Courtenay March 14, 2015!

         I have been terrible at blogging!  We got home from Alberta on December 22.  It has been a crazy few months.  James' one on one support was cancelled while we were away,  so I have been scrambling to figure that out so I can go back to work.  My position at my job as attendent on the special needs bus was taken while I was away.  So I am the fill in position.  I haven't been getting much work lately,  but it has been a full time job just trying to get my little family sorted out!   James will be getting a bit of one to one support starting in April,  and he has part time hours at a day program too.  So it will work out.

         James is going to physio once a week and excersise therapy twice a week.  He has been going to a computer course at the college once a week.  Tristan has been going to his course with him to help him if he needs it.  James has been going to theraputic riding once a week too.  He is very nervous on the horse,  but it seems to be helping his balance a bit, and the staff and volunteers there are amazing.

          James purchased himself a little power scooter chair.  He loves it.  He seems to be feeling a bit more confident in his walking since he got it.  I figure that it is because it gives him a bit more independence since he doesn't have to rely on someone to push him up hills.  It can come apart to put in the vehicle,  and only weighs about 60 lbs.  I have been using a piece of plywood for a ramp and putting it into the van in one piece though.   He also got a new walker that is also a wheelchair.  The wheelchair part is not very comfortable,  but at least he can be pushed if he is walking and gets tired.  It makes it a little easier to take him out with just the walker.  It is lightweight and folds nicely in half, so it is easy to take in the vehicle.  It is also a bit wider and longer than his first walker so it is more stable. 

        James had an appointment with the ear, nose and throat doctor on  Saltspring Island last week.  It was a beautiful trip and there are some amazing places to get food on Saltspring!  We usually see that doctor in Vancouver,  but he was doing a clinic on Saltspring.  It was a much more pleasant trip than Vancouver!  He feels that there is a surgery that will help James' speech clarity a lot!  We are waiting for a referral to the surgeon now.  The plan is to take part of his soft palate and attach it to the back of his throat.  This will make it so that it takes a lot less effort to close the area between his mouth and nose for speech.  The muscles in his throat that close that valve are weak, so instead of having to close a large hole, He will be closing two small holes,  on either side of the flap of soft palate that they attach to back of his throat.  The doctor feels very confident that this will make a huge difference this speech clarity.  

        It is so nice to be home and back together as a family!  Even though it has been a struggle to get supports back in place for James since we got back,  at least I have my family!  The weather hasn't been that rough to deal with either! Vancouver island is definitely paradise!  

Ponoka November 8th, 2014

Winter is arriving here in Ponoka this weekend.  It has been a beautiful fall,  but the snow started falling this weekend.  We did all our shopping and I gassed up the van yesterday,  so the plan this long weekend is to stay warm inside!

James had a great time at Halloween.  There was a Halloween dance on the Wednesday evening before Halloween,  and James dressed up in his usual old costume.  It is a freaky death costume with glowing eyes.  He loves it.  The dance was great.  Lots of fun.  James got out there and danced In His chair a few times and he danced one song with me helping him, out of his chair.  Most of the therapists dressed up,  and each group of therapist dressed in a theme. James' thrapists were all characters from the game, Clue. One of the other  therapist groups were all muppets,  and the teachers in the classroom were all Star Trek characters.  It was fun.

James has been doing fantastic at speech.  He is still difficult to understand,  but way better than he was!  His speech therapist also feels that he is now a good candidate for palatal surgery.  They would add some bulk to the back of his palate so that he can close the nasopharyngeal port ( the space between your nose and mouth at the back of your throat) with less effort.  This will really help with his speech clarity.  

James has a discharge date being talked about now.  They are talking about just before Christmas.  So we would probably head back on the 19 th or 20 th of December!  There are a few glitches though.  All the supports that I fought so hard to get started back home for James,  have been completely cancelled!  I was told that we have to start at the beginning and go through the application process all over again.  It took me a year of nagging and fighting to get the supports going last time!  If we can't get this sorted out before we go home,  I may have to quit my little job on the bus to stay home.  The social worker here, is going to help by seeing if we can appeal the decision they made to totally drop him from the funding.  Nothing is ever easy.  

Ponoka October 7, 2014

James now has a private room.  He was having a tough time having a roommate.  His roommate swore sometimes,  never at James though.  Nice kid,  just occasionally swore.  James gets quite annoyed at swearing and was not happy.  He is much happier in his own room.  There have been quite a few people leaving to go home,  and there are quite a few empty rooms right now.  

