March 11, 2007
11 March 2007
A time of tender mercies. . .We have Katie home from the University of Utah hospital after three weeks of ICU, Neuro, and Rehab. They’ve not really been able to pinpoint the exact cause of her stroke-like symptoms, but the treatment would be the same, regardless, they say, whether it was an actual stroke or caused by previous radiation to her tumor area that, over time, has rendered the arteries useless. They advise an MRI spect which may disclose more information or indicate any future problems which we will schedule soon.
This is a joyous time to have her back in familiar surroundings; we expect she will make better progress here than she might otherwise enjoy at the hospital, as good as they were. We watched her therapy sessions each day, so we should know a bit about keeping her on track with physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Nevertheless, she is positioned for home health services until such a time as she proves able to leave the house for out patient rehab.
Actually, Rodney is anxious for her to move forward perhaps faster than they may recommend. We came home on Thursday, and Friday he had her out for a short walk. By Saturday, it was a longer walk plus fifteen minutes on our stationary bike. On Friday she helped me make a batch of bread and we played some speech therapy by playing various games-Sorry (I tried to get her to say it like Carol Burnett did during a certain sketch she did on her show that just cracked me up) Scrabble, some sudoku and rummy. She’s got some computing skills intact, though she’s a little slow getting it out, but with encouragement, I think that will improve.
She’s proved able to pretty much take care of her personal needs with a few on-spot prompts. When the occupational therapist came, he determined there wasn’t anything he could really do for her-and that is fine. We look for the other therapists next week, I guess-they were to have come Friday. We are to test her urine for specific gravity so she doesn’t get into the insipidus mode, and they’ve ordered her a type of cortisone regularly in addition to levothyroxin for thyroid malfunction. She’s also now taking provigil as a type of stimulant to keep her more alert. They also ordered calcium and fosomax, but the latter they discontinued when it appeared she may be allergic. She still gets quite a manifestation of hives this many days later, but they think it will improve.
We’ve done some balance work on the tramp, with a ball, and floor exercises, and I believe she’s made quite a bit of improvement. It is only the speech where she is reluctant. We tried reading a book together which is helpful, but conversationally, she’s pretty reticent.
It was a fun time Saturday night when Barbara, Nolan, Cheryl and Mom came to help celebrate Rodney’s birthday by bringing dinner. We later played Five Crowns, our new card game and Katie participated with us all evening and seemed to enjoy herself. I really appreciated Barbara putting that together for us and including Katie as that sociality is important, too.
I passed my six-month physical with Dr. Buys. It’s always a good feeling. I really have no complaints-they did ask my stress level (a new inquiry into over-all health) which may be a bit higher than before-but again, I feel peace with taking care of Katie’s needs. She seems very appreciative and is so much more cooperative. It’s like she’s moved to a new personality mode-her third in 27 years. Until she was nearly 14 she was young, vibrant, and sharp. Post tumor from 14 until 27 she was at times disagreeable, depressed, lacking motivation and short term memory, but verbally sharp and socially bright. From 27 until. . .she lacks clear communication skills, has further memory impairment, is less physically able, cognitively slow, but agreeable. The best part is her appetite seems somewhat suppressed-or else her metabolism has quickened because she’s lost nearly 20 pounds in the last three weeks. I’m holding my breath on this one.
Edna has lost her job-but all things work for the good somehow. A tender mercy for us. . .she’s been able to spend a few days here since Katie’s release helping with the house and generally being a support for Katie. She’s always been good with the underdog-I think she felt Katie was too keen before. Because Edna was here, we were able to enjoy a night out together at Terry Loder’s to help Larry Loder celebrate his 68th birthday. Larry is a good friend of Rodney’s-not only in high school, but they joined the Coast Guard and served there together. Larry is in poor health, so he may not see many more birthdays. All the guys there had white hair, no kidding. Rodney was a standout with not a strand of white-or gray! They had fun talking over old times.
I’ve been granted a month’s medical leave from the temple. My last day there Tuesday was tender-Rodney and I again led the session and Barbara accompanied as second follower, plus we had members from our ward as patrons.
The day before Katie came home, we had the Hovleys and Lees to a birthday dinner-included Rodney in the festivities. We enjoyed a nice conversation with Margot and Art afterward (Lees had to get home to their kiddos) which we don’t often get to do when all of us gather. Gilbert is going to Texas for most of a week; Brad and Janis are going to California for a week, too. Gratefully Janis recovered sufficiently from the flu to make the trip.
We celebrated one night with the Ford siblings in honor of John and Joan’s departure for their Philippines mission in 10 days or so. It was a great time to share tender feelings with each other. John told how blessed they’ve been since Holland pronounced a blessings on his head last September at our family reunion. At that time, John was promised their family troubles would vanish if they would accept a mission call. Having not thought seriously about a mission for some time, he and Joan committed to that before they left our reunion, called their Bishop on their way back to Colorado and had their papers in two days later. Before the week was out, John said, those blessings began descending upon them until there is no trace of hurt or anger. They waited and waited, though, until shortly before Christmas when they finally received their call to the Philippines, a place John had a premonition about. Their mission president has written numerous times, so excited that he will at last have a senior couple! They will be wonderful missionaries.
Katie amazingly made it through the three-hour block of church today. I was quite adamant about her attending only Sacrament Meeting (home health care will terminate if she gets “out”). Everyone was so glad to see her. When they welcomed her back in Relief Society, she turned to me and asked me where she’d been. Perhaps it is a tender mercy that her memory is so bad. Maybe the angst she used to feel over the loss of her former life won’t be so vivid.
