My reward for being with Mom in the middle of the night is that I got her first smile. I told her to make sure to save one for my Dad, and she did! He got there at 4:30am. She is getting pain meds to sleep, but not sleeping very well. Dr. Krell was in the ICU until 3am (busy Friday night) and starting at 4am my mom was ready to talk to him because she was "marshalling her forces". At 5am she was ready to get in a chair to show him how strong she is and "start her negotiations".
Amy and I found out that during the night Thursday (right before she got her tube out) she reached up to her face by sliding her arm restraint down and leaning her head over (more difficult than you could imagine in the braces she's in) and yanked all two feet of tube up out of her small intestine and out her nose. The nurse had to put in back in. They'd like to keep her on it a day or two more until she's really eating well.
And finally, in case you were wondering, she is using this time in the hospital to hone her motherly manipulation...luckily for me it's all pointed at Amy right now. Mom told her last night it was time for her to "get pregnant". Then at 1am (after Amy left) she told me she needed to call Dave. I asked her if I could just give him a message and she said "I want to give him the green light on grandchildren." Wow. Dave, I don't know if you want to pick up the phone today....
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Yea!!!!!! for all the progress. The world is back on its axis. If Janet can request ice cream, grandchildren and more grandchildren then there is nothing wrong with her head. And now a smile. How delightful!
My exercise yesterday was doing the wave and sending meditation upward for good liver tests today.
Bill is sympathizing with the nose tube. He is sure she is going to feel MUCH better when it is taken out, as he did.
Happy Birthday to Derek! How great to have something else to celebrate. A transformer party, I am reminiscing! Enjoy.
Please give hugs around from TN.
With much love and joy,
Bill and Zoe Lynda
Wow! We are delighted that our feisty Janet is back! Watch out world. It sounds like she is ready to comment on anything and everything. We are excited about the smile and are looking forward to hearing about more smiles as you all celebrate Derek's birthday today. We wish we could be there. Hugs to everyone!
Love, Elaine and Neil
Good morning all!
I am so thrilled that Janet is up taking names and kicking butt. Lots of good therapy; I missed my ice cream last night but will make sure I get some today--solidarity, you know.
So like Janet to want to make sure Dave feels a part of everything even though he's far away--including maternal pressure! At least Dave misses the puppy dog eyes when she says the word :grandchildren. That is almost impossible to resist.
Speaking of Grandchildren--- Happy birthday to Derek! Nothing will make Janet and Brian feel better than celebrating with Derek and Anna. Cake, ice cream and giggles--better than morphine!
Have a great family day of celebration.
Love
Vickie
Great news everyone!
We remember from Logan's feeding tube what a pain in the neck, nose etc. they are...but they make a huge difference! Tell your mom to hang in there with it! I can remember once when I was trying to move Logan, feeding tube bound, with is IV pole down the stairs...I dropped the pole in front of us and as it crashed down the stairs I had the presence of mind to grab the feeding tube and hang on tight! IT came apart at the tree, but fortunately didn't come out of Logan!
Jill I will email a photo to you on your email address of Logan when he had his appendix out 15 mos ago. Your mom might get a chuckle.
The Alaska Shewman's are all praying for Janet's recovery! Sounds like her fighting spirit is intact!
Love and Prayers for all!
Shewman's
This is a second attempt. I got through all the steps to create a Google account to leave the lengthy message I had written and it wouldn't accept it because it said I already had an account with Google. I do have a Web site I've set up with Google but I'll be damned if I can remember the password. When I tried to remedy the situation, the message I had written was erased.
Today was the first day I could log on to the blog site. The workmen evidently dislocated something when they were working in my home office. John played with it last night to fix some other problems and, voila, he not only fixed those problems, I was able to get on your blog when I tried this morning.
You guys have been through hell and back again and done it with such courage and conpassion I am in awe of all of you.
Janet, I had to laugh when I got to the parts about your first attempts at communication. You are one lady who has her priorities straight.
John has been pestering me to get a phone number and now that we have access to the blog you will be hearing from both of us. We are headed to a big wedding in Maryland so we will probably call tomorrow.
Amy and Jill, your entries were amazing. They were so well written, so comprehensive and so well organized. I am very upset that I didn't get access to them until today.
I am so joyful and optimistic I am positively buoyant. All of the entries were outstanding but today's is the best on the entire Internet.
Love love love love love love
Eileen
Happy Birthday Derek!!! Glad to hear about all the progress that Janet is making and that you will be celebrating with Baskin Robbins.
It looks like my kids have gotten their college transfers sorted out. Joanna will be double majoring in Chinese and Italian at UCLA in the fall, Phoebe will be majoring in the linguistic history of English at San Francisco State in the fall, and Elizabeth will be majoring in Business at USC. She got in with financial aid and a scholarship. Elizabeth was honored as a "man of distinction" at Fullerton College last night. She was one of 30 students who got $100 and an award. We thought she was getting an award for Woman of Distinction, but when the award came it said "Man". She was all dressed up in her nicest little black dress and 4 inch heels, but as she says, she is brawny from helping Joshua at his construction work over the years. They must have looked at her muscles and gotten confused.