James' speech is coming along really nicely!  We had the sister missionaries over for dinner this weekend,  and James was able to carry on a conversation with them without my help!  It was awesome!  It did help a little that they know finger spelling,  but they didn't really have to rely on it.  They understood most of his speech.  There is a sister in our ward in Lacombe who communicates through finger spelling,  so there are actually quite a few people who know the ASL alphabet from her.  

James is doing well in physio too.  He is practicing stepping over things and balancing with an obsticle course.  The physiotherapist helps by holding on to his waist for support and he has to reach down and pick things up,  walk on a balance beam on the floor,  jump on a mini trampoline and step on and over different things.  His balance is definitely improving,  just slowly.  Last night James took his walker and he and I walked out to the main hallway and he got a root beer at the vending machine.  He put the change in and reached down and got the pop can out himself.

James made a really nice little change purse in leather works.  He is very proud of it.  He has also been loving getting out on the recumbent trike at the center while the weather is still good.  

We went with the church youth, to the Lacombe corn maze a few weeks ago.  It was so much fun!  They have farm animals there and there is a little track with some pedal powered tractor/ bikes.  James loved them!

James has been working on his paragraph writing while working through a workbook in his school time. I was pretty proud of his paragraph he wrote about his rehab...these are his own words...

Ponoka September 6, 2014

James is excited to be getting a new roommate at the center next week!  He will likely have the room to himself for a few days until his new roomie arrives. The new fella is 17,  so James is hoping that he will have some similar interests.  His last roommate was in his 60s so James is happy to have a young roommate!

There is another young man from BC on the unit next to James unit.  He is at a similar level to James!   Last weekend James and I met up with him and his mom and had breakfast at A&W.  It was very nice.  

Physio now has James walking with the therapist helping on his ribs or hips from behind,  while the assistant helps James carry a laundry basket with weights in it!  His balance is slowly but surely improving,  but I am not sure that he will be walking independently by the time we go home,  I am hopeful,  but I think it will depend on how long they let him stay.  The biggest hurdle he has to walking independently is his balance.  

We had a group conference a few weeks ago.  The team is planning on asking for an extension of 2-4 months.  James' four month funding will end at the end of October,  and if they get the extension,  that will put him to the end December or February.  We will see if he gets another extension after that.  

In recreation therapy James painted another ceramic dragon in his ceramics class, and now he has moved to working on a leather change purse in leather works.  He also sometimes goes for bike rides on the three wheel bike,  and I have started taking him to the pool two evenings a week.

Speech has added an assistant working with James,  and he is also part of a speech group.  Some days he has an hour of speech time,  some days up to two hours!  

 

The last batch of resumes I put out were very successful.  Out of 6 resumes,  I got call backs on 4!  I did take a job at a hotel,  but it caters to a pretty rough crowd, and after 3 days I decided that it wasn't for me.  I ended up getting a job as an assistant on a special needs bus,  with the same company I worked for back home!  They just transferred my files!  It is different in that it is all very high functioning kids.  They mostly have behavoural issues.  It is going well though.  The driver picks me up outside the apartment and drops me back off after!  Spoiled or what !  

I am excited to be able to see Mark next month!  He is going to come out for our anniversary.  We haven't seen each other since James and Sarah and I left in June!  He is going to drive out and pull our trailer back home.  I was hoping to sell it out here,  but it is the wrong time of year.

Ponoka August 9, 2014

James is now making his own breakfasts at the center during the week.  Physio is walking him to lunch,  and I go and walk him to dinner.  I am finding that I am understanding his speech more,  and his balance is getting better.  In physio they are working on strengthening his core when he walks.  They are awesome at keeping things interesting and thinking outside the box.  Sometimes James walks on the treadmill.  He has a harness on so he doesn't have to worry about falling,  and they have him walk,  while holding a badminton racket and swinging at rags that they throw to him!  Also twice  a week when there is a physio assistant working with him too,  they walk with a walking pole.  He is getting better at it, and they are able to give him a little less support each time.  Yesterday he got to try out their recumbant trike.  It has two wheels in the front and one in the back.  He did very well and they said that they are totally comfortable taking him outside with it next time.  James has painted a ceramic dragon in recreation therapy and is working on another one!  

We moved out of the trailer and into an apartment last weekend!  I got our furniture at the thrift shop.  I sure found some great treasures!  We still need mattresses, but I am planning on going into red deer today and looking at foam mattresses at Jysk.  They are comfortable and much cheaper than a regular mattress! Next week I am planning on getting out and job hunting again.  I am hoping that I will have more luck now that I have a local address and phone number.  

