30th of December

7.52am Sunday morning. Friends from Singapore came by the yesterday to see Jaana. She got very happy, but at the same time very emotional. She showed off her progress and impressed with her steps when I assisted her to the bathroom. It is great to see when someone has not seen her for a while can comment on the rather huge improvments sometimes missed when you see her every day. Anyway, she is having her breakfast and is ready for the shower, so will leave you with no dramatic news.

28th of December

09.45am Friday morning. Jaana slept well, but is getting a bit of a cold (it is quite cold during the nights here ~0). Everything else is fine. The kids are out playing all day (table tennis, floor hockey, fighting in the 'forest'...) and come in for lunch and dinner. They are having a blast! Ahh, and the line from yesterday, Danielle, is 'Skaka på huvudet' (when you take remove 'o' between all non wowls), which translates -> 'Shake your head' -> 'Soshohakoke yoyouror hoheadod', easy peezy!

27th of December

8.30ish am Thursday morning. Christmas is over and Jaana has now recovered from the flight and jet lag. She is good spirit and exercising both on her own and with assistance. Eating like a trooper and taking all chances to eat as she can do so as much as she likes. She is getting stronger by the day and understanding is not an issue (yesterday I told get: "soskokakoka popå hohuvovudodetot" and she did!).
We will have some friends coming around for New Years and I am sure she will happy to see them all again, before heading to Sweden for a few weeks.
Her stay there might get extended to perhaps 5-6 weeks or so, depending on progress, her wishes and my ability to get all ready for her in Barbados.
Right now, she has had her shower, breakfast and is now ready for some morning exercises.

24th of December

11.29am Monday morning. Merry Christmas everyone! Jaana had a good night sleep, good breakfast and is ready for some exercises later this afternoon. Right now she is resting after a shower. We are all waking up rather early (4am) so the days get a bit strange still with all of us falling (literally) asleep around 7pm. Parmi is freezing and for a cold already after 24h!
Nothing special to report with Jaana, but rather she is feeling ok. Soon all Christmas food will be prepared so I hope she will like it!

As you might have expected, it has been Jaana who through out the years has been preparing ans sending out all Christmas cards. Hence the lack of the same this year. Let me offer you all the best of Seasons Greetings and all best wishes for the New Year!

Jaans, Jorgen, Ludde, Totte and Camille

23rd of December

8.19am Sunday morning. Jaana is still recovering from jet lag and being tired from the trip, but this morning she is looking better. She is drinking enough and eating ok, but has not done so much rehab exercises lately. I am sure this will change today and that she will be sweating it out shortly.
Down here in France all relatives have gathered for Christmas. I am sure Jaana think the effort was well worth it in the end.

21st of December

5.09pm Friday afternoon (CET). After a 13h SIN-ZRH and one more hour of connection down to the south of France, Jaana slept like a log for 4h, eat some food and is now resting a bit. At the end of the trip she got very tired, but she made a great effort through the whole journey. I will pick up Parmi around midnight when she arrives from London. All of us a re a bit tired right now, so have a nice evening!

20th of December

9.41am Thursday morning. Jaana has been sleeping so so the whole week long. She knows we are leaving today and is a bit melancholic about the whole thing and becomes a bit sad when she meet friends the last time in a long while. She is practicing each day with the morning having more exercises due to her increased awareness during this time of day. Yesterday, the speech therapist managed to have her exhale around 750ml without assistance, which is a lot more than before. He also supplied me with exercises for us to continue with during the Christmas break and beyond. Her major thing right now is balance and arm strength. All other areas has seen good improvements. As she will attend water therapy in Sweden, I have all hopes that she will regain the same in the near future.

As we are leaving Singapore around midnight today, this will be my last entry from here. I will come back to you as soon as possible from the south of France and let you know how her trip was. I have tried to arrange everything for a smooth journey, but you never know...

For all of you who has asked about forwarding address and telephone numbers, I refer to a much earlier post in October where details can be found. I will update these as they become available.

18th of December

10.03am Tuesday morning. Jaana did not sleep all that well and is a bit tired today. As she realize she is leaving she gets a bit sad when meeting friends for the last time in a while. As this is rather natural, I do not see any trouble with that (I get sad for the same reason). Other than that it is not much new to report but rather steady exercises and rehab.

17th of December

6.50am Monday morning. Sorry for not keeping you all up-to-date. This was due to some internet problems here at Treetops, but seem now to have been fixed. Since my last report, Jaana has been eating and drinking well. Her exercises has continued, without and major breakthrough, but instead building up for the next push forward. She has seen two doctors and our GP here in Singapore is coming on Tuesday to have a final examination of her. Yesterday her former boss here in Singapore came by to say farewell, which made her a bit sad when it woke all kinds of emotions. She settled in quickly and listened carefully to conversation. She eats quite well, and enjoys fish more than anything. The speech therapist has improved her jaw control quite a bit so she can now eat a more varied kind of food, including things which is harder to swallow. As an example I can tell you that she can now finish a meal in 45min compared with 1h30min before! That is very good news as it gives her more time to exercise and rest. To eat for 1.5h just makes you tired so this is good news. I think she also exercises a lot herself! As soon as she still having a rest just before sleeping, she is moving legs quite a bit. As I mentioned before, the arm movements are a bit weaker and we need to focus more on that over Christmas.
We are still on schedule to leave Singapore on the night between Thursday and Friday. We will fly out 1am in the morning and land around 8am in Europe. It will be a long flight, so I will try to have her (and me) to get a good nap during the day on Thursday to handle the trip. The moving company is still packing up, having to change a container today. The car is being returned to day.

