Austin's First Day at Film Camp!!

well, it was a setback

Well, pneumonia is a setback, but I'm dealing.   Hate it that I have to be back on oxygen for now, but we'll be trying to wean me off of that soon.  As for the finger Oxygen level reader, I did obsess over it for awhile, but I also recall Dad AND Mike telling me all they did for weeks while I was in the hospital was stare at and obsess over the monitor showing many of the same readings.
Also,  Mike forgot to mention that I not only rode back in the front seat of my car, but I got in and out with very little help too.  That in itself was a huge hurdle overcome.  We know now that we don't have to hire a wheelchair van or use the Carmel van to go to Dr. appointments.  Anyway I'm doing very well again and Mike keeps us both from becoming despondent and down. 
It's been a month today since I got here and I couldn't even turn myself over in bed then.  Definite PROGRESS. 

BTW....enlarge the panoramic shot Mike posted and notice the picture in the window sill.

Setback Schmetback

On Wednesday, mom woke in a panic.  She has this annoying little toy that sits next to her bed and taunts her constantly.  It’s a little blue piece of rubber in which you insert your finger.  Then through a combination of space-age technology and generally just making stuff up, it displays your heart rate and your blood oxygen level.  When she woke on Wednesday that oxygen level showed 77%.  This is low – the closer to 100% the better – and it scared her.  She called dad, got put back onto oxygen, and got chest x-rayed.  For all this trouble, she was informed that she had pneumonia.  First, they were convinced that the pneumonia was in the part of her lung that was removed, but we’ll resolve that later.

When I got there Wednesday night, everyone was in sulking in Downersville.  For whatever reason, a one-day setback amidst several weeks of progress seemed like the apocalypse.  We all agreed that we would go back to our mantra from a few weeks ago and take this one day at a time.

On Thursday, during her occupational therapy, her day nurse Cindy came down to inform her that the physician’s assistant who had seen her recommended she go to the ER to get “an evaluation”.  We agreed, dad left work, a van picked her up, and we headed literally about a quarter mile down the road to St. Joseph’s something something Christian-y Hospital, which, by the way, is an outstanding facility.

In that three hour jaunt, we learned that mom has some diffuse pneumonia, does not have a blood clot anywhere the CT machine was pointed, and that the ER we saw was awesome.  She explained in very clear language that the pneumonia was something that needed to be dealt with, and that the antibiotics mom is now wolfing down should do the trick.  She even floated the possibility that the physician’s assistant was reading the x-ray incorrectly and didn’t realize the cloudy area in her top lung was the nebulous remnant of a lung that was no longer there. There is pneumonia, but “diffuse” just means that there is a little pneumonia in a lot of places, and not a big thick clump of germ-ridden gunk stuck somewhere.

The key to recovery is to breathe well, and once the pneumonia and attendant pain is gone, things should be back to normal.  Oh, and we made a PT breakthrough that day by learning that mom has no trouble riding in the passenger seat of her own car, except of course for needing to constantly badger the driver.

In the meantime, mom has resumed her usual routine.  The occupation and physical therapies are a little less strenuous, but are still happening.  They are monitoring her oxygen regularly, especially during therapy.  She has strict instructions to NOT monitor her oxygen constantly because she was absolutely obsessing over it for a while there.  She gets to check it when she is done with an activity or something.

In retrospect, Wednesday was less of a tsunami, and more like high tide.  Since then, everything wrong about the situation has improved.  The oxygen level is consistently higher, the pain is less, her sleep has been better, and her energy level is normal.  And to top that all off, the occupational therapist discovered this morning that the tube that feeds oxygen from the machine to the nose buds had a hole in it.  We have not ruled out sabotage by the cranky bitch across the hall.

Here are some pics from today.  Enjoy!

Dad picked out the flowers, and I did the arranging.  We're taking this act on the road.

Nice "Off-The-Shoulder Smolder"!

And finally here is me experimenting with the panoramic function on my camera.

'Is there a gas leak in here??'

Grandma Doing What Grandma Does

Apparently there is a big birthday coming up, and Grandma has spent more time fretting about that than almost anything else that is going on in the outside world.  Much of the stuff we ordered has arrived and she wanted a crack at wrapping presents.  Turns out she hasn't lost a step and wrapped the first four in under 30 minutes, all while sitting on a bed.  She can wrap just about anywhere.

She does occupational therapy almost every day, except on Sundays.  In order to keep her going, we thought this would make a good substitute.  Also, this is more challenging and practical than anything she has done in OT yet any way.