Ponoka July 10/2014

We have been in Ponoka for a couple of weeks now.  James is settling into the brain injury center nicely, and his therapies are really getting going.  All the therapies here really work together, very much more than they did in Vancouver.  Some of his therapists will be walking with him with his walker from one therapy to the next,  and soon he will be starting the walk to lunch program.  The nurses or therapy assistants will be supervising his walking to the lunch room.  He is also on a list to start the breakfast club.  He will go to a therapy kitchen in the morning and they will help him make his own breakfast 5 days a week!  There is a school room at the center,  and James goes there 3 hours a week. He is working on his math skills and idea generation.  They are also working closely with speech to encourage his speaking and intelligibility while they work on his school goals.  I am very impressed with the programs here so far!  The therapists are very thorough and I love how it is truly a team approach.  It is a very relaxed, atmosphere on the unit and the staff all seem happy and they all seem very passionate about what they do.  James spends the weekends with Sarah and I at our trailer.  It has been a very interesting experience camping here though!  We arrived at the beginning of the Ponoka Stampede,  and the town was packed,  not to mention nightly concerts, fireworks and parties going on all around us for the first week we were here.  I am so glad that is over!  Now we fall asleep listening to the coyotes in the evenings.  The July storms have started and we have experienced a few Alberta thunder, lightening , wind and hail storms!  Needless to say,  we are actively looking for a sturdier place to live in than our tent trailer!

May 27 th 2014

Just a very quick post.  James' funding for the Halvar Jonson Center in Ponoka, Alberta has been approved!  He is officially on the waiting list and is likely to get a bed sometime in June!  It all just became very real!  Time to go get organized!

May 2014

Nope, I haven't given up on blogging!  I know it has been a long time since I posted last.  Life has just been very hectic.  

The latest thing we have been working on has been looking into the Halvar Jonson Center for brain injury rehabilitation in Ponoka, Alberta.  James had an appointment with his rehab doctor in Vancouver April 14 th.  We asked her about a referral to the Halvar Jonson Center.  She thought it would be a positive thing for him,  so we started the process.  James and I flew out to  Edmonton and stayed with my bestie out there.  She was an incredible chauffeur and hostess to us while we were there.  She drove us to Lacombe on Sunday and we went to church where the Ponoka members go to church.  We met some really cool people and everyone was very nice!  We even met the doctor from the center at church!  That was kind of funny.  When I explained to someone that we were out to check out the center,  they told me that there was a doctor who worked there in the ward. When they introduced us we quickly realized that we were going to meet at the center the next day!   We went to Ponoka on Sunday afternoon and explored the town,  then we stayed at a hotel in ponoka,  and explored some more on Monday morning and went to the center in the afternoon.  They did an informal assessment and we had a tour.  I think even James was impressed!  We are now waiting to see if the BC Ministry of health will fund him to go the Center.  It is a longer stay than the rehab programs available in BC.  He would stay for anywhere from 4 months to a year.  We are planning to move out to Ponoka for the time that he is there.  We are not sure exactly what that will look like right now, as to where we would live,  but we are exploring some options.  I think James' best shot at the most success is if the family is nearby and he can be with us on weekends.  

While we are waiting to hear from the ministry of health,  James is continuing to have physiotherapy 3 times a week,  go to the pool once a week and the gym twice a week.  He has a worker (She is awesome!)who takes his to most of these appointments and also helps him with his physio excercises and speech excercises five days a week!  He is keeping busy and continuing to work on his rehabilition the best he can at home.

Home again!

James came home again on February 1 st!  He had his first physio session since he came home, yesterday.  It is nice to be back with the home team!  His physiotherapist said that he can see that James is not as good at using the walker as he was when he left ( his team at GF Stronge did not use the walker with him really at all until the last couple of weeks. ). But he did really well standing without holding or touching anything, (2-3 minutes) and he did great with stretching his shoulder to get his right hand up over his head.  James has been doing quite a bit of walking with me just on his arm, and being without the wheelchair for periods of time in the house.  Monday was a provincial holiday,  and it snowed on Sunday night!  When James got up in the morning he wanted to go outside in the snow.  I pushed him in his chair halfway out the driveway and he decided he wanted to go back inside!  When we got inside we saw that his wheels were packed with snow,  so it was a good excuses for a chair free day!  He was out of his chair for about 12 hours!  James is going to his day program 5 days a week again.  His aide takes him to his physio appointments,  swim therapy,  adapted karate, working in the gym, doing his daily speech and physio excercises, as well as anything else they plan!  He is also going to a special needs young adults group at the community center once a week!  He is at his happiest when he is busy.  James was feeling very lonely and bored at the hospital,  and his mood has improved drastically since he came home!  Next week he will start seeing a speech therapist in Campbell river at the hospital outpatient center.  She will see him twice a month to just follow up on his speech  and change his home speech program as needed.  

