One Year At Home

Joy returned home from the rehab facility at Carmel Mountain one year ago, April 29th, 2011.  This year, that date also marks the 20th anniversary of the day that Joy moved up from Los Angeles to Oakland in 1992 to live with me in a house that we rented together on Morgan Ave.  Pre-marital bliss, you might call it.  It was, coincidentally, the same day that the riots began raging in Los Angeles over the Rodney King verdicts in favor of the two policeman who had beaten him.  I remember Joy and her sister Susan drove up together in Joy's old Mercedes with a two caged birds and a cat named the Motor City Kitty in the back seat.  When they arrived, they had no idea that Los Angeles had exploded and been burning the entire day.  They had been listening to music on the cassette player (remember those?) and singing along to pass time during the 7 hour drive. 

The riots in Los Angeles turned out to be a problem for Joy.  She had just purchased a condo in Rancho Palos Verdes and had intended to sell it because of the move to Oakland.  The riots made that very difficult by depressing property values and after several months of trying to rent it, she finally sold it at a loss.  After six months of renting on Morgan Avenue, we decided to buy our own house on Davenport Avenue in Redwood Heights and that turned out to not only be a wonderful house to live in, but one that rewarded our investment handsomely when we sold it twelve years later.  I'm sure many of you remember that house.  I have many joyous memories of our time there. It was difficult for us to leave when we finally sold it in 2004. 

Although I sometimes despair at Joy's condition and the slowness of her recovery, when I think back on her condition in late April 2011, I see how far she's come.  She couldn't walk or move her right arm or right leg.  She couldn't get out of bed without our deploying a Hoyer lift.  We all wondered how she would interact with the dogs when she arrived home, but at first, she didn't even see them, since they were in constant motion and her eyes couldn't follow fast enough.  She couldn't eat or drink and got her food and water through a j-tube.  She was severely disabled. 

She's come a long way.  In the past two months she has had some problems with urinary tract infections (UTIs), and the antibiotics they prescribe for that cause her intestinal problems which we are dealing with, but in general her condition is good and improving.  Her performance in physical and occupational therapy is good most days but not always.  Therapy will come to an end soon, since we are beginning to run out of visits paid for by the insurance company, and because the therapists feel she needs to make more progress at home before they can continue to work with her.  She was discharged from the rehab hospital for the same reason a year ago and I feel that it was actually better for her to come home than it would have been if she had stayed at the rehab facility.  The nurses and I provided far more personal attention than she was getting at Carmel Mountain. We will continue to work with her at home with an instructional sheet provided by the therapists at the Scripps Rehab facility.  Once she achieves the goals they have set out for her, we will resume her sessions there.

Here's a picture of Joy taken a few days ago:

We've had to take her to a urologist to treat her UTI.  We have also scheduled her for a mammogram and a visit to a gastroenterologist.  Tests revealed some potential issues with her intestinal tract, but nothing serious so far.  We want her to be as healthy as she can be.  UTIs tend to effect concentration and can set back progress made in therapy.  They are a common problem in stroke victims and are often difficult to treat.  We are doing our best. 

This week we took her back for a visit to her primary care physician, who hadn't seen her in six months.  The doctor's nurse was genuinely surprised at how much better she looked than she had in her previous visits.  Dr. Christina Bailey gave Joy a check up and at one point during the exam she began to ask Joy questions to see if Joy would respond.  Joy did not respond to three questions so Dr. Bailey said to her, "I see.  You can't talk.  That's all right.  But do you understand what I am saying to you?"  Joy's eyes lit up and she immediately nodded her head.  The nurses and I were aware that Joy frequently understands what we are saying to her, but it was still nice to see her confirm it so enthusiastically. 

We are having a gorgeous spring here, one that suggests to me that our move from Oakland eight years ago was the right decision.  The wild flowers are blooming every where, the birds are nesting in the three bird houses I've built and the temperatures are balmy.  Bluebirds have nested for the fourth year in a row in one of the houses and I've taken some pretty good photographs of them:

I just love bluebirds.  They are such acrobatic flyers.  We generally have two nestings in our boxes per year.  We also get ash-throated flycatchers and house wrens, who are ferocious little creatures.

I will try and post more frequently in the future.  Love to you all and thanks for thinking about us.

Doug