Presents will be on the way soon!  Hope the boys are having a good summer so far.  We'll see you guys up here in a month or so (fingers crossed!).

Jumping!

Last day of school pool party!

Nate feels better...

Went to say our last goodbye and they let Nate raid the kitchen.  He's in a much better mood because, as he said, 'FREE FOOD!'

Nathan's heart is broken...

Nathan's best friend, classmate and neighbor Fabian is moving to Texas today.  Nathan is so very sad.  :(

Rehab Chronicles - Day 20

I spent some time at the rehab with mom this morning.  When I got there, she was back in the cramped little occupational therapy room with about four other people, all working on various tasks that seem tedious and meaningless to us, but were obviously tailored to suit individual needs.

Mom was working on a goofy little horsey puzzle, but it was meant as a coordination challenge.  She completed it with absolutely no problem - all while standing with the walker.  In total, she stood for 21 minutes before needing a break.  That was way past her goal for the day and completely shattered the record of 15 minutes she accomplished just the day before.  And, for the first time really, she was able to get up out of the chair and stand with the walker on her own.  The occupational therapist was her spotter, but didn't even need to lay a hand on her as mom reached forward and pulled herself up to a standing position then sat back down.  She did this exercise somewhere around 6 or 7 times in about 3 minutes.  All involved were very excited about this big step.

She wrapped up there and we had some time to go back upstairs to her room where we just hung out for a few minutes.  She got out her shoes - put on socks and tied them with no problem - and we went back down from some physical therapy.  I was carting her around all this time in the wheelchair, which I suppose was giving some hapless orderly a bit of a break.

Down at PT, she did some walks.  The first was through the PT area, up the ramp to the hallway, and around the corner and then back to where we started.  It was no sweat at all for her.

Before she got on to the second walk, in which she went another 10 or 15 feet farther than the first one, she did some leg exercises with 3 pound weights strapped to her ankles.  She did 10 slow lifts with each leg, and then repeated for a grand total of 20 reps per leg.  I took the time to interview her and ask her some questions about her therapy.  Unfortunately, the file is too big for blogger, so I will find some other way to post it later.

In the meantime, here is a another brief video of her walking therapy.

Oh, and about the t-shirt:  Her shingles, while nearly gone to the naked eye, are as tender and sore as ever.  She had to cut the shoulder of her shirt so it wouldn't rub against her skin.

After that, we did some online shopping, and she had an outstanding lunch - chef's salad, fruit plate, and some sort of custard pie with caramel drizzle.  It was an eventful morning!  The big meeting is on Friday, but her physical therapist said her "team" would be having its own meeting tomorrow and they would begin talking about what happens AFTER she is released.  Let's hope it's soon!

AJ at the Math Bowl

Nathan's kinder graduation

New Activity

One kid puts on 'My Little Pony' and forces the others to watch it.  Ugh.

Nate chilling before bed...

Steak n Shake

I checked Oz out of school to have lunch with me yesterday.  Cool Mom points= 100.

Austin Fenn- Safety Patrol

A New Fenn

This is Parker.  Parker was a rescue I found online from the Hope Rescues organization based out of Godfrey, Illinois.  He was described on their website as "a sad little man without a home."  My kind of pup, right?

I went to get him yesterday (Sunday) and brought him back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, by way of Mount Carmel, where he got to meet the folks.

He has some issues, but I knew that when I got him.  He was found in a park (hence the name they gave him - Parker) and was injured.  Turns out he had pins in both of his back legs meaning they were both broken at some point.  One of the pins was coming out of place and giving him a great deal of pain.  They removed that pin but left the other one in, as it is presumably functioning normally.  He is on three medications (he also got neutered this week) and I am taking him to my vet when I get back to the lake on Wednesday.

So far, he seems like a very sweet little guy.  He limps very badly and puts almost no weight on his bad leg.  He has trouble getting up and down steps but does it when needed.  He seems to be housebroken, so that's a definite plus.

Technically, this is not a done deal.  I have him now on a trial basis and if I decide I don't want to keep him I can return him to the rescue with no questions asked.  I can't imagine changing my mind, unless my vet tells me he is going to turn into a gremlin or something.

So this is Parker Bandito Schroeder Owen Fenn:

Sorry for the crappy photos but he seems a little camera shy.

Rehab is for Quitters

Happy June from Mount Carmel.

We are now at exactly two months since this whole thing began, and the turnaround is still nothing short of amazing.

