walking

Janet, A Success Story. June 24. #TSJ

When we were in Ottawa last week there was an event on called Rib Fest. A bunch of world famous rib restaurants had food trucks set up competing against each other for who made the best ribs. It was fun to watch but neither of us eat ribs, or so I thought. Curtis made some for dinner tonight and to my shock Janet gobbled them up! Who knew she was such a carnivore? All she would eat at Rib Fest was corn on the cob but tonight she was licking her fingers with a smile on her face. Recipes anyone?

I had Janet walking a lot tonight including all the way up to Games Night. I found that she had better form when not hanging onto me at all. She stood straighter and her steps were more deliberate. She didn’t like having to freestyle walk as much as she did but smiled each time she completed a trip. There were a couple of stumbles when holding my hand and zero when she was on her own. Going to keep pushing her to do more on her own.

There was a bit of a delay before Janet could use the Standing Frame today so she wasn’t in it till after dinner. The timing actually was perfect as she got to watch the last part of Genie Bouchard’s round one victory at Wimbledon. That was probably the quickest forty five minutes Janet has spent in that machine as she really enjoyed the match and made some excellent observations during it.

Praying that Janet has a deep and healing sleep that brings lots of energy for a productive Wednesday.

Janet, A Success Story. June 23. #TSJ Back to Work

The transition back to “work” for Janet seemed to go real well as when I got to Connect late this afternoon Janet gave me one of her best daily run downs ever. She seemed very bright and her memory was working almost shockingly well. According to her, all her exercises were done and the report she gave me was so good I didn’t feel a need to verify it.

By the time we were done talking and Janet was up and dressed it was dinner time. We ate outside in the beautiful 28 degree sunshine while the rest of the house sat in the freezing cold air conditioning. They think we are crazy. I think Janet may come home sooner if Connect is going to be so ridiculously cold.

In keeping with her increased brightness, Janet, on a number of occasions started walking around her room unassisted and without being asked. Her confidence level has never been higher I don’t think and it translated into me sometimes not even watching as she moved about her room. Considering she barely freestyle walked at all in Ottawa I was really surprised she attempted and did it so much today. Near the end of the night she relied on me more, even to the point of refusing to go to the kitchen from the living room for a cookie. Because I wouldn’t hold her hand she turned around in the middle of the floor and walked back to the couch, turned and sat all by herself. She thought she was depriving me of something I wanted her to do when in fact she practiced turning and sitting without hanging onto anything. I could not have gotten her to do that voluntarily and may have discovered a new strategy.

We spent some time reading and catching up on emails. Janet did a good job on all fronts especially typing where once she got warmed up was even hitting the space bar without prompting. A new thing for her.

The wedding of course is top of everyone’s discussion list with Janet and she was thrilled to sit and share some pictures with Chelsea and Karl tonight. She gets a little excited when doing things like that and sometimes skips over some detail she ought to point out and forgets names but all in all she did a good job describing each pic. She very smoothly recounted the great job Courtney did with her hair and laughed along with the rest of us at the pig tails that were put in to hold some hair out of the way for a bit. It’s nice to hear Janet laugh at things like that instead of commenting on how “awful” she thinks she looks.

The process begins

The process begins

Funny but cute too

Funny but cute too

Final touches

Final touches

Ready!

Ready!

Praying for another outstanding day tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. June 19. #TSJ Girls Day

Spending time doing things like going to a Spa or having her nails done has never been a Janet thing but she willingly went this morning with Heather, Laurel and Courtney for a pedi and a mani. It was not easy for me to let her nails grow as long as they got but it seemed best to give the pro something to work with when the time came. All reports were that Janet did well while out with girls and her nails do look nice. Janet says the lunch they all went for was fun but the nail thing was so so. Had to be done and I’m glad the girls got to spend time on their own.

Girls day went pretty much until nap time for Janet but I did get her out for a walking trip down a nice long hallway in the hotel. She’d been sitting a lot and needed that stretch. Her walking was quite good once she warmed up.

After her nap it was off to the birthday BBQ at Heather and Allan’s. This was our first visit to their new home and a nice one it is. There are a few steps for Janet to negotiate and using her nice strong legs she managed very well. Janet was excited to see so many of the family gathered together, especially Andrew, whom she greeted with a cheery “hi honey”. Something Janet never would have said pre injury. Cute.

