my 60 year old mother-in-law-to-be now has aphasia
hi. well it's january 25th today. i'm supposed to be updating my resume and writing on an application form.
jack is napping...got a late start. the guy up at scott and julie's house is really loud right now. he seems to be slamming the existing boards under the house with his sledgehammer, looking for any wood-rot i 'spose....please don't wake my child, we all need him to nap. kathy is upstairs. hope she's not cold. i turned the heater on for her and opened the main stairs door so a little more woodstove heat could make it up the stairs and back to her room. At least we are able to have a room for her. Maybe if.n.when she moves out, we could make that jack's room. It was the lego room, the batcave, the costume storage area, the dj equipment storage, the camping paraphernalia storage, the vinyl spinning area, the 'yes honey i bought another chair' room.
There goes the way too loud right now banging. The dishwasher has turned off so now there is no defensive noise. Please sleep.
This has been the first time in weeks where i have sat here, in my chair and had a moment to myself - for myself. I sat down and chose to write. I usually sit in front of my computer and read, but this time i want to write.
Now that i say that 'outloud' it doesn't come as flowy. But i'll just begin.
I pulled out a gradeschool dictionary with colored pictures -probably from the 70's- for kathy last night. I bought a few months ago ... thrift shop scores. Someday jack will be into them. I enjoyed reading them, still.
So kathy liked it and i noticed she brought it upstairs with her and it will probably stay up there. I think it could be real helpful.
Not as small print and overwhelming as our visual dictionary. Which is so extremely cool by the way. I see that it's too much for her.
Kathy has lost the vision on the rights sides of both eyes. Her balance is off a little off at times, but mostly fine.
If you were to look at her you'd never guess she had had a stroke only 18 days ago. She's moving around great and completely on her own. I don't worry now when she goes for a walk out with the dogs.
Yes, we have two dogs and one 60 year old woman -P's mom, now living with us here in the cabin.
We, the four of us and the two dogs, arrived home two nights ago. Ultimately our trip started in Wisconsin.
How we found our way home follows.
Patrick jack and i got in the car and drove to sacramento. The next morning we flew to wisconsin. We stayed in wisconsin for one week. We stayed across the street from the hospital in an awesome house called The Harbour Hospitality House. 15$ /night.
Four rooms to rent -one downstairs, 3 upstairs. Two bathrooms, one on each floor. A full kitchen, dining room and two living areas...one with cable tv and dvd. At the very end of the street...on a court, with houses only on one side of the street.
The snow was beautiful. Jack absolutely loved to play in the snow. Climbing the snowplow made banks of snow. We made a few little snowmen. We chased each other around while it snowed on us under the streetlamp lit night.
We shouted We laughed We played. It was a simple pleasure full of love and life. We were grateful for that 10 pm experience.
Kathy suffered a major stroke. A large section along the back of her brain and the complete left side of her brain suffered from the stroke she had the late hours of jan.6th or the wee hours of jan.7th.
Kathy lived in the san juan bastista area. She worked her ass off daily at the walmart superstore. She was always too intelligent to work there and be treated the way they are treated. She took a few weeks off to drive back with her 2 dogs to see her mom and dad.
They live in tigerton, wi. They are old enough...they also have two dogs. After at least a week of visiting and traveling around seeing other family, kathy's body decided to have a stroke after going to bed for the night.
Kathy's language skills have been completely compromised. She can say some things sometimes and the same things not other times. She has a real hard time with our names. It's like she knows them, but just can't spit the sounds out.
I'm going to take her with me to the store tonight and leave jack with P. We're going to see if she can follow and find the items on the grocery list while at the store. She knows the few things she wants. She's conveyed them to me.
She drew a can and wrote the words dog food, with an arrow from the words i need this.
When i spoke the word wet -for wet dog food. She repeated "weth". She couldn't quite ditch the "th" sound. But she knew she wasn't getting it, so that's good in itself. She also wrote DOVG and pointed to her dove lotion bottle and scrubbed her arms.
She wants some particular dove brand body soap...she also very clearly said soda. Soda, she loves. So, anyway, she knows what's on the list. This will be part of relearning life. I won't push her on the money topic...yet.