We are working on renovations to part of the house so that James can have an area to himself.  It will have a bedroom,  a mini kitchen area, and a sitting area.  We picked up flooring a while ago and the bedroom area is now floored and painted,  we are now working on the main area.  It is turning into a bit of a bigger job that we originally thought.  The walls are in rough shape and we just decided to replace some of the gyprock.  I am hoping to have the space livable for him in a couple of months.  We are just plugging away at it on the weekends.  

2014!

Well James has a room to himself again.  His last roommate didn't work out very well.  The roommate was still quite confused,  and got up during the night, made a mess of the room and sat on the edge of James bed.  James was just a bit freaked out!  I suggested that James be the one to move rooms,  as I knew James would be able to adjust to being in a new room better than the roommate.  

James is using a walker from gf Stronge now.  He said that he didn't like his walker because he sometimes bumps his knees.  The gf Stronge walker has a flip up seat so there is more room for his knees when he walks.  He is being much more cooperative about walking with the walker now! 

James also started pool therapy this week!  Yay!  It's about time!  He goes twice a week at the GF Stronge pool and once a week at the therapy pool near gf Stronge.  

There is a conference meeting next Monday.  And there is a discharge date being talked about!  The date they gave me is January 29 th.  Since that is a Wednesday,  I am trying to get it shifted to Saturday, February 1 st.  James has done quite well with his speech.  I do feel like he is a bit easier to understand.  I think it will just take time for his speech to become clear enough for him to be understood by someone who isn't around him all the time.  I was hoping he would get more independent with his walking,  but I think that is going to take more time. He is getting better at walking with the rail and a cane,  but he still needs a spotter when her uses his walker or walks with the rail and a cane.  It is just so hard to be patient,  but I think it will just take time...

We have found a great place to practice walking on the weekends.  There is a hallway In the basement at gf Stronge that has a ramp and railings.  I help James practice rail walking with his cane,  we practice some walker walking on the flat part of the hallway and then he plays around coming down the long ramp with his wheelchair!  James and Sarah both had a blast going down the ramp with the wheelchair last weekend!  

I have finally found the courage to use the buses and trains to get to and from the ferry in Vancouver now!  We have done a little bit of exploring Vancouver on the transit on the weekends now.  A couple of weeks ago we went to Longsdale Quay ( James bought another fedora hat ) and last weekend we went to the anthropology museum at UBC.  

Merry Christmas!

James came home for five days over Christmas.  He is sure happy to be home.  The day that we were leaving to go over and visit with James and bring him home to visit,  we had an amazing hamper delivered!  What a surprise!  Everything for Christmas dinner plus other food items,  plus gifts and stockings for us all! Our tree has never been so full!  It was the first Christmas since I was a kid that I didn't know what was under the tree!  We brought James' girlfriend with us to Vancouver and she also spent Christmas Day with us.  James was so excited to see her!  The hotel that we stayed in while we visited with James had an IHOP restaurant attached to it.  The food was fabulous!  I think I have a new favorite restaurant!  Too bad we don't have one near home.  We visited with Grampa Cam and Cindy and Paige while in Vancouver.  We had lunch and dinner with them, went to a movie and visited at their home.  It was a great day.  We saw the movie, Frozen.  It was great.  James saw it once already,  but he was super excited to see it with the family!  We travelled home on Christmas Eve with James.  We saw a pod of small dark colored whales on the ferry trip.  We stopped in Nanaimo and had dinner and a visit with gramma Ann,  then drove home.  We spent Christmas Day with James girlfriend, Rae Ann, and Nana came for dinner.  We also went over the Nana's house to see her mini Christmas village that she puts up every year.  We ended the day by driving along candy cane lane to see all the Christmas lights!   James also spent almost the whole day without his chair!  He was 11 hours out of his chair!  He even used his walker to go In and out of Nana's house.  That was quite a bit of walking! We all got super spoiled for Christmas!  We are so blessed to have such awesome friends and family!  

James got a new roommate on Christmas Eve at the hospital.  He is a man in about his 50s.  I hope he is as nice as the last roommate.  I am a little nervous about it.  The experience with the first roommate James had was so horrible!  James' usual doctor is back from hollidays and I look forward to meeting with her next week.  James has been trialling a power chair lately.  He has practiced with it 3 or 4 times now.  He is doing very well with it.  He is very careful,  and I suspect it won't be long before he is able to use it on his own inside the building.  He really enjoys the independence it gives him.  I have been very concerned that he hasn't been using his walker much while he has been there.  It sounds like both his physiotherapist and his occupational therapist will be spending time walking with him with his walker now though.  James had a scope of his throat done again recientely.  They were wanting to see how his naso-pharyngeal port ( a flap that opens and closes between the mouth and nose). Is working and how he is handling eating and drinking.  The port did close nicely a couple of times while he was making an "A" sound,  but it wasn't consistent. I am hoping that it is a sign that it is starting to work.  That port being able to open and close when he speaks is very important to the intelligablility of his speech.  He was able to also swallow a teaspoon of regular fluid as well as he swallows a teaspoon of thickened fluid.  So that is also promising.  He is still a choking risk though,  and still needs to be monitored when eating.

