Sunday, July 14, 2013

(posted by Greg)

Monica's leg strength continues to get weaker.Sometimes it is worse than others. But, so far we are coping reasonably well. We use the wheelchair in the house pretty much all the time but Monica is able to take the few steps which we need her to take in order to be able to transfer her from bed to wheelchair to shower to chair  (and so forth).

For the most part Monica stays on the main floor of our house (avoiding the stairs) but we have figured out how to get her to the car so that we can still take her out.We still try to break up Monica's day with walks, picnics etc. and during the last week had a couple of nice walk.

We have a hospital bed set up in the dining room. Marley and I take turns sleeping nearby so that we can take her to the washroom as required during the night. Having Marley staying at home has been invaluable. When required there are two sets of hands and we are able to give each other breaks from the caregiving and still make sure that Monica is not left alone anymore.

Monica continues to get quieter (I think this is because she has trouble finding the words to express herself). She does however follow the conversations going on around her (or t.v.) and laughs at those jokes she likes (she still laughs if I bump my head). There have been some other changes. She is sleeping a bit more during the day and has had a couple of days when she has felt nauseous.

In  the last week, we have had quite a bit of company. (Including a visit by Oma who took the bus and skytrain from Langley to our home in Burnaby). Monica seems to enjoy these visits and makes an effort to talk more with visitors and ask appropriate questions. Jesse was home for the weekend and we had some good family times. We are hoping that Daniel will be able to come to visit again next week.