Well at this point jack is up and asking for food and drinks. Cartoons are on...dollar store classics.
gotta go. i'll be back at some point.
jack is napping...got a late start. the guy up at scott and julie's house is really loud right now. he seems to be slamming the existing boards under the house with his sledgehammer, looking for any wood-rot i 'spose....please don't wake my child, we all need him to nap. kathy is upstairs. hope she's not cold. i turned the heater on for her and opened the main stairs door so a little more woodstove heat could make it up the stairs and back to her room. At least we are able to have a room for her. Maybe if.n.when she moves out, we could make that jack's room. It was the lego room, the batcave, the costume storage area, the dj equipment storage, the camping paraphernalia storage, the vinyl spinning area, the 'yes honey i bought another chair' room.
There goes the way too loud right now banging. The dishwasher has turned off so now there is no defensive noise. Please sleep.
This has been the first time in weeks where i have sat here, in my chair and had a moment to myself - for myself. I sat down and chose to write. I usually sit in front of my computer and read, but this time i want to write.
Now that i say that 'outloud' it doesn't come as flowy. But i'll just begin.
I pulled out a gradeschool dictionary with colored pictures -probably from the 70's- for kathy last night. I bought a few months ago ... thrift shop scores. Someday jack will be into them. I enjoyed reading them, still.
So kathy liked it and i noticed she brought it upstairs with her and it will probably stay up there. I think it could be real helpful.
Not as small print and overwhelming as our visual dictionary. Which is so extremely cool by the way. I see that it's too much for her.
Kathy has lost the vision on the rights sides of both eyes. Her balance is off a little off at times, but mostly fine.
If you were to look at her you'd never guess she had had a stroke only 18 days ago. She's moving around great and completely on her own. I don't worry now when she goes for a walk out with the dogs.
Yes, we have two dogs and one 60 year old woman -P's mom, now living with us here in the cabin.
We, the four of us and the two dogs, arrived home two nights ago. Ultimately our trip started in Wisconsin.
How we found our way home follows.
Patrick jack and i got in the car and drove to sacramento. The next morning we flew to wisconsin. We stayed in wisconsin for one week. We stayed across the street from the hospital in an awesome house called The Harbour Hospitality House. 15$ /night.
Four rooms to rent -one downstairs, 3 upstairs. Two bathrooms, one on each floor. A full kitchen, dining room and two living areas...one with cable tv and dvd. At the very end of the street...on a court, with houses only on one side of the street.
The snow was beautiful. Jack absolutely loved to play in the snow. Climbing the snowplow made banks of snow. We made a few little snowmen. We chased each other around while it snowed on us under the streetlamp lit night.
We shouted We laughed We played. It was a simple pleasure full of love and life. We were grateful for that 10 pm experience.
Kathy suffered a major stroke. A large section along the back of her brain and the complete left side of her brain suffered from the stroke she had the late hours of jan.6th or the wee hours of jan.7th.
Kathy lived in the san juan bastista area. She worked her ass off daily at the walmart superstore. She was always too intelligent to work there and be treated the way they are treated. She took a few weeks off to drive back with her 2 dogs to see her mom and dad.
They live in tigerton, wi. They are old enough...they also have two dogs. After at least a week of visiting and traveling around seeing other family, kathy's body decided to have a stroke after going to bed for the night.
Kathy's language skills have been completely compromised. She can say some things sometimes and the same things not other times. She has a real hard time with our names. It's like she knows them, but just can't spit the sounds out.
I'm going to take her with me to the store tonight and leave jack with P. We're going to see if she can follow and find the items on the grocery list while at the store. She knows the few things she wants. She's conveyed them to me.
She drew a can and wrote the words dog food, with an arrow from the words i need this.
When i spoke the word wet -for wet dog food. She repeated "weth". She couldn't quite ditch the "th" sound. But she knew she wasn't getting it, so that's good in itself. She also wrote DOVG and pointed to her dove lotion bottle and scrubbed her arms.
She wants some particular dove brand body soap...she also very clearly said soda. Soda, she loves. So, anyway, she knows what's on the list. This will be part of relearning life. I won't push her on the money topic...yet.
Well at this point jack is up and asking for food and drinks. Cartoons are on...dollar store classics.
gotta go. i'll be back at some point.