James and I will be going back over to Vancouver on Sunday.  I will stay there until the following Sunday.  It will give me a chance to catch up with his therapists  and his doctor. 

Calmer waters

James has been doing much better the last couple of weeks.  I still think that hie schedule should be busier though.  He does have a couple of new things added to his week.  He has hand class on Tuesday morning and on Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoons he has a speech volunteer working with him.  James usual doctor is back this week too.  I will meet with her after Christmas.  She is familiar with James and his goals,  and I am hoping that she can kick James rehab up a notch!  

James iPad will be replaced this week too!  He will be getting a new speech app on it to try out as well as his old touch chat app.  His replacement iPad is a mini and he is pretty excited about that.  It will be easier to pack around and keep safe!  The occupational therapist is making a pouch for it to go in that will attach to his chair.  

James will be getting another throat scope done tomorrow.  They are going to watch what happens when he eats, as well as when he talks.  His speech therapist wants to also discuss with the doctor if there are any intervention options to help with his speech.  

James now has a the social worker for his program checking in with him almost daily too.  Just to make sure that he is doing okay and that no one is giving him a rough time.  James is becoming more known by other patients and nurses though.  There are quite a few patients who talk to James now and keep an eye out for him!  

James is very excited about coming home for 5 days around Christmas!  His girlfriend has taken time off around that time too, so he is super excited to spend some time with her too! 

Tough few weeks

It has been a tough start for James at gf Stronge.   During the first week,  he got a roommate who was very verbally abusive and intimidating to James.  The roommate then stole James iPad with his communication program on it.  The iPad was retrieved from under the roommates mattress, and a couple of days later they moved James to a new room (across the hall) because James was refusing to go in the room and was sitting in the hallway.  the day after the move his iPad went missing again,  and this time they found the charger in the old roommates drawer,  but were not able to find the iPad.  So poor James has been the last few weeks without his communication program.  I am noticing that he is often just giving up trying to communicate more complex ideas to the nurses.  If it takes too much effort to get his point across he will just give up.  James' new roommate is a sweetheart though.  He is in his 40s and is from Columbia.  He speaks Spanish and now James wants to learn Spanish!  His new roommate was telling me that he is discharging in  by couple of weeks though.  I am nervous about who will be rooming with James next!  

I spent last weekends visit meeting with police about the iPad,  and generally trying to get a clearer picture of the story of the iPad theft.  The hospital won't consider it stolen though,  only missing.  Security says that since no one actually saw the guy steal the iPad it is deflamitory to say it was stolen. He says that even though it was found the first time under the guys mattress,  that doesn't mean he put it there.  The argument would be, what if the guy was framed.  Good grief !  Not sure what the police have been able to do,  and if I wanted a copy of the police report I would have to apply for freedom of information act,  which is a lengthy and expensive process.  It does look like the company that supplied the iPad will replace it for him,  but there are lots of hoops to jump through to make that happen.  I spent this weekend working on paperwork to get the iPad replaced.  I am hoping to have it replaced before Christmas.  

There was a meeting on Thursday to discuss James progress so far.  I caught wind earlier in the week that the talk was to discharge James because James was wanting to go home.  I talked to James' physiotherapist from Courtenay, who wrote an awesome e mail to the new physiotherapist as well as the physio and occupational therapists who worked with James during the summer.  Well,  I think he sufficiently stirred the pot!  When I arrived they were all hopping,  and the doctor filling in for James' usual doctor had given James his cell number, and was communicating with him via texting!  He convinced James to give it a good try and stick around.  A review meeting is now set for January 20th.  At that meeting either a discharge date will be discussed or another review meeting set.  Basically what we heard is that James is working hard and cooperating despite being homesick.  He is using his right hand a lot more,  and I have seen a significant change in the function of his right hand.  His speech is coming along,  he is quite a bit clearer if he plugs his nose.  He is scheduled to have another scope done on the 17 th of this month.  He is also sitting a bit straighter in the last week or so too.  I told them that James needs to be busier too.  When he is bored,  he gets very homesick.

