Ah, what a weekend! Jessie finished her last appointment of radiation this past Friday! Yeah! Those 28 days went by pretty fast. And she is getting stronger every day! She walks more around the house and it seems that things are starting to pick up now! Mom leaves this coming weekend and I don't know how I would have handled everything with her here. We may have our disagreements and discussions, but it is all out of love that we have come together to help Jessie and each other out.
As a celebration of Jessie finishing radiation, we went to sushi with some good friends. There was Lacey, Jessie's nurse whenever she comes out the visit. Lacey has helped us so much in the past few months that words will never explain the gratitude and friendship that we have with her. If she EVER needed anything, we will be there just like she has been there for us! Mom came, of course. Brian, my husband, joined us, although not for sushi ;) Brian has gone to sushi with us before and tried a few pieces and it just wasn't for him. Hey, at least he made the attempt. When Brian comes with us he gets the box lunch, which is teriyaki beef or chicken with rice, tempura and sushi (I eat the sushi!). Our friends Michon and Jason were also there. It was nice that they were able to come and visit with us and share in our happy occasion. It was their first time at Ijji and I think they liked it! It was a great time for everyone!
After sushi and a quick trip to Target we went home and watched the rain pour down. Needless to say that it turned to snow over night on Saturday. We woke up to about 16" of snow! Brian went out there and shoveled the driveway and wiped the snow off the cars. It was the wet, heavy snow so he wasn't really happy. He also had to dig his Bug out from the side driveway so that took some time. I tried to get Kitty Belle to go out in the snow but she didn't want anything to do with the snow. I guess she learned from the last time that it is wet and cold!
Sunday night Brian and I were watching about King Tut and are going to make plans to go to San Fran next month to catch the exhibit there before it leaves. It would be a once in a lifetime thing for me to check it out so we need to go. Then I made Brian watch the last 1 1/2 hours of the PBS movie "Persuasion" from Jane Austen. Needless to say, Brian was not a fan. He said, "I can make this movie ending a 15 minute show. Why does it take 9o minutes to deal with this angst and miscommunication?". I guess he didn't read Jane Austen in his English classes. I said that is just the way it is. So then Brian did his interpretation of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 while I watched the show. I enjoy his humor, must be why I married him?!?!
Anyways, that was the weekend. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well! Until next time..... Joan :)
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Twinkle toes
So Jessie has not been able to wiggle her toes or really move her feet since her surgery back in November. Due to the inflammation of the surgery and the pressure on her spine from the tumor, she just can't tell her feet and toes to do what she wants to do.
I guess you kind of forget how amazing and complicated the human body really is. So many of us take for granted the fact that to make our toes move, we just move them. We don't have to sit there, stare at our bare feet and concentrate just to have the slights movement or twitch come from our feet. But that is exactly what Jessie has been doing for the past 3 1/2 months since the surgery.
Our mom came up to help with transporting Jessie around town for her daily radiation appointments. But Mom has also become a top notch at-home physical therapist! Every day (morning and at night) she gets Jessie set up in her room for about 30 minutes of therapy. Jessie's therapy appointments have been postponed until she has finished her radiation since her insurance right now only will cover 20 visits a calendar year (we can appeal later to get more PT). But anyways, Mom has her therapy diagrams taped to Jessie's bedroom wall and then she follows the diagrams and makes sure Jessie does the required amount of reps.
For the past 3 weeks, it has been religious that Mom and Jessie are doing the physical therapy and would you believe, Wednesday night Jessie was able to wiggle the toes on her right foot! She hasn't been able to do that since the surgery! Little things like that shows her progress and it just makes us so happy and excited. The theraphy, along with her daily steroids, must be helping to alleviate some of the pressure in her spinal cord. Plus I believe that the radiation will get rid of the tumor so maybe this is just the first signs of her healing!
So now Jessie has her twinkle toes back on the right foot. Hopefully her left foot will follow. Sometimes I watch Jessie laying in bed and it makes me think of that scene in "Kill Bill" when Uma Thurman's character has been in a coma for a while and wakes up and can't walk. She sits there and focuses on her toes and says, "Move big toe" and wills her body to wake and to work again. Hmmm.....maybe Jessie needs a spiffy yellow motorcycle jumpsuit for her birthday to complete the look :) So here is to hoping the next two weeks with Mom will bring more progress and many more milestones (and miracles) for Jessie!
I guess you kind of forget how amazing and complicated the human body really is. So many of us take for granted the fact that to make our toes move, we just move them. We don't have to sit there, stare at our bare feet and concentrate just to have the slights movement or twitch come from our feet. But that is exactly what Jessie has been doing for the past 3 1/2 months since the surgery.
Our mom came up to help with transporting Jessie around town for her daily radiation appointments. But Mom has also become a top notch at-home physical therapist! Every day (morning and at night) she gets Jessie set up in her room for about 30 minutes of therapy. Jessie's therapy appointments have been postponed until she has finished her radiation since her insurance right now only will cover 20 visits a calendar year (we can appeal later to get more PT). But anyways, Mom has her therapy diagrams taped to Jessie's bedroom wall and then she follows the diagrams and makes sure Jessie does the required amount of reps.
For the past 3 weeks, it has been religious that Mom and Jessie are doing the physical therapy and would you believe, Wednesday night Jessie was able to wiggle the toes on her right foot! She hasn't been able to do that since the surgery! Little things like that shows her progress and it just makes us so happy and excited. The theraphy, along with her daily steroids, must be helping to alleviate some of the pressure in her spinal cord. Plus I believe that the radiation will get rid of the tumor so maybe this is just the first signs of her healing!
So now Jessie has her twinkle toes back on the right foot. Hopefully her left foot will follow. Sometimes I watch Jessie laying in bed and it makes me think of that scene in "Kill Bill" when Uma Thurman's character has been in a coma for a while and wakes up and can't walk. She sits there and focuses on her toes and says, "Move big toe" and wills her body to wake and to work again. Hmmm.....maybe Jessie needs a spiffy yellow motorcycle jumpsuit for her birthday to complete the look :) So here is to hoping the next two weeks with Mom will bring more progress and many more milestones (and miracles) for Jessie!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)