sleep

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

Janet’s day started off with a bath, something she says “is almost fun here” as opposed to at Connect. Since she was a little cold afterwards I got her breakfast for her as she readied herself for the weekly chat with her mom. I thought Janet was quiet during their Skype time but she felt good about it afterwards and said “it’s always good talking to my mom”.

I find myself allowing Janet to set the agenda a lot while she’s at home and lately there’s been a lot of “let’s watch the Olympics”. That’s fine, but it means a lot of sitting around so today I decided to have Janet do some athletics herself whenever there was an opportunity. First chance was right after the chat with mom and with no hesitation at all Janet walked from her spot at the table to the couch, almost twenty five feet. I held her hand and acted as a cane of course and I notice she’s not using me quite as much as she was a few weeks ago. Her steps with her left foot are much improved and she knows she needs to put more weight through her right leg. For a few steps I actually pushed her upper body back to the right so she was more centred. Janet felt like she was going to fall when I did that which is interesting because she was actually standing very straight then. We did similar walking trips throughout the day and I noticed that the longer Janet went the less she was able to control her right leg, especially moving it backwards before sitting down. Overall I was pleased with her efforts today.

We have now watched all the figure skating events to date and agree that the Pairs competition was by far the best so far. Janet was very excited watching that today and it was fun seeing her so into it.

Even after a short nap this afternoon Janet faded quite rapidly tonight, partly I think caused by the dread of going back to Connect. She was eager to read when we got there but fell asleep within minutes then woke up and wanted me to keep reading. We carried on like that for half an hour before she was clearly out for the night. Praying for a night of uninterrupted sleep that provides Janet with lots of energy and a positive attitude for tomorrow.

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

Since I was working at CedarCreek again today, Garrett took Janet to KGH this morning for an appointment with Julie the splint lady. Janet’s right arm and hand have maintained an impressive range of motion and with the Botox in full effect it was time to modify her splint. Julie was able to flatten the hand portion out considerably and narrow the whole splint so that it fits easier into Janet’s jacket. When I asked Janet how that appointment went she got all excited about how pleased Julie was with how she’s doing but mostly with how her and Garrett went for coffee after then she had another coffee when they got back to Connect. That explains why she was sleeping when I showed up at 4:15. She had put herself to bed again around 3:30 and asked Curtis to remove her AFO and flip the blankets over her, otherwise she did it all herself. Pretty cool.

Janet got up in time for dinner then we went to the last basketball game of the season at UBCO. Transferring to her seat was a little challenging tonight as Janet was still kind of tired but with help from an innocent bystander she made it. We watched the second half of the women’s game and the first half of the men’s with Janet commenting she finds the guys difficult to follow as its so much faster. Her scoreboard reading was solid and she thought it was pretty cool that I caught a ball that came out of bounds and threw it back to the ref. I did feel pretty special.

Back to Connect late again, Janet was determined to start reading Long Walk to Freedom so she sped through her nighttime routine. Unfortunately what we read was all set up for the main part of the book and Janet did not find it very interesting. I’m sure it will improve soon.

Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep and a great weekend at home.

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

I got a wake up call this morning. I always get nervous when I see Connect on my call display and Janet is not with me. This time is was her, sigh of relief, and she wanted to know if we were going to see her Dad for his birthday today. Hmmm. Dad lives in Ontario and his birthday is in June. Not sure why Janet thought that was happening but she was so certain of it the Jess let her call me. She never did figure out why but wasn’t really bothered by it either. Janet did mention she did not sleep well and she rang her pendant to get up at 5:45. By noon she was asking to have a nap. No kidding.

When I got to Connect this afternoon Janet was still sleeping, she woke briefly and wanted to get up but something told me to let her sleep a little more. I told her ten minutes and she slept for twenty then had good energy the rest of the day. Her gym session this morning went well and I got to take her on the Shuttle for the first time in a while before dinner. She showed a little more control of her right leg and without knowing it, pushed her heaviest weight with two legs yet. Speaking of heavy, Janet excitedly announced that she gained weight again last month and now thinks she’s really getting to be too big. No chance.

After a quiet dinner Janet did some of her Speech Therapy worksheets while I watched. She completed three pages of grouping things in categories and only got two questions wrong. High five! Her Skype conversation with Andrew was animated and happy. It had been a while since they’ve connected and even though Janet had trouble thinking of what to talk about a couple times, the conversation flowed well and Janet really enjoyed it.

