#246

Elaine had a good day today and she is feeling good. She is still recovering from her lack of sleep Friday night, but she slept well last night. I am sure having Fred back home definitely helped:) She headed back to the gym this morning to ride the bike and was feeling good. Vangie left this morning after an eventful few days. We are so thankful to her for coming down to spend some time with Elaine. She has been such a great sister and friend, especially the eight months! Thank you Vangie!

This afternoon, Elaine had some special visitors. Pat, Kris, Brendan, Sean, and Jerry came over to see Elaine and Fred. They are spending a few days at Disneyland, and stopped by to see them first. She was really looking forward to seeing them, and so appreciative of the effort they made to visit. The Smith house was buzzing with people, the Francois family also come over to see them as well. Fred and Elaine had their quiet house back this evening and were going to get in bed early tonight and get ready for another busy week.

#245

Elaine had an interesting day. She woke up at 2, to her alarm going on, thinking it was time to get up. She showered and ate breakfast. She started yelling for her sister Vangie, to wake up too. Vangie heard her about 4 and panicked running down the stairs to see what was wrong. Elaine said, "come on sleepy head, we have to get to the gym and then to the soccer game!" Vangie said told Elaine it was 4am. Elaine promptly went back to sleep!

When Elaine woke up at 7, she was exhausted. She managed to torture her arm, and they still came to Christi's game. They went straight home for some rest, and relaxed and took a nap for the rest of the afternoon. Fred arrived back home this evening, and Elaine was excited to see him. Hopefully, the house sleeps soundly tonight and gets back on schedule!!

#243

Elaine's shoulder has been hurting again. It is a combination of reducing her pain medication as well as the therapist pushing her a bit to hard. Elaine had therapy today and told her about the increased pain. She took responsibility and said that she has in fact been pushing her and that she will ease off. It is an injury that takes time, and will not get better if you push it, only time! Elaine also went to hard on the bike yesterday, doing it for 20 minutes instead of 10, as instructed.

After therapy, Elaine and Vangie met Staci and Taylor for lunch at CPK, followed by some shopping. Elaine is absolutely exhausted tonight and going to bed early. She didn't sleep well last night because of her arm. Vangie is also tried, trying to keep up with Elaine. Vangie was impressed with Elaine's improvement, especially mentally. She last saw her the end of July. They are having a nice time together. There is nothing like a sister:)

#242

Two steps forward, one step back. It is a frustrating way to make forward progress, but at least it is progress. Elaine went to the gym today to ride the stationary bike for 10 minutes. But, as you know, she is Elaine so she rode for 20 minutes instead! She works so hard to continually improve.

So, you wonder, what is the step back? Well, unfortunately, her left arm is hurting again. We thought we were past that, but her soreness returned. It is just another obstacle that Elaine will undoubtedly fight through.

Vangie is in town staying with Elaine for a few days. They have been at home mostly allowing Elaine to catch up on rest, and today they headed over to the mall to see a movie. They have been able to spend some nice quality time together this week!

#242

Elaine had a great day at therapy today. Diane said that her shoulder was much better today. Her flexibility continues to improve. They worked on her walking as well. It is incredible and humbling to watch Elaine literally learn to walk again. There are a number of factors that have caused her hitch, including habit, tightness in her hip, the lack of mobility in her left foot, and just general stiffness in her left leg. It makes her walk almost like a robot. It is continuing to improve though and she is confident with all the hard work Elaine is doing, she will walk "normally" again. As Elaine continues to ride the bike, it will also help loosen up her leg and get her knee in the habit of bending again. Elaine also did some pilates. She moved on to some more advanced exercises (one of Elaine's favorite words). She also showed much better leg control today. She was doing some one-legged exercises on the reformer as well. Staci was very impressed!

After Elaine's therapy session, Cindi came to pick her up for some lunch, shopping, and hair appointments. They had a wonderful time and lots of laughs. Elaine arrived at home to be greeted by her sister Vangie. She is in town through Sunday to visit with Elaine. Fred is going out of town for a few days, and we hope he relaxes and enjoys!

Elaine was tired after her busy day. They had dinner at home and watched the debate! She is gearing up for another day!

#241

Fred and Elaine started the morning off like the good old days, by going to the gym! They went to the gym at Big Canyon and Elaine rode the stationary bike. She was very happy to be exercising on her own finally. She said it felt really good too! They followed up with a fun afternoon of lunch and a movie. Elaine slept really well and her head was feeling good today as well. Her arm is still in pain, but getting more and more bearable (easy for us to say) as her range of motion increases. She has been able to cut back on her pain medication, which she is thrilled about too!

#240

Elaine's day was back to being filled with doctor appointments. They started the morning off with the orthopedic doctor, who was very please with Elaine's improvement in her shoulder. They then headed to the physical therapist, who was also impressed with her range of motion after a week off, not that Elaine took a week off, but she didn't go to therapy. Their last appointment was with the neurologist. Elaine has been very emotional the last few weeks, especially over the weekend. She will be in the middle of a sentence and just start to cry, and not really even know why she is crying but she can't stop. They talked to the doctor about this. He said, this is a side effect to victims of people who have a stroke on their right side. There is no explanation for it, and unfortunately nothing you can do about it. The stroke sometimes causes people to have unexplained mood swings, and cry. It is still fortunate that she had it on her right, instead of her left side though. Aside from that, he is impressed with her continued progress. Elaine explained that she just wants it to all be over. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen that fast, but she is going in the right direction and should be very pleased with her progress. He also told her how important it is for her to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night. He would prefer for her to take a nap daily, which she said she tries and just can't. She did have another headache tonight, which was the first in a few weeks. There doesn't seem to be an explanation for the headaches either, given their inconsistent pattern, but he isn't worried about it.

After a busy afternoon, Fred and Elaine came over to the Francois house for dinner. Oddly enough, despite the chaos of the Francois house, Elaine's head felt better this evening. Little Darlin' is becoming more and more involved in Elaine's life daily. We have come a long way since referring to it as her, dummy hand:)