Heather and Allan did a great job cooking for and hosting everyone and tonight was a nice warm up for the wedding festivities which start tomorrow. Praying for a night of re energizing sleep and a fun Friday.

Janet, A Success Story. June 16. #TSJ Ready and Waiting

Janet and I spent most of today wondering why we decided to leave for Ottawa tomorrow and not today. She figures it must have been a money thing and she’s probably right, all I know is there must have been a good reason.

There wasn’t much to do today other than the last check of our packing job and cleaning the house a little. Janet skipped her nap today, wanting to be really tired so she could sleep tonight. So far there’s no indication that plan worked but she is in bed now and her eyes are closed.

We watched bits of the World Cup soccer games today and Janet saw the second half of the USA Ghana game by herself while I dropped the dog off and ran another errand. I got back just after the USA scored the winning goal and Janet was all excited telling me how “the play was all in that end then the other team scored”. It’s awesome to see her improving ability to understand what she’s watching.

For exercise today I had Janet do quite a few laps around the house and one stint of helping me wash dishes that required her to stand at the sink with me. What a great feeling to have her standing beside me, and she thought it was cool to be able to look out the window instead of at the backsplash. Hopefully that translates into more willingness to stand and walk at every opportunity.

The snores have started. Praying for a good night of rest and God’s guidance through our travel day tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. June 14. #TSJ

This pretending to change time zone thing is not that easy, especially trying to tie it into Janet’s nap time and regular bedtime. If she’s not tired she can’t sleep. We are making progress on it though and hope to be on Eastern Time tomorrow.

Today was fairly routine save for one big moment this evening. The morning consisted of Miss Independent making her breakfast then having a bit of a giggle session with her mom on Skype. Then the work began. At risk of being old and prepared way too soon, we started packing. It feels like we are forgetting something already as Janet is packed in a very small suitcase and I’m not using my largest one either. Seems odd but good if it works.

Nash was on a sleep over with our friend Annie, who is going to look after him while we’re gone and we made a quick trip to pick him up. He was OK with coming home but seemed very comfortable at Annie’s house too. We went without the wheelchair and Janet did some nice walking up a large ramp to the front door of the building.

Nap time was a little early with the time change but Janet didn’t protest, she just didn’t sleep that long. The sun was shining bright when she woke so I plunked her out in it for forty five minutes while I made our early dinner. All warmed up and fed we headed out to church where I helped Janet walk all the way to the door to the auditorium. I then challenged her to walk down the aisle to our seats. This time there was resistance but she caved in quickly and for the first time walked freestyle all the way down the aisle and right into her seat! Outstanding!

As we continue to pretend its later than it really is we had dessert after church instead of dinner while watching some touching and amazing stories and performances on America’s Got Talent. A reluctant Janet was in bed at 9:30 real time, 11:30 pretend, saying she would not go to sleep, she’s snoring as I write.

Praying for a fun and productive Sunday on Eastern Time.

Janet, A Success Story. June 13. #TSJ

Friday the thirteenth turned out to be pretty “lucky” for us. Janet was awake fairly early so was able to have a shower. I tried having her get her breakfast while walking about the kitchen but that seemed a little too much yet. She was willing to try at least.

After running through our clothes for the trip we agreed there were a few things we both could use so we took advantage of the rain and went to the mall. Janet was very excited that we both found the things we went there for in relatively quick fashion. By the time we were home Janet had done a lot of walking and helping out so I made her a sandwich while we watched a little World Cup soccer.

Dinner tonight was a special evening out with our neighbours, Bonnie and Toly. We had hoped to walk the two blocks to The Fixx Cafe but the weather didn’t cooperate so we drove and Janet walked well through the parking lot and negotiated a three inch curb very nicely. She also gobbled up her dinner pretty quick saying it was “delicious”. That’s high praise from Janet.

Twice today I had Janet doing assisted walking in public places and each time she did so with lots of confidence. Not long ago you would get some resistance to the idea or at least a lot of looking around for who is watching. Not today, and that makes it more fun.

We are easing into running on Eastern Time so our clocks are on Alberta time tonight and we’ll switch to Central Time tomorrow and hopefully be on Eastern Time for Monday so that it’s not a big shock when we arrive in Ottawa Tuesday. I want Janet to be able to enjoy every minute she’s there.

Praying for a good night of sleep and a productive Saturday.