While waiting to use the Standing Frame we finished reading Open. Janet and I both got a little emotional was we read the final pages and consider it to be one of the best biographies we’ve ever read. We were even able to watch a YouTube clip of Andre Agassi’s speech after his last match so Janet could see and hear the emotion from him and the crowd lucky enough to be there. A very fun reading experience. Next up is Nelson Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom.

Janet tolerated a good session with the Standing Frame while watching some Olympics then called her own bedtime. Praying for a long night of uninterrupted deep and healing sleep and a productive tomorrow.

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

Renovation Day 46. Finally, the electricians showed up today! We now have laundry, dishwasher, cooktop and oven along with some countertop plugs and under cabinet lights. There is a problem with the plugs on the island and one set of counter top plugs so they likely will need to return to fix those unless Randy and I can figure it out tomorrow. Randy worked hard to get everything ready for the electricians and can now finish the last two closets before focusing on the kitchen drawers and cupboards.

Surprisingly, Janet was asleep when I got to Connect. I thought she’d be raring to go knowing she was going home for the weekend. She woke up when I went into her room but clearly needed more sleep so she did for about an hour. That paid off nicely as she had good energy for the trip home and was a big help in putting away more of her stuff and helping to arrange furniture in the living area. That is very much a work in progress but at least things are in the general area so we can see exactly how it all fits instead of imagining it.

We could have cooked something for dinner and that would have been nice but there really wasn’t time so we ordered out pizza. LJFirstLanfrancouse
Kind of lame for the first sit down meal in a new house but thats the way it goes. Next weekend we’ll cook for sure.

Janet was comfortable sitting on the couch tonight watching X Factor. I could see the contentment in her eyes. There is still a lot of work to be done here but it was awesome to take an evening and spend it with Janet in our house, something we haven’t done in fifty five days.

Praying for complete healing and a finished home that we can soon for God’s intended purpose.

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

Renovation Day 39. I’m writing this from our new bed, or at least the unpacked mattress. I’m very excited as this is the first time I’ve slept on a bed in forty one days.

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This was a crazy busy day as expected. The blinds are installed, the appliances are all here and Randy and plumber Frank worked hard all day to keep things on schedule. I tried getting things ready for them as they moved through the various areas and all was going well until I moved the fridge into place and discovered we used an incorrect measurement for the height of it. Disappointing, but nothing a sledge hammer can’t fix. That was the easy part, now Randy has to rebuild the bottom of that cupboard. Oops.

To my surprise Janet was in bed when I finally got to Connect at five o’clock. She was awake of course and Brent informed me she’d been nodding off around three so he got her to lay down. She had done the sling walking and Shuttle and stretching so no surprise she was tired. Janet took a little ribbing at the dinner table tonight as she fussed about being served a tuna melt at lunchtime. Sydney capitulated and made Janet a grilled cheese instead, something that typically isn’t supposed to happen so the words princess and queen were being thrown around tonight in jest. There were lots of laughs.

I convinced Janet to go to the basketball game at UBCO after dinner and I’m really glad we went. The last time I took Janet to a game was February and compared to tonight she didn’t have a clue what was going on then. Tonight she followed the play well, reacted to things happening appropriately and could tell me the score each time I asked her. Not only that but she stood up and sang along to O Canada before the men’s game started. A few times during the action she made comments about certain players. and noticed that the UVIC team all had the same “yucky” blue shoes. Janet couldn’t stop talking about the between game chat with Simon, a family friend and the Simon that worked with Janet at Connect during a practicum this summer. He is now a licensed kinesiologist and is moving to Vancouver soon to start two new jobs there. Simon has been around our family for ten years now and his politeness and kindness has always garnered praise from Janet and he topped that tonight in giving her a hug that is really what she couldn’t stop talking about.

Our time together today was short but fun and a real indicator of how much progress Janet has made. Praying for a solid night’s sleep and a productive day tomorrow.

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

Renovation Day 25. Same old story today with an adjustment to the appliance delivery date. Dave the painter stopped by today and in discussion with him it was decided to keep the appliances away until November 15 to give him time to finish and the flooring guys to get most of their work done too. Makes sense.