Please send some of your good thoughts and energy to Joshua's parents. They both had surgery over the past 10 days. Joshua's dad had gall stones removed and is doing quite well. His mom's bladder had fallen into her uterus, and she was in so much pain she couldn't walk. When they opened her up, it was worse than they expected. They installed a band inside to keep her organs in place, but she cannot do strenuous exercise or even sweep the floor for the rest of her life. She is a tough lady. In 30s she was run over by a truck and still went back to helping Joshua's dad on the construction site, but right now her daughters are a little frantic.
Joshua sends his love to your family. He was quite worried for Janet when I showed him your pictures of the car, and he was very happy to hear how well Janet is doing so soon after the accident.
Jill, you have really cute kids. I'm not sure what a transformer party is. I only remember Chuck E. Cheese and hanging spoons from my chin at birthday parties thrown by the Hansens. I was thinking last night that when Janet leaves the hospital, Chuck E. Cheese's stock will probably sky rocket on Wall Street. So please post some pictures of the transformer party and of Janet in her halo....
Have you smuggled the cat into the ICU yet? Is that what the picture of the cat in the box was all about?
Love, Teresa Liu
How much love can be communicated in a smile?
Janet, Robert and I know you must feel blessed to be able to share Derek's birthday and Mother's Day surrounded by all those grateful hearts.
You may want to request some additional meds tomorrow, for your aching cheek muscles!
Our prayers were answered. Love, Robert and Sara
I have been thinking and thinking whether or not to share this, but I think it will give Janet a laugh, and since laughter is the best medicine... I will put it out there. I just find it very ironic that Brian's daughters are now subject to what I call the "post-menopausal grandmotherly biological clock" that seems to tick in some women, giving them seemingly irrational urges for grandchildren. Like the urges that caused Janet to wake up in the middle of the night wanting to call a son-in-law who is thousands of miles away and demand that he produce grandkids, things like that. You see, Brian and Jill's presence on our honeymoom meant that Joshua and I spent far too much time sightseeing as far as my mother-in-law was concerned. She expected conception within a week of the wedding and a grandkid before the end of the first year. After we finished our honeymoon, there was a missile scare with mainland China, so Joshua had no leave for 5 months. My mother-in-law kept demanding a baby. I finally had to ask her if I could find any old sperm donor or if she wanted it to be Joshua's child. I did not realize that American women also suffered from the "grandmotherly biological clock", and I find a sort of poetic justice in the fact that Amy (and it seems Jill in the past) have experienced it. Hope you all find this as humorous as I do. If not, just tuck into more Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip and forget I posted this.
Love, Teresa Liu
PS I am not upset that Brian and Jill were present on my honeymoon. I was thrilled to have four members of my family at my wedding in Taiwan, and I was glad it was you guys. I really appreciated your loving support all the way through college and beyond. Your presence just disrupted my mother-in-law's timetable for grandbabies from Joshua, and I find it ironic that Janet is now using tactics on her kids and their spouses, which are similar to the ones my mother-in-law used on me. I can sympathize with Dave; things will clear up when you produce a cute grandbaby. Twins on the first shot is one of the best tactical responses. If twins don't run in the family, drink the water in Taiwan; apparently there is chemical waste in it that stimulates multiple births. I think many more women in Taiwan than in the US suffer from this "grandmotherly biological clock", and I suspect they worked something out with the pharmeceutical companies. :)
Hi to all the Hansens! Hope today has brought a jolly celebration for you. I have been reveling in the news of Janet's progress and gutsy spirit. I am not much of an ice cream fan, but I can sure join in all the smiles and cheers.
Love, Judy R.
Amy & Dave: Your mother's wearing a halo neck brace and nose tube, and all she's asking for is one itty bitty grandchild. (Well, that and ice cream.) Quit your whining and hop to it. Well, maybe hopping isn't the best strategy.... :)
Thinking of you all today with Derek's bday celebration -- a good distraction from not being able to get the nose tube out quite yet. I suppose Dr. Krell has to have a day off sometime, so I'm imagining you'll be in wait and see mode over the weekend, unless Janet wears somebody else down. Easy for me to say, take the time to consolidate your gains and plan more -- but it may be the way to handle the weekend lag time that hospitals seem to have. Maybe the ICU is different though -- what do I know?! Sending love to you all,
Carolyn
The entries today just made us smile and feel so warm and happy inside- we are so happy to hear how great Janet, and all of you, are doing! What fantastic stories- I love that she is already working on more grandkids!! And she just sounds spunky and sharp as ever.
Happy happy birthday to Derek. We are thinking of you all!
Sydney keeps asking when Janet is going to come visit us. Hee hee! I think Janet has a long line of people wanting her company. She is the quintessential grandmother! We do hope to see her back in Hamilton before too long. :)
On a side note, we went to see Mao-mao the kitty today. He (Sydney insists 'he' is a 'she', so i get confused about the gender sometimes) is doing great. Chloe body slammed him a few times so he won't get too comfy without Derek and Anna around. :)
Oh, and we played at your playground and said hi to the horses, too.
Miss you guys! And we are sooo happy to hear how things are going. Yahoo!!!
Give D a big sloppy hug from us.
Love,
Tara, Tim, Sydney and Chloe
I'm so glad to see that Janet is making progress in her recovery! Thanks for keeping us all updated so well. We certainly have had Janet (and the rest of the family too) in our thoughts and prayers.
I'm looking forward to hearing more good news...hopefully Janet can get that uncomfortable nose tube out soon. And I will enjoy hearing of more of Janet's conversations with you all (grandchildren requests too!)
Sending much love,
JoAnna Liu
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