I took James to a follow appointment with the Neuro Opthomologist yesterday.  He saw some positive changes in James eye function in just under 2 months since he saw him last.  He said that on their own each of James' eyes works quite well,  they just don't work perfectly together.  He wants to follow up with more testing in 6 months.  He felt that patching one eye or the other might assist James in some activities where there is still some double vision.  He also suggested tinting the lense of his glasses on his right eye.  That eye is light sensitive since the pupil stays a bit more dialated than the other.  He does not feel that James is a good candidate for surgery since his right eye has multiple issues.  

Gf Stronge

James has been at gf Stronge for almost two weeks now.  It has been a tough couple of weeks though.  On day 5 he got a roommate.  His roommate was walking and talking, and very nasty to James.  When James came into the room he would swear at him and started calling him names.  He also stole James iPad with his communication program on it.  They found it under the roommates mattress .  It got to the point where James wouldn't go in the room while the roommate was there.  He would just sit in the hallway.  They moved James to a new room last Thursday.  His new roommate seems to be a really sweet guy.  He is in a wheelchair too,  and he also has some communication issues.  He is able to speak better than James can though,  and often let's the nurses know what James is trying to say!  James iPad went missing again after they moved him though.  The charging cord was discovered in the old roommates possession,  but they haven't been able to find the iPad.  So poor James is trying to get along without it for now.  The society that provided the iPad has said that they will provide James with another iPad,  as long as the hospital staff can figure out ways to increase the security around the iPad.  James has been having a hard time with the fact that they won't let him go to bathroom on his own either.  He has to call a nurse to go to the bathroom.  While his transfers are supposed to be just supervised,  when he gets a new nurse,  they seem to feel the need to actually transfer him themselves,  which is very frustrating  to James because it is difficult to communicate with them.  I did get an email today from his OT that she is going to let him get in and out of bed unsupervised though.  She still wants to work on the bathroom transfers. 

I also got a call from a fella who works on the recreational therapy team last night.  He is going to start taking James out a couple of days a week !  Today they are going to go and get chocolate cake at white spot.  They are also planning on going to the movies on another day.  

James has an appointment with the Neuro Opthomologist next Friday, and I am going to go over early to Vancouver, so I can go with him.  It is to go over the results of some field of vision tests that they did almost two weeks ago. 

Back at GF Stronge!

James went back to GF Stronge last Thursday!  It was hard leaving him there to come home. I am sure he will do fine,  but it is hard not to worry about him!  He got his schedule yesterday.  I am glad that it looks like they will keep him busy!  He has Occupational therapy at 9 am,  Physio at 10 am,  and two half hour speech sessions at 11 am and 2 pm.  They are also talking about putting him in pool therapy twice a week and one session a day with a rehab assistant to work on his walking. As well as getting him involved in music therapy and art therapy.  He will be going to the recreational pool session on Wednesday nights too.  There is also wii games nights on Mondays and Thursdays.  Monday night games night is on the spinal injury floor,  and I understand that there are a couple of young guys there. I will be going back over to visit James on the weekend.  I will probably go over on Friday night,  and come home again on Sunday night.  

Here we go again!

We got the phone call from GF Stronge about James going back for more therapy!  He checks in to the hospital next Thursday!  He will be an inpatient for the next few months.  My plan is to go over and visit with him on the weekends.  James is actually quite excited about going back,  and says that he is looking foreword to hospital food!  Lol!  He will be working with a new set of therapists,  so I am looking foreword to meeting them all on Thursdays and Friday next week.  It has been a busy week, with trying to get organized to go back to Vancouver.  I will blog more after we get to Vancouver !

October 2013

We took James over to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago for a Neuro Opthomologist  appointment.  He has to have some more tests on November 15 th to figure out exactly how much double vision he has,  and how well his eyes are working together.  I am amazed at how well he actually has adapted to his vision changes and is able to tune out one of the images when he starts to see double.  The doctor said that surgery is possible to correct the double vision,  but since he is still healing there is no rush on making that decision.  The longer we wait the better.  He also feels that the damage to the nerves around James' eye are due to trauma to the eye and not due to the brain injury.  James did great during the assessment and used his voice quite a bit to communicate with the doctor.  

While we were in Vancouver we also stopped in to see the coordinator at GF Stronge.  I was hoping to get an actual date for when James goes back as an inpatient.  She said that she should know better after November 5 th.  They will have a meeting to discuss bed availability on that date.  She did say that it would likely be the week after rememberance day.   When he does get a bed,  I will go over on The  weekends,  but I won't stay over there during the week.  

James is doing well at his day program.  His worker is great,  and they seem to get along well.  He is excited about wearing his costume to his program tomorrow.  He loves Halloween and is looking foreword to handing out candy tomorrow night.  