Janet was napping when I got to Connect this afternoon and after I snuck in she went back to sleep for well over an hour which I didn’t mind as I got to lay on a bed for something different to do. Once up it was bike ride time with Janet repeating her claim of not going to do well. She tied her personal best and powered through without complaining. Garrett reported that he had her in the gym earlier for a Shuttle session and a really intense stretching routine. Janet also did the Standing Frame earlier so I took it easy on her tonight with one exception. I really want her to gain more control of her right leg and expect improvement once the Botox clicks in. Maybe knowing she got Botoxed helped as there was improvement already tonight. I had Janet standing at the stripper pole and lifting her right foot off the ground as high as she could then pushing back to the floor as much as she could. She thought it was silly and impossible but she did quite well. She was even able to lift her left foot and put some weight onto her right leg while doing so. Of course she was hanging onto the pole for dear life the whole time but still it’s a good start.

After dinner I brought out some leftover Halloween candy as did Kieran and the table had a candy feast for dessert. I protected Janet’s Tootsie Rolls so she defaulted to her second favourite, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

We watched a little of the BC, Calgary football game in hopes they would show the halftime show in which our friend Rachel was performing.

No luck, but heres a picture from Twitter. Can you see her? Janet then wanted to get ready for bed so I could read to her. She lasted about a page and was snoring.

Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep and more control of her right leg.

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

Renovation Day 5 was a dusty one as Randy was mudding and sanding drywall repairs from the electrical work we had done and the two walls that were removed. The best part of my day was pulling staples and nails from the floor in preparation for installation of the new one. Janet and I brought home a sample of the new floor to see what it looks like in its natural environment. Pretty cool,I think.

Jen from Connect delivered Janet to her doctor’s appointment this afternoon and I met them there. This was a routine check up and I didn’t even have a list of questions this time as medically Janet is doing fine right now. I let her discuss things with her doctor, only stepping in if she gave inaccurate info and that only happened a couple times. Janet is concerned about her perceived lack of sleeping at night and the doctor suggested trying to stay in a routine of going to bed at the same time each day and getting up at the same time each day. Apparently that helps regulate your Circadian Clock and may explain the difficulties Janet was having on Tuesdays when she was home on weekends until Monday night. She was going to bed way later and getting up way later than at Connect so when she does finally get a chance to come home I’ll make sure she stays in a more regular routine. This was a great visit to the doctor as Janet did most of the talking for once and handled herself very well. Afterwards she told me she likes her doctor as “she’s very approachable”.

Janet was a big help in choosing the colour for our new blinds today and also in picking out a kitchen faucet. We were quite picky about what we wanted as it has to be something Janet can comfortably use so the guy at Splashes really had to work to find the right thing. Good job!

By the time our shopping was done it was time to get Nash and figure out dinner. Janet wanted pizza so we decided to try Papa Murphy’s and were pleased we did. Janet helped bake the pizzas at Connect for us and both kinds we tried were yummy. There was lots of chatter going on in the dining area tonight and Janet enjoyed the activity while we ate then she helped me clean up by wiping the table and putting stuff away. She was getting very tired but her drive to be productive kept her going until 8:40 when she called bedtime thinking I would read to her for half an hour. She lasted five minutes before snoring.

Praying for a good night’s sleep and lots of energy for tomorrow.

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

From a secret location very close to Janet.

Janet thought she was going to have an easy morning as the only thing planned today was swimming at KGH. Breakfast was done in time for Jess to take her to the gym for a Shuttle session and a little stretching. Janet was happy to get it over with and was for the pool.

Sean, the PT from 4B was in the pool with us for the first few minutes and Janet took great delight in trying to splash him. She wasn’t successful but had fun trying then Sean gave us a few new exercises to do in the water and suggested that weight bearing in that right leg is really important. I put a five pound weight on Janet’s right ankle to see if that would help her keep it on the bottom and it did somewhat but there is so much tone in that leg I think we’d need fifteen pounds to keep it down and Janet wouldn’t be able to move it at all then. Overall the pool sessions were good today with the biggest smiles coming from targeting Sean and swimming on her own and the toughest part being walking and using her right leg.

We had to stop by the Interior Health offices at Capri Mall for some administrative work then went to the food court there for a lunch of some decent Chinese food. We were pleasantly surprised to see our church friend Carol there with her group of senior single ladies out for the afternoon. The drive back to Connect was a quiet one as Janet faded and was actually snoring as we pulled into the parking lot.