Janet, A Success Story. June 10. #TSJ

Thankfully, Janet slept well last night and is no longer experiencing any ear pain. Her gym activities went well this morning and she was in good spirits when she called me while in the Standing Frame.

I tried to go to Connect a little later than usual but find it hard to do that and got there with Janet still napping. I lay down beside her and twenty minutes later she woke up looking at me and said “that was a nice idea”, followed by a bunch of mumbled words. When she really woke up a few seconds later she acknowledged she had been dreaming. I’ve asked Janet a few times during her recovery if she had dreamt at all and her answer has always been no. I’ve heard her talking in her sleep and am not sure if that’s connected so today will be noted as Janet’s first dream and I’m thrilled to report that it involved the entire family on a cruise somewhere sunny and warm, possibly Hawaii. There’s hope yet!

As soon as Janet was up she walked freestyle down to the kitchen to ask what her house chore was to be today. Chelsea assigned her dusting duties and Janet walked a lap of the living room with a feather duster as I coached her on where to stand in order to reach everything. She did a great job and was justifiably tired when she got back to her room. I’d say she was on her feet with no assistance for a good half hour. In light of that I helped her walk down to dinner going as fast as she could without tripping over herself. If I have to help her I’m going to make sure she’s going fast each time so she gets that rhythm going better. One negative about her freestyle walking right now is she pauses between steps too long sometimes and doesn’t believe me she’s wasting energy that way. It wouldn’t be so bad if she was putting equal weight on both legs but Janet still favours her left one significantly.

We practiced some reading before walking up to Games Night. Janet put in her best performance yet and actually said “it was kinda fun” after. Her Dilantin levels are in a really good range now and I credit that with some of her cognitive improvements.

Janet enjoyed the chapter of Unbreak My Heart that we read tonight and understood it very clearly and that makes it fun for me to read to her. Praying for another good night of rest and an active Wednesday.

Janet, A Success Story. June 9. #TSJ

There’s never a dull day with Janet. Today was supposed to be a little special in that Janet would be home for dinner after going to the doctor this afternoon. She was quite excited about coming home and we both thought the doctor visit would be one of relief as her ears were to be cleaned out. After getting all of her therapy sessions done by lunchtime, Janet had a quick nap which ended soon after I arrived to pick her up then we took off for the ear cleaning.

Since Janet walked so well the last time we were at the doctor and all we were doing was going home after, we left the wheelchair at Connect. Janet stepped nicely up a three inch curb as we walked into the doctor’s office. The flushing out of the right ear went really well, not so with the left. That was the one most plugged and Janet was in considerable pain as the doctor was shooting water in her ear so she stopped and instructed us to put oil in Janet’s ear for another three days to soften the wax then come back for more pressure washing.

At home, all seemed relatively fine as we sat in the sun for a bit then walked across the grass to see the neighbour’s new deck. Yes, we risked stepping down the huge steps out to our patio and Janet did a solid job. She made it back up with some assistance and was quite pleased she was able to negotiate the steps so well. Janet said her ear hurt a little. She helped me make dinner and enjoyed eating it until her ear started to gradually bother her more and more. I put some oil in it hoping that might soothe the pain, nope. Tylenol didn’t help either nor did ice cream believe it or not. By the time we were driving past the airport on our way back to Connect Janet was actually crying with pain. My thoughts then were to grab her meds and take her to KGH but she then told me she was hearing crackling sounds in her ear. I assured her that was a good thing and when we got to Connect Chelsea came to the rescue. Janet’s doctor cautioned us not to use Q-tips as there is a risk of pushing the wax too far back into the ear. Fair enough but with Janet in pain something had to be done and Chelsea was confident she could get some wax out in order to relieve that pain. Armed with Q-tips and a special ear cleaning probe she went to work and fifteen minutes later Janet was pain free and able to hear better too. Well done Chelsea! The oil treatments will continue and Janet will still go for another round of pressure washing but for now at least it seems like the worst is over.

We did have a brief time to read before I left and Janet was tucked in comfortably with a smile on her face confident she’ll be able to sleep well. God continues to bless us with caring and skilled people and I pray that Janet has a pain free night and a productive Tuesday.

Janet, A Success Story. June 7. #TSJ

Another independent morning for Janet as she made breakfast, typed an email herself and waited in the sunshine for me while I showered. I still get anxious about her when I leave her in situations like that. She is unable to get back into the house on her own from the patio and I worry a little about her needing to when I’m not available. I finished my shower as quickly as I could and went to check on her, she was singing away to the music I’d left on for her. I need to have more faith.

