Family

Oct 9, 2004

Jenny seems to be telling me that she has had many more more good days lately. We are trying to get out more and she still is getting stronger. She played Yatzee Jr with Zach again and I was amazed at how much better she was able to pick things up. We still work on getting her to lift her arm up to her head. If she has an itch, it seems to get there with some effort. Otherwise, she still needs help when doing exercises. I still give her snacks like soft candies and popcorn, which seem to motivate her to want to lift her arm. I only need to give a little help for these exercises. It seems to be helping her with her chewing as well.

We started an addition on our house shortly after Jenny came home and it seem likeit might be done soon. It took forever, but Jenny will now have a real room and a roll-in shower. I will not have to carry her upstairs for a shower any more. We think that by the end of next week it will be done (much later than it was suppose to be).

Oct 6, 2004

Just recently, Jenny has been able to communicate with her sister, in San Diego, by signing while on a web cam. It seems like it works pretty well. We still try to build the strength in Jenny’s active arm so she can do more. The other day, Jenny told me she had a dream about eating breakfast. All she wanted was to eat a bowl of Froot Loops and chew the cereal. Based on those desires, I placed various cereals on her wheel chair tray and helped her feed herself one at a time. Jenny liked it and was the first to point out that this is how she helped our kids work on picking things up and feeding themselves. Today, we upgraded to Junior Mints.

Life seems to be getting back to more of a routine. Jenny and I get out on occassion and are able to spend quality time with the kids, but only in short periods. My mother and dad are still a huge part in helping to raise the kids and caring for their daily needs. We have been lucky to have an active support system where we had Jenny’s sister, Melissa, and her husband for a few months. We also have other family who visit often- as well as friends who are a pleasure to see since they seem to boost Jenny’s mood.

Jenny’s brother, Don, should be placing some photos of the past few months on this web site in a few days. They begin as early as a couple weeks after Jenny’s stroke to just recently.

Oct 1, 2004

Jenny seems to have hit a point of slowed progress, but this has happened many times along the way. She is still doing more each day, but not as rapid as the previous month. For instance, Jenny has been able to play games on the computer using a mouse. A few days ago it was highly emotional and unproductive, but she has now become functional, yet slow, at using the mouse. She will win a game of Mahjongg, but it takes an hour rather than a few minutes. Tonight, she was able to point and click her way to read e-mails. Jenny has become more emotional lately but her emotions will still tend to be inconsistant with how she really feels or the situation.

A nice progression has been the increased desire of the the children to want to interact with Jenny. They fight over who sits in her lap or lays down next to her. Sophia thinks Jenny is her own personal play thing. She can be really sweet as she brings over cups of water because she claims Jenny told her she was thirsty. I typically save Jenny before she drowns or gets too wet. I can not save Jenny from getting dressed up in jewelry. All the kids will help do range of motion exercises with thier mom when they see her resting. They usually encourage her and praise her efforts, and are typically gentle. Through the infinate wisdom of children, Jenny gets plastered with band aids because we all were taught as children that band aids fix everything.

Sept 15, 2004

Now that Jenny has found significant movement in her right arm, she is experinecing a joy far beyond what I am able to describe. She actually doing what I have been waiting for these past 6 months and using her movements for self help skills. These skills are at the begining stage, bit I see her adjust her glasses, rub her eyes, helps me with getting her dressed, and hugs the kids as they sit on her lap. The kids miss doing active stuff with Jenny so I had Zach play Yatzee Jr with her. Jenny could shake and roll the dice from the cup and I helped with keepig score. Jenny will laugh and cry at the same time she is able to do these new and different things because she is so happy. As for Zach, there could not have been anything in this world that he would have wanted to do more than to play a game with his mom (and get beat 3 times in a row).

Jenny has also demonstrated voluntary movement in her left arm by turning her wrist back and forth. One of her new exercise machines is a reclining stationary bike. After one week on it, Jenny appeared to push the pedal on her own. I placed her right leg so it was ready for a downward push and Jenny would hold it until I told her to push. After doing this a few times, I had her do the same with the left leg. She had similar control. We put this together and she was almost able to make a complete revolution with the pedals without help.

Just to be clear, all of her movements are wonderful, but very limited. Where she does have functional movement in her right arm, it is weak and shakey. After a couple movements, she is as worn out as if she ran a marathon. It is so very exciting to see her improve as she has.

Sept 7, 2004

I am excited about Jenny’s hard work and steady progress lately. We had both sets of parents (and Mike & Leora) with us this weekend, which was good for Jenny- and the kids loved working two sets of grandparents. The kids have started doing arm wrestling with Jenny because they win every now and then. This means that Jenny has gained enough strength in that movement to hold back the kids. Her right arm is ever improving and there is a little strength that I have noticed to increase the past couple weeks. Jenny is now working with a speech therapist and Jenny is still without much voice improvements- even since the trache removal. On occassion, Jenny has voiced “uh, huh” as she has nodded. Last Saturday, she even said the word, “no” when she was telling me “no” with her head. The trouble with working on speech is that she wants that the most and she gets so frustrated that she cries and can not speak if she wanted to.

Jenny had a wonderful experience at church as she joined both the Jr and Sr Primary children as they prepared for their music program. At the end, they gave her a quilt with blocks consisting of pictures from each of the children to Jenny. It was an emotional, but great day for her.