James is doing better at walking all the time.  He definitely is still making good progress.  Slow and steady!  I can feel quite a difference in his balance when I walk with him.  He is walking laps with his walker around the hallways of the day program building everyday.  He walked around 2 and a half laps yesterday!  We did have to bribe him with root beer to increase his number of laps though!  

Home again, home again....

It feels so good to be home again!  Last Friday was James last day at the GF Stronge intensive day program!  He was so excited to be going home!  He woke up at about 330 am. and transferred into his chair while I was sleeping.  I was woken up by James saying, " hey mom! " from his chair at the end of my bed.  He briefly argued with me about whether or not it was time to get up,  then he went back to bed.  It was a busy day of packing up and saying goodbye to all his therapists.  When he goes back again he won't have any of the same therapists.  His OT said that he will touch base and consult with his OT and PT when James comes back for the in patient program in November.  We don't have an exact date for that program to start yet,  but the doctor was pushing for mid November.  

We are well into our routine at home now.  I have gone back to work and James is going to a day program, 5 days a week.  His one to one worker picks him up at 930 Monday to Friday,  and brings him home at 330.  He does his speech  and physio excercises with her and they go swimming twice a week,  to adapted karate one a week,  and she takes him to physio appointments three times a week! They wil also check out the local gym and possibly use the stationary bike there.  He is a busy boy!  There is also a worker who comes in each morning and helps him keep on track with his morning self care.  They will also do a few walking and balance excercises with him too. 

James private OT and the community PT came by this morning to assess his walking with his walker and his transfers.  We are going to take out his bedside transfer rail.  The PT said she was very impressed with the difference in the fluidity of his movements and that his walking and transfers have improved a lot since she saw him about three months ago.   

James finished his t shirt that he was working on in art therapy.  It turned out wonderfully!  Unfortunately red paint that he used on it didn't set and as soon as it got wet the red parts disintegrated!  Luckily I took lots of pictures of it and I think we can transfer a picture of it on to a black t shirt for him.  He put so much work into that t shirt and was so proud of it.  

One week left!

One more week until we sleep in our own beds and see the rest of the family! I am so looking foreword to getting home!  

James had two days of pool therapy this week.  The physiotherapist at the Monday pool therapy was great.  She did a lot of working one on one with James.  She had some great ideas and James worked really worked well with her.  We didn't go to the pool on Wednesday night this week,  so he just had the two days of pool this week.  On Wednesday night James' amazing rehab doctor was doing a session about traumatic brain injury.  James and I decided to skip the trip to the pool so we could go to that.  It was great.  We met some lovely people who are going through similar experiences,  and learned a lot about brain structure,  what happens in a brain injury and about rehab options.  It was well worth the time! 

On Wednesday morning there was a meeting of the physiotherapists to brainstorm about ideas to help James.  It was great,  and James handled it all very well.  There were about 10 therapists there and at times they were all around him talking,  telling him what to do,  and they all had there hands on him.  He took it all in stride.   A year ago that would have been impossible!  They came up with different ideas on how to strengthen some of the muscles that are showing weakness and making it difficult for James to walk.  Basically it was decided that his hip muscles need to be strengthened.  

On Thursday evening James and I were invited by a family member to attend an interactive play at UBC.  It was very interesting!  A skit was preformed once,  and a story brought to a climax,  and then it was repeated.  The second time through audience members would yell stop at what they saw as a pivotal part of the play, and they would go up and take the place of a character of their choice.  Then they would change something about what that character was doing to try to achieve a different outcome.  The rest of the actors would improvise and play into the change.  It was very entertaining,  and a great way to open dialogue about some difficult situations.  James and I both enjoyed ourselves a lot!  

We met with the psychologist today to go over test results from the cognitive assessment that James participated in a few weeks ago.  She said that James' vocabulary is at a normal level for his age.  Since he doesn't speak very well at this point they had to adapt the tests,  but through typing and signing he proved that he has a great vocabulary,  it is just sometimes difficult for him to express that because of his limited speech.  His comprehension is great too.  His working memory or short term memory is good,  but he has trouble storing longer term memory.  One of his biggest challenges is attention.  He is very easily distracted.  It seems like a lot of the learning difficulties that he had before the accident are amplified.  

There was a meeting back home this week with the community groups that are providing services for James in our own community.  They have come up with a wonderful plan for the interm when James and I get back home . He will have home and community care come in and help him get ready in the morning, five days a week, and he has a worker from a day program come and pick him up after that.  He will be with his day program worker until 330 in the afternoon.  She will do speech excercises with him,  take him to physio appointments,  take him to the pool for some pool therapy 3 times a week, and take him to karate once a week!  She will also help him access community events that he is interested in.  He is going to be a very busy boy when we get home! 