It was a fun evening together watching football while in the Standing Frame then watching The Voice with Humberto, Wes and Karl the rest of the night. Janet loves that show and even sang out loud to one of the songs, a good warm up for singing with John tomorrow.

No one has guessed the model of our new car yet, some got the make so here is a more revealing picture.

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Guesses?

Praying for a deep and healing nights rest and lots more strength for that right leg.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out! #TSJ #Connect #sleepy #walk

Jess reports Janet was quite sleepy most of the day today and that she asked to lay down after her singing with John session. Sure enough, Janet was sort of sleeping when I snuck into her room. She looked super cozy all wrapped up in her blankets and true to form as soon as I let go of the door handle she opened her eyes. We chatted for a while and it was clear she wasn’t going to sleep so up she got so we could sit in the sun and talk some more. I had lots of news to tell her, most important was that I finally made contact with the owner of a house we’ve had our eye on. She is going to sell but was waiting until Spring. I’m praying that the good conversation we had this morning will encourage her to sell sooner, like now. She kindly gave me a tour of her house and I liked what I saw, especially how wheelchair friendly it is. Her husband was in a chair for five years there so most of the house is easily accessible for Janet who was very excited to hear my report.

Understanding that she needs to make two trips to the gym each day Janet elected to do the Shuttle and Standing Frame before dinner. Again today, not her best ever performance but decent. I’m very happy with her Standing Frame tolerance though. Nice and straight for forty five minutes and no complaints until she let herself down and that’s just the pressure coming off of her knees. By the time she was done all that the other residents had finished dinner so we had the table mostly to ourselves. I’ll have to watch the timing a little better in the future as I like Janet to be a part of the community table.

We went for a nice long walk after dinner and noticed the cooler temperature and lack of daylight. Janet agreed that it will be difficult when it’s dark at five o’clock to find something interesting to do. We’ve enjoyed a lot of time outside this summer and are kind of dreading the end. It will be a big adjustment.

That was pretty much it for Janet as with not sleeping well last night then not really napping this afternoon she was ready to call it before nine o’clock. She’s doing a great job with her pole transfers even when tired and her bedtime routine is quickly becoming more independent as well. She told me tonight she “needs to walk” and knows she has to work hard to get there. Tonight was a good effort and hopefully that continues.

Praying for rest, healing, strength and a positive attitude. Thanking Jesus for all we are blessed with.

The Team Save Janet Report is Out. #tsj #sailaway #roadtrip #blueberries #nanaimo #kelowna

In order to catch a ferry that would get us home in time for church tonight I actually had to set the alarm on my phone so we’d be up in time. It wasn’t too early, 7:30, and Janet was very good about it. We were able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and take our time packing and we said goodbye to my mom at 9:15 and drove off to the ferry. Good thing we went early as that sailing was eighty percent full when we got there and totally full fifteen minutes later.

The ride across was pleasant and uneventful and after a stop for pizza and a salad in Caulfeild we hit the road.

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Janet did a great job eating in the car and we made good time for our pit stop in Hope. Our timing there was great. The gas pumps were super busy so I took Janet inside for a pee break surprised to find the washroom empty and by the time we were back outside there was no wait to gas up. I wish all pit stops were that smooth. Janet slept on and off the rest of the way taking one last pee break at the Tourist Info Centre just before West Kelowna.

We arrived at church five minutes before service time and are really glad we went. This weekend, instead of a message taught by one of our talented pastors, Jason Hildebrand acted out the story of the Prodigal Son. It was brilliant. Here’s a link to a YouTube clip that gives you an idea of the experience. If you ever get a chance to see him do the whole thing, do it.

Janet and I decided on Boston Pizza for dinner and I’ve never seen Janet eat so much. All but one slice of her Mediterranean pizza plus most of the Santa Fe Salad we shared and she still had room for ice cream later. That’s my girl.

Once home it was into the hot tub then the PJs to watch SYTYCD before bed. Janet’s ability to travel has definitely improved since our first roadtrip and we are also figuring out how to do things better as well. This adventure was a good one and we look forward to a day off tomorrow. Thanks again to the Nielsen’s and my mom for helping with the blueberries. Praying for lots of rest tonight and a fun day tomorrow.