of the same tomorrow.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out. #tsj #memory #standup #recovery

Janet greeted me in the living room of Connect this afternoon as she was half sleeping and half watching The View. She told me of her busy morning in the gym and how “terrible” it was then informed me that my haircut looked good. I often need to prompt her to notice things like that or even to ask me what I had done before coming out to see her so it was really nice to have her notice the hair. Brian joined us for a chat to catch up on things as he’d been away on a fishing trip. It was nice to hear his stories and see the picture of him with a large salmon he “caught”.

Our chatting session went through nap time so Janet and I went for a hot sunny walk around the neighborhood. She stayed very chatty throughout and I noticed was seeing things better too. We then had a few minutes before dinner to answer some emails. Janet typed one completely on her own to her mom and did a great job reading another back to me. I had her follow a pen that I pointed at each word and she got at least eighty percent of them. Of course she felt she did poorly but that’s not the case.

After dinner Janet and I had an hour long discussion on the importance of keeping on working hard while she’s at Connect. It started with her not wanting to go to the gym for the second time in a day. We covered every angle imaginable as to why it was important to do so and as we were talking about her time in the hospital the fog lifted a little. Janet started describing to me one of the rooms she was in at the hospital. She couldn’t tell me which hospital it was or what ward it was on or anything but from what she said I think it was her first room in Rehab at KGH. As she described it I could see her envisioning it and am confident she wasn’t making it up. The place she described had a hall with rooms that had four people in them but she was in a room with two people, her and another lady. I asked questions that wouldn’t put words in her mouth so am really confident she actually remembers that place and I plan on taking her to that room on Monday to see if she remembers it more. When her flashback was over she was no longer angry or upset about going to the gym and gave an outstanding effort on the Shuttle. Knowing she didn’t want to do the Standing Frame I had her stand on her own after getting off the Shuttle and with Garrett and Bob watching she stood for well over two minutes without grabbing me once. I’m not sure if the extra eyes made her try harder or if her confidence level has grown that much but it was very exciting and a huge improvement.

Because her morning had been so busy Janet never got to shower during the day so off she went for a bedtime shower. She wasn’t too happy about it at first, thinking she’d be cold but she was smiley and warm upon her return and enjoyed watching YouTube clips of Fat Albert before bed. That show came up in our dinner conversation some how so we had to check it out. We were both impressed at the many voices Bill Cosby did for that show.

I’m impressed with Janet today and am praying that she recognizes how well she’s doing and can resolve to keep working hard.

Walking Tall. Janet continues to improve. #TSJ

We all know how much easier it is to get up when it’s sunny outside and it was interesting to see how that played on Janet this morning. She wasn’t too excited about getting up and let me shower so she could lay in bed a while longer and enjoy the sun shining on her. If it had been cloudy I’m sure she would have gone back to sleep. With the new swimming time we were able to have a more leisurely breakfast and even make sandwiches to eat in the car for lunch so we could get to Connect at a decent time for her nap this afternoon.

Today was the first day of the official one hour pool sessions and I checked the list as soon as we got to the pool to make sure Janet`s name was there. It was, then Jess arrived and into the water we went. Because we had so much time I was able to let Janet get totally warm and relaxed before doing any real exercises. That seemed to work well for her as when I did ask her to kick her legs she was getting two or three toes out of the water on her left foot. She had done that before but not consistently and not first thing like that either. We tried “walking” with me in front balancing her and she made it an entire length of the pool! I’m guessing twenty feet. Janet was all concentration as she stepped with her left leg then mostly dragged the right one along. She did put a little weight on that right leg and later on got it going more during some standing exercises. Jess lifted the pool to allow the others out and two new people in for the next session and once we were back in the water I let Janet warm up again but this time I intentionally held her as little as possible. The more I let go the more she started using her arm and legs to stay afloat and at one point I only had one finger under her right shoulder preventing her from listing. That’s the closest she’s been to floating on her own. I did let her go completely a little while late but she panicked as soon as her face went under. Work in progress. During the second session she completed another length of the pool “walking” and did some strong standing exercises.

The drive to Connect after swimming was pleasant with the sunroof open and sandwiches being eaten. We had one stop to make along the way and that was to the lab to get her Dilantin levels checked. We’ll get the results at a doctor’s appointment Thursday and hopefully get an idea of when we can see the neurologist.

Janet was very much ready for a nap as we arrived at Connect later than I had hoped but she managed a decent rest before happy hour in the sun. Dinner went well but Janet had a meltdown over drinking water and was the most defiant with me she’s been. It only lasted fifteen minutes or so and she ended up drinking enough water but was not happy about it. Bob took her to the gym this evening and surprisingly there was no protest about that other than a little complaint that Bob “doesn’t know what he’s doing”. I assured her it would be just a leg stretching routine and made sure Bob understood that. Janet and Bob returned with news of a good workout and Janet even said “it wasn’t terrible”.

There was more evidence of short term memory gain as we chatted with Andrew on Skype. When asked about the weekend Janet explained that it was our anniversary and we went out and she got something. She was still unable to fill in the details but the main points were there without prompting. She did get some detail correct as she talked about swimming today. I prompted her to say what her main achievement was in the pool today and Janet responded without hesitation, “my main achievement was walking the whole way…”. She was confused as to how to say length of the pool so came up with a few weird variations but she knew what she was talking about and accepted my praise better this time too.

As the day wore on I noticed changes in Janet’s speech, almost as though her tongue got swollen. She remained bright and responsive but as she tired, a little Klingon appeared from time to time so it will be interesting to see what the Dilantin levels are and I’m curious as to how hydration affects that drug and it’s side effects. There may be more reason for Janet to drink lots of water. Just a thought.

Praying for a restful night that provides lots of energy for an active and fun day tomorrow.