Its a good thing we were up at a reasonable hour because we had an early lunch date with John. He hasn’t been out for a meal in months and was raring to go as soon as we arrived at his care home. We wheeled the few blocks over to Joey Kelowna and sat outside for a nice leisurely lunch. I didn’t arrange the seating very well so Janet had a hard time hearing John but we managed. I think he really enjoyed getting out and we enjoyed listening to his stories.

With lunch done early Janet agreed to brave the mall as long as we shopped for me not her. She was a big help in colour selection as I actually found clothes that fit me and I managed to sneak a few things in for her too.

After a nice little nap we headed off to church without the wheelchair. After getting out of the car and closing the door unassisted, Janet walked across the parking lot with my help then went by herself the one hundred plus feet to “our” door then demanded my help to walk down to our seats. Janet got lots of encouragement along the way from friends and even people we don’t know. I had to remind her that her story is out there and more people know about her and are cheering her on than she may realize. Walking out of church was similar and took longer as people stopped to chat and encourage and ask about the wedding. Even someone neither of us knows asked Janet if she was ready for the wedding. Kiko walked with us the last little ways to the car and for the first time got to see Janet walking freestyle and even opening the car door unassisted. She is always so encouraging and upbeat, it all made for a very positive evening.

Our time at home tonight was positive as well. We enjoyed some good sushi and the movie Son of God which spurred a good conversation afterwards with Janet feeling touched by the film and glad we saw it soon after church as it helped to see things acted out rather than just spoken about. I guess we were both so immersed in the movie we forgot Janet’s meds until she was tucked into bed. It crossed my mind once during the movie and I thought I’d prompt her during our ice cream break but forgot by then. Oh well.

Praying for a night of deep and healing sleep that helps to bring lots of energy and a sharp mind for tomorrow.

Janet, A Success Story. June 4. #TSJ

Today was team meeting day at Connect and Janet was waiting for everyone in the Den and feeling pretty good about it all. Mary Lou had arranged for Janet to be the first Connect Resident to start their own meeting and Janet read a list of her goals, challenges and strategies right at the top of the meeting. Janet read the typed notes as Mary Lou uncovered each line one by one and prompted Janet now and then. She was very confident in addressing the group and is slowly getting better with reading.

Improved reading is one of Janet’s goals and Mary Lou is confident Janet will get to the level she wants to get to. Reading the children’s stories has been great even to the point of Janet giving voices to the different characters. That level of reading will continue as it’s fun and is building Janet’s confidence.

Janet listed walking as another of her goals and the thought there is to continue walking at every opportunity and use the wheelchair as little as possible. Janet used it twice today, once to go to the bathroom after her nap and once when the house went for an evening walk to the beach. She did ask for her chair a few times during the day but is starting to get used to hearing no for an answer.

Doing more at home was another Janet goal and it lead perfectly into a discussion of a graduated return to home. Starting after the July long weekend, Janet will be home Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the balance of the summer. The team will come up with ideas for activities Janet can do on her own while at home including domestic chores, she mentioned laundry, reading and even listening to an audio book. The focus of that extra day at home will be to try and familiarize Janet with things she can do around the house for when I’m not there. Possibly come September, Janet would be home Mondays as well, up until the last few weeks before coming home full time, then we might try something like staying at home each night and driving out for therapies each morning for a half day. Once home full time Janet may get to participate in an outpatient program at KGH to take advantage of the fact she is still making significant gains on all fronts. That idea needs the approval of Dr. McCann and Brian will get that ball rolling soon.

Team meetings have always been productive for us even though they wear on Janet a bit. She had another meeting right afterwards with a lady doing research on the cognitive therapies Janet receives. That made lunch late but we enjoyed it together outside in the sunshine. Janet of course hadn’t had any exercise other than walking all day but that and the meeting wore her out enough that she had a good long nap late this afternoon waking up in time to get a bike ride in before dinner.

The evening was nice and sunny so Curtis and Chelsea offered everyone a chance to walk to the beach. Janet was surprisingly reluctant but went and really enjoyed it, especially the pine cone fight with Wes.

Happily in bed early, Janet read a little before I read a lot of Unbreak My Heart, a book Janet says she is really enjoying a lot now. Praying for a lot of sleep tonight and a positive attitude tomorrow.