March 30, Monday

Jeanne is doing so well with the walker and the stairs that they have bumped up her discharge date to April 7th.  Wow.  But the big question is whether she can continue the therapy in Ely?  She does not want to have to have Jay drive her to Duluth for PT/OT.  Jay will have to hang on to Jeanne when she walks until she is sure her knees won't buckle.  She still can't feel them.  Her hands and feet are still totally numb.  

Wednesday, March 25

Jeanne called today.  She did stairs!! 5 of them.  Up and down.  She was still attached  to the zero gravity thing but it was mostly a security thing.  Tomorrow they will try it with it only attached but not taking any weight.  This is pretty exciting.  She continues to gain strength.  She described the standing machine a little more.  She called it the Sara Steady So I looked that up.  Now I have more of a visual of what she is talking about.  She stands up in it and then sits in it.  They can wheel her to where she needs to go.  It makes transfers a little easier.

I guess I am finding that I am not good at picking one day to update.  Oh well.  I will try to put something every week.  Just can't seem to be consistent with the day.

Pretty much everything is closed now except for grocery stores and pharmacies.  We are encouraged to stay home.  But get out to walk, bike, or jog.  6 feet separation if you meet up with anyone. 

Sunday, March 22

I have had several conversations with Jeanne.  What a treat for me.  She has some down time, while she is resting from her therapy.  Since she is not allowed to have visitors, she has been taking the opportunity to make some calls.  Email and texting are still too slow.  She continues to gain strength and is able to assist more with things like rolling and coming to sitting and standing.  She is walking with the walker and with the zero gravity cord from the ceiling.  She is not taking all her weight yet with walking.  The cord is nice because if her knees buckle then it catches her.  She can almost come to standing by herself.   She has very good core strenth.  But she also says that she is not as limber as she used to be.

I had to cancel my flight out to see her, since she is not allowed to have visitors.  Plus, with the state of the coronavirus I would not have been able to fly there anyway.  It has been difficult trying to maintain contact with people and still maintain social distancing.  So I go on walks with friends but we keep our distance and no stops for coffee.  We can do take-out, but I have not tried that yet.

Jeanne has missed a lot of that.  But not having visitors is frustrating.  Jay misses her as well. 

Sunday, March 15

I had a nice long chat with Jeanne today.  She continues to gain strength.  She can almost get herself to sitting at the side of the bed.  Needs help still for lifting her legs back into bed.  She can help with rolling in bed but can not roll independently.   To go to the restroom she stands in some kind of a contraption on wheels and is pushed to the restroom.  She can stand and sit from that contraption.  Jeanne tried to describe it.  It was not a piece of therapy equipment that I was familiar with.

                                            

Maybe it looks like this??? (In case you are wondering, this is not Jeanne ;-) ) 

She can feed herself - even soup, using large handled utensils.  She can cut things like sausage and Fremch toast with a weighted knife.  Some food still don't taste right.  She can do most of her own personal grooming though she needs help with the showering.  When she is in the wheelchair she can get around independently.

Even though she is gaining strength every day the sensations do not seem to be improving.  This makes things like walking very difficult because she does not know where her feet are unless she looks.

She has graduated to 350 piece jigsaw puzzles.  It takes a lot of concentration to pick up the pieces.

She has a roommate.

Maybe Sundays would be better days to do my blog updates.  She has a day off from her therapy so it is a nice day to chat. 

Now even restaurants are closing.  Will we recover once they have a cure for the virus???

Now, Jeanne is not allowed any visitors.  Luckily she has her therapy still to occupy her time. 

Thursday, March 12

Yippee, they have taken the catheter out!! Everything works in that department.  She is standing more in the parallel bars and "walking" with the zero gravity sling.  She says that it doesn't feel like walking, more like a puppet on a string.  Actually, walking will be a problem, even with a walker, as long as she can't feel her legs and feet.  But she continues to gain strength.  That is a good thing.  Jeanne is still very upbeat, since she sees progress every day.

So far, they are not restricting visitors, due to the coronavirus.  They are restricting medical personnel from traveling.  I have talked to Jay.  I have not canceled my trip, yet.  A lot can happen in 2 weeks.  School, library, pool, parks, churches, all closing.  Events canceled right and left.

Monday, March 9

Jeanne called to say that she stood in the parallel bars today!!  With help, of course.  But still she stood.  The therapists have been impressed with her progress.  Tomorrow they hope to get her in a zero gravity sling.  What it does is support most of the body weight so that she can relearn taking steps without worrying about falling.   Then they can gradually increase the amount of weight she can tolerate. Her knees buckle unpredictably and her ankles twist.

She has been gaining strength each day.  But what is slower to come back in the sensation.  We have nerves that go to muscles that govern movement, nerves going to the skin govern feeling and nerves going to the joints to govern the awareness of where your hands and feet are in space.  They all come back at different rates.  With Guillain Barre, generally movement comes back before feeling.  So she really needs to concentrate on every little thing.

She is now able to transfer from bed to chair with help.  She no longer needs the lift to get her from bed to chair.  Her sitting balance is very good.  I forgot to ask her if she is able to feed herself yet.  My guess is that it probably depends on what the food is.  Soup may still be a problem. 

On Sundays when she has a break from therapy she works on big piece jigsaw puzzles.  Even the 150 piece ones are hard.  So hard when you can't feel to pick things up. But it is good therapy.

More restrictions.  We stopped a lot of the social things at church.  No groups larger than 250 people can meet.  People are going  crazy with shopping.  No handsanitizer or TP.  

Wednesday, March 4th update

I know that I said I would update on Thursdays but today was special.  Jeanne texted me!!! Of course it was mostly emojis.  But she was wishing me a happy birthday.  What a surprise. So disappointing that Jeanne is not here for my birthday. She is disappointed as well.  Insult to injury.

Texting is still very difficult for her.  She is getting more movement back but the feeling is taking longer.  This makes fine motor coordination much more difficult.  She has a wheelchair now that is a little more moneuverable so she has been able to get around almost independently.  They had her in a standing table to help her be on her feet.  It is a table that has supports so that people can stand who do not have the strength to stand.  They are working on all kinds of functional activities to promote independence.  She gets discouraged because progress seems so slow.  Jay is more optimistic because he sees all the progress she has made.   They are working her hard in the rehab unit.  She is doing some kind of therapy every 30 minutes.  She brushed her teeth and her hair independently!! Every day she is gaining strength.

Their target date for Jeanne going home is Sunday April 11th!! Her birthday is the 16th.  It would be great if she could be home by then.  But she does have a lot of stairs at home.

The Coronavirus is more and more in the news. But it still feels "over there"