Mom is herself again.  Yes, there are still obstacles to overcome.  She is not great on her feet yet, but we've gone from needing two people and a belt to get out of bed, to needing only one person - and they aren't even as necessary as mom thinks.  She hasn't had a step backward since she got here.  Another week means another seven days of consistent improvement.  She will be making big strides in the next few days - pun fully intended - and we expect to be talking next week about how close she is to coming home.  Every day of physical therapy this week included longer and longer walks, eventually without a wheelchair trailing behind her.  She even walked out of the rehab area and down to elevator and back.  It was 150 feet each way.  I got to witness some speech and occupational therapy as well.  I can tell you that she is a rock star here.  Compared to the problems of some of the other residents, she is doing spectacularly.

There is a "Care Plan Meeting" on Friday that dad and I will attend.  It is with her case worker, relevant physicians and/or therapists, and whoever else decides to show up.  They will be discussing her condition, progress, and prognosis.  We will definitely let you know what happens there.

In the meantime, she is as cheery as ever, and anxious to get back to "normal". 

You should know that both mom AND dad are eating better.  Mom has even gained four pounds back this week.

These are the flowers for this week:

Mom apologizes for the "fake" smile.  We had just gotten done eating Steak-n-Shake, so she should have been grinning from ear to ear.  While the food in the rehab is actually very good, it was nice for the three of us to dine together on actual food, fast and greasy though it may have been.  Also, she got to actually do something with her hair for the first time since she went in for the surgery.  She was very pleased.

Nathan's bday

Dave...you never posted the video of Nathan's gift opening mess.

posts

We still need pics and updates from Florida you know

Log jamb at bridge on north side of Adel going over Hwy. 169. Yep! We be flooding!!!

Welcome to Mount Carmel

So, we've now finished just a little over a week here in the rehab hospital.  It's not the clean and sterile environment we were used to at DePaul, but it feels a little less tense and a little more "homey".  The staff here is very nice and things are progressing extremely well.  When Mom got here, she was just off the hospital stay and could barely move herself.  Now she can sit up in bed almost effortlessly and is just a few physical therapy sessions away from being able to stand on her own.

She still requires help to get up and do most basic things, but it's simply a matter of strength and not a matter of will.  She has some combination of physical, occupational, and speech therapy almost every day.  She is about to graduate out of the speech therapy as the only thing that has not returned to complete normal is the pitch of her speech.  It's higher than it used to be, but the tone, inflections, and rhythm of her speech are as they were.

Here is the room...more like a hotel than a hospital.  Flowers, Grandpas and all...

Here is the physical rehab area on the bottom floor.  While we were there, she walked (with the walker) farther (over 100 feet in three separate sessions) than she ever had before.  I think she said the previous record was 33 feet.  Today she did a 44 and a 55 foot excursion, plus the last one, which I think went unmeasured.

This is the first walk she did...she came from around the corner on the left near where that man is standing..

A brief video of the last walk she did (it may or may not actually load):

Here's the bike-like apparatus that works both arm and leg strength.  You should also know that the woman riding next to Mom was a 97-year old woman named Helen, who was just as full of piss and vinegar as you might expect.  I overheard Helen talking to her nurse about the various cancers she has had, including breast cancer and a brain tumor. "I've got the hole in my head to prove it," she said.  It is worth noting that after explaining the host of complications Mom has had in the past several weeks, even Helen was impressed with her progress.

So, after just over a week, she has made what one therapist called "remarkable progress".  She's got several more weeks to go, but Grandpa and I both agree that the recovery from this point will be swift and complete.  Don't be afraid to give her a call during the day if you want to check in and say hello!

Mother's Day at De Paul

Here she is going on week five or something.  We are getting more and more frustrated with the waiting game. Mom thinks that they're going to come in tomorrow and tell her she's pregnant. My money's on lupus. It's just one thing after another. Nothing terribly serious, but they all seem like reasons to "wait and see".  Now she apparently has shingles, so there's that.  At any rate, we think she could get sprung sometime this week.  She's headed to Mount Carmel on First Capitol Drive.

Here are some pics from today...


The Mother's Day flowers.




Mom on the phone making deals.

More Progress

Now that she has transitioned to a regular hospital room, Mom is working on getting her strength and appetite back so they can send her to a physical rehab - hopefully someplace closer to home.  She is getting frustrated and annoyed with the holding pattern she is in, and I told her today that it was refreshing to hear her getting pissed about not moving forward.  It will be happening soon.

 She also wanted to thank the boys again for the beautiful "flowies".  She had me bring them home and put them on the table so they would be here when she returns.