We have gotten word that James has been officially accepted to the adolescent and young adult inpatient program!  He will come back to Gf Stronge as an inpatient in mid November!  They will work more on his speech,  becoming more independent getting around without his wheelchair,  and explore his ability to access the community.  We are so lucky to have the opportunity for James to get more official rehab!  He must be one special guy,  because so many professionals are bending over backwards to help him here!  

James will be seeing ear,  nose and throat doctor next week to go over results from his  hearing assessment that he had a few weeks ago.

 There will be a discharge meeting on Tuesday to make sure that James'  transition home goes smoothly. There will be some assessments that need to be done when he is home.  We will need an occupational therapist to reassess how he gets around the house and give us some ideas about how to facilitate him being able to get around the house without his chair. 

James girlfriend came and visited last weekend. James wanted to take her to the aquarium,  so we  went to the Aquarium again.

James will be working hard on finishing his art therapy project this week!   The big reveal should be next weekend!  It is going to look awesome!

Two weeks left!

James has been at GF Stronge for 6 weeks now!  Wow,  time flies!  James has made lots of progress while he has been here,  but he still isn't quite as independent with his mobility or his speech as I had hoped.  His speech has definitely improved.  He just needs someone to supervise his transfers if he doesn't have a pole or rail to help him.  He is now completely independent at preparing his toothbrush and brushing his teeth.  He is also only needing a bit of help to transfer to the bath bench. I still wash his hair,  but he washes and rinses himself.  His balance and core strength has improved,  but he still requires a standby assist with his walker.  I went and spoke to his doctor here about it this week.  I talked to her about the possibility of transferring James to Ponoka,  Alberta for some longer term rehabilitation.  She suggested another option though!  She said that she would talk to the team about James coming back as an inpatient for another two to four months!  The whole team agreed and she is going to organize him coming back in November!  I will probably come over on the weekends to visit him.  He will be part of the adult and young adult program,  and will be mostly with younger patients.  I am hoping that he makes a few friends too!  

Next Wednesday we will be going in to physio a bit early to be part of a meeting where the other physiotherapists will put their ideas together on different ideas on how to help James.  I am really looking forward to this meeting!  James has been on the body assisted treadmill some more this week.  He has been pretty consistent at getting up to the goal of 3 km/ hr speed and is walking for a total of about 15 minutes now!  His occupational therapist and physiotherapist got together for a session together with James on the treadmill.  It was pretty cool.  Another two therapists joined in and James covered the most ground yet!  He went a total of 700 meters!  Almost 3/4 of a kilometer!  He was totally exhausted afterward,  but he seems to recover quite quickly!  The doctor was nearby and came to see what was going on because she could hear James' occupational therapist cheering James on.  It was quite the party going on!  Next week James is going to do some work with the physio departments big tall walker.  A big goal is to get him independent on his walker,  and part of that is getting him to stay more upright.  The tall walker will help with that goal.  We will also do some work with the one hand on the rails and the other hand using the cane.  James' eventual goal is to walk with only a cane someday!

Starting next week James will be getting 2 days a week of pool therapy in the pool at Gf Stronge and one night a week at the Stan Stronge pool with recreational therapy.  That is a total of three days a week in the pool.  I am happy about that.  

His speech therapist was pretty excited this week because she is starting to hear some fairly consistent "k" sounds.  This has been a very difficult and elusive sound for James.  He now has a list of "k" sounds to practice!  He has moments where his speech is much clearer now.  I am not sure that just anyone would understand much of what he says,  but those who hear him speak a lot are understanding him more!  I am trying to encourage him to say "hi" to more people instead of just nodding to them.  He did pretty good with it today!  I often get him to head to class either without me or a bit before me.  His psychologist stopped to talk to me in the hall today and she was excited that when she passed James a minute before,  he said a very clear and loud "hi" to her!  

The t shirt that James is painting in art therapy is coming along very nicely!  He has the back finished and is now painting the front.  It is going to look so cool!  He goes and paints it for about an hour a day Monday to Thursday.  He loves it and is so proud of his work!

We went to the aquarium with James' Auntie Paige last weekend.  We had a blast as usual!  James loved the 4D theater.  We also got to see the octopus being fed!  It was amazing!  The octopus was changing color depending on where in the tank he was!  He went from purple,  to looking like he was covered with white barnacles, to all white.  It was fascinating!  We are heading back to the aquarium with James' Girlfriend tomorrow!  We are getting lots of use out of the yearly pass for James!