A time of tender mercies. . .We have Katie home from the University of Utah hospital after three weeks of ICU, Neuro, and Rehab. They’ve not really been able to pinpoint the exact cause of her stroke-like symptoms, but the treatment would be the same, regardless, they say, whether it was an actual stroke or caused by previous radiation to her tumor area that, over time, has rendered the arteries useless. They advise an MRI spect which may disclose more information or indicate any future problems which we will schedule soon.
This is a joyous time to have her back in familiar surroundings; we expect she will make better progress here than she might otherwise enjoy at the hospital, as good as they were. We watched her therapy sessions each day, so we should know a bit about keeping her on track with physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Nevertheless, she is positioned for home health services until such a time as she proves able to leave the house for out patient rehab.
Actually, Rodney is anxious for her to move forward perhaps faster than they may recommend. We came home on Thursday, and Friday he had her out for a short walk. By Saturday, it was a longer walk plus fifteen minutes on our stationary bike. On Friday she helped me make a batch of bread and we played some speech therapy by playing various games-Sorry (I tried to get her to say it like Carol Burnett did during a certain sketch she did on her show that just cracked me up) Scrabble, some sudoku and rummy. She’s got some computing skills intact, though she’s a little slow getting it out, but with encouragement, I think that will improve.
She’s proved able to pretty much take care of her personal needs with a few on-spot prompts. When the occupational therapist came, he determined there wasn’t anything he could really do for her-and that is fine. We look for the other therapists next week, I guess-they were to have come Friday. We are to test her urine for specific gravity so she doesn’t get into the insipidus mode, and they’ve ordered her a type of cortisone regularly in addition to levothyroxin for thyroid malfunction. She’s also now taking provigil as a type of stimulant to keep her more alert. They also ordered calcium and fosomax, but the latter they discontinued when it appeared she may be allergic. She still gets quite a manifestation of hives this many days later, but they think it will improve.
We’ve done some balance work on the tramp, with a ball, and floor exercises, and I believe she’s made quite a bit of improvement. It is only the speech where she is reluctant. We tried reading a book together which is helpful, but conversationally, she’s pretty reticent.
It was a fun time Saturday night when Barbara, Nolan, Cheryl and Mom came to help celebrate Rodney’s birthday by bringing dinner. We later played Five Crowns, our new card game and Katie participated with us all evening and seemed to enjoy herself. I really appreciated Barbara putting that together for us and including Katie as that sociality is important, too.
I passed my six-month physical with Dr. Buys. It’s always a good feeling. I really have no complaints-they did ask my stress level (a new inquiry into over-all health) which may be a bit higher than before-but again, I feel peace with taking care of Katie’s needs. She seems very appreciative and is so much more cooperative. It’s like she’s moved to a new personality mode-her third in 27 years. Until she was nearly 14 she was young, vibrant, and sharp. Post tumor from 14 until 27 she was at times disagreeable, depressed, lacking motivation and short term memory, but verbally sharp and socially bright. From 27 until. . .she lacks clear communication skills, has further memory impairment, is less physically able, cognitively slow, but agreeable. The best part is her appetite seems somewhat suppressed-or else her metabolism has quickened because she’s lost nearly 20 pounds in the last three weeks. I’m holding my breath on this one.
Edna has lost her job-but all things work for the good somehow. A tender mercy for us. . .she’s been able to spend a few days here since Katie’s release helping with the house and generally being a support for Katie. She’s always been good with the underdog-I think she felt Katie was too keen before. Because Edna was here, we were able to enjoy a night out together at Terry Loder’s to help Larry Loder celebrate his 68th birthday. Larry is a good friend of Rodney’s-not only in high school, but they joined the Coast Guard and served there together. Larry is in poor health, so he may not see many more birthdays. All the guys there had white hair, no kidding. Rodney was a standout with not a strand of white-or gray! They had fun talking over old times.
I’ve been granted a month’s medical leave from the temple. My last day there Tuesday was tender-Rodney and I again led the session and Barbara accompanied as second follower, plus we had members from our ward as patrons.
The day before Katie came home, we had the Hovleys and Lees to a birthday dinner-included Rodney in the festivities. We enjoyed a nice conversation with Margot and Art afterward (Lees had to get home to their kiddos) which we don’t often get to do when all of us gather. Gilbert is going to Texas for most of a week; Brad and Janis are going to California for a week, too. Gratefully Janis recovered sufficiently from the flu to make the trip.
We celebrated one night with the Ford siblings in honor of John and Joan’s departure for their Philippines mission in 10 days or so. It was a great time to share tender feelings with each other. John told how blessed they’ve been since Holland pronounced a blessings on his head last September at our family reunion. At that time, John was promised their family troubles would vanish if they would accept a mission call. Having not thought seriously about a mission for some time, he and Joan committed to that before they left our reunion, called their Bishop on their way back to Colorado and had their papers in two days later. Before the week was out, John said, those blessings began descending upon them until there is no trace of hurt or anger. They waited and waited, though, until shortly before Christmas when they finally received their call to the Philippines, a place John had a premonition about. Their mission president has written numerous times, so excited that he will at last have a senior couple! They will be wonderful missionaries.
Katie amazingly made it through the three-hour block of church today. I was quite adamant about her attending only Sacrament Meeting (home health care will terminate if she gets “out”). Everyone was so glad to see her. When they welcomed her back in Relief Society, she turned to me and asked me where she’d been. Perhaps it is a tender mercy that her memory is so bad. Maybe the angst she used to feel over the loss of her former life won’t be so vivid.