Hey, all! Tuesday. Week 3, day 1: Today was good. Jeanna woke after the kids had gone to school, and we did her facial exercises, her pronunciation exercises, shape recognition and filling in blanks of common phrases. My Mother-in-Law visited, and I showed her how the elastic straps are used in Jeannas occupational therapy homework. Then, my M-i-L took over for a few hours while I went to Barnes & Noble for a few hours. Yay! It went great. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that a few hours at B&N hasnt succeed in making even the most stressful week a better one. :) Ive been told that there are two main stages of caregiving: Heroic and Ambivalence. Everyone is the hero initially, but if you dont take care of your needs, you risk feeling ambivalent towards the cared-for one. I doubt thats going to be an issue; Jeanna can take care of herself in a number of areas. My gut tells me its going to be relatively soon that shell be able to a) be alone, b) be able to care for little 3-year old Claire, then c) drive & be otherwise mobile. For us, those are the hierarchy of goals. So well see what happens. :) Off to her first Outpatient visit for Physical therapy, and the copay was minimal. Thank you, Kaiser! Ironically, we were given more exercises for her to do, but well squeeze them in somehow. :) Waiting for her appointment to start; John, I keep thinking this is going to be like a cold ro something, something thatll be over soon. Did they say when thisll be over? Ouch. Well, hon, I keep asking that. No one really knows. Everyone is different, they tell me. But I know youre getting better each day. We had to return a Redbox, and made it an improvised mini-date over a large order of fries and ice water. Great talk, though she still does not remember the stroke, or me telling her about it. I told her again about Moya-Moya syndrome, and how it turns out that she had & has narrow arteries leading to her brain, how they gave rise to tiny blood vessels in order to relieve the pressure, and how a dissection (stripping way & folding of the inner wall of the artery) led to two clots forming, and how one of those little vessels finally let go after working hard for three or four decades, and the bleed kicked those two clots into blocking the bloodflow. Its hard to tell once. It doesnt get easier to tell her over time. Still, she understood. And even if I have to tell her again and again, I have hope. She now remembers the paramedics who came in, stabilized her, and got her to the hospital fast and saved her life & saved us immeasurable pain. We had a great little chat, though. Talking about this child & that issue, this family member and how this or that issue was resolved. Its good, all good. Later, after PT, she was dancing again for a bit; this time leading a Conga line of four of the kids throughout the house to the tune of Johnny Cash... You hadda be there. Sorry, I didnt get that one on video!
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 07:32:37 +0000
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