14th of December

8.15pm Friday evening. Nothing to much to report from today. More exercises and such, but all well. I have picked up medicine for Jaana for the whole Christmas break so I do not run out. Everything else is fine. Parmi has been a trooper as always. Without her, our lives would look very different right now. Everyone would be a lot more stressed than they are. Most likely she will not read this, but everyone should know, she is pulling her weight and much more!

13th of December

4.31pm Thursday afternoon. One of Jaanas doctors came by today and had a look. He was pleased that she is making progress and think that she has good chances to walk with help of a cane within 2 months! This is good news, even though if there is a lot of work to be done before we get there. Today was more or less like yesterday; physical exercises, resting eating etc. Again she did not sleep all that well, and is a bit tired. She is in a good spirit and liked very much to see the doctor again. He talked a lot to her and she was quite happy to hear his comments.

12th of December

10.18am Wednesday morning. A good night sleep set her up for a good training session in the morning. We did a lot of leg exercises and standing up for some time. This afternoon we will practice more on the arms. One small 'exercise' to increase her breathing muscles has been for me to put a arm/hand on her tummy while she is sleeping. this makes it a bit harder, but is good practice. This morning Parmi and I heard a weak but yet recognizable 'ja'. This is a start with a long way to go, but still a good start. I asked her if she noticed that her efforts were making a difference, and she nodded. Hence I think her mood is in a quite condition and she has not been sad for some time now.
Yesterday for dinner, she finished of seom fried fish with good appetite.
10.31am Wednesday morning. I had to write some more! I just took her to the bathroom for the shower. She is helping so much and holding a lot of her own weight. Fantastic! It is important the person who assist her is a bit taller than her and being prepared to carry her weight, else she is very easy to care for.

11th of December

12.49pm Tuesday afternoon. As always when you go to a new place, it is a bit hard to sleep. Therefore, Jaana is a bit more sleepy this morning as she did not sleep all that good last night. However though, this morning I took her to the bathroom on my own, with her helping out quite a bit. It was good to see that we are now much moving in the right direction again. Trying to stay away from any kind of infections, there is no reason for why Jaana will not be a lot better in a couple of months.

10th of December

5.07pm Monday afternoon. First post from Treetops. The transition went better than good! Jaana was fantastic when moving over. Me and friend of ours took each one of her arms around our necks and then she walked in the stairs going down. She made it 75% down and then we put her in the wheelchair for the last bit. It was very good. She noticed she was able to do it, and it boosted her moral a bit i think I will try to redo this on flat ground. She put one foot in front of the other (balance a bit off) and held most of her own weight. Right now she is her bed waiting for the speech therapist to come around. She is in a very good mood right now. She realize everything is happening and we are on the move; while she has the time to relax and get better. I am very positive of her attitude right now. Way to go Jaana!
7.13pm Monday evening. Just one last entry to say that Jaana is very much active in her training right now. When ever she is awake she is lifting her leg, moving her foot and such. Her arms she does not really enjoy moving all that much yet, but it will come around soon. the speech therapist was her and did some mouth massage and trying to exercise the stomach muscles to be able to get more air in her lungs. This is imperative, since she right now only have around 300-500 ml when breething out. One would need around 1250ml or so to be able to make good sound, I have been told.

9th of December

10.22am Sunday morning. Jaana is finishing off her breakfast and is ready for some exercise. Nothing new to report at this point, other than this will be the last post from Chatsworth Road. Tomorrow at 9am, the movers are invading and stacking, packing, racking. Around 10ish I will bring over Jaana to Treetops.
Peter, love your posts! Funny as always!
Well, this is my checking out for today, since we need to finish up the last things.

8th of December

8.55pm Saturday evening. Lately Jaana has been doing very well eating, drinking, sleeping and exercising. She decisively node and shake her head, and eagerly listens in to any conversation. There is some shaking in her left hand (which is a bit weaker than the right), which is related to the stroke. This can, I have been told, will with time disappear as the brain will learn how to control the muscles better.
The blogs are getting filled less and less with new information, but this is natural since her progress is steady but slow. With hindsight, one could really see that this mycoplasma put her back quite a few months in her recovery. With this being out of the way (we must carefully look out if it comes back), the road is clear for more rehabilitation.
As you know from before, Jaans will be in Sweden around the 5th of the 25th of January. Should she make very good progress and would be willing to stay for a few more weeks, this will be very possible.
Tomorrow is the last day for us all in our house in Singapore. It feels a bit strange. We will all move to Tree tops serviced apartments on Monday. On the night between the 20th and the 21st we will fly to Zurich and then straight to Nice.

7th of December

8.09am Friday morning. I am writing a bit early without too much new to contribute, but will most likely do not have time later. Jaana is doing fine with more small movements every day. She is still quite well without any new infections, so rehabilitation is in full swing.

6th of December

4.57pm Thursday afternoon. Sorry for the short break in the blogging. Things are getting a bit more busy day by day over here, with the move closing in. We are all moving out of here when the backing is starting on Monday the 10th of December. Our temporary home for 10 days will be Treetops Serviced Apartments on Orange Grove Road here in Singapore.
Getting back to you about Jaana's condition, I can only confirm slow but steady progress. She can now nod slightly and shake her head decisively. The coordination seem else to come from bottom to top. Her right side is stronger than her left, but she can still move all parts of her body. She has been doing quite a bit of execises, now that she is healthy.
Staying healthy is of very high importance. That is why I have from time to time restricted visitors and limit the length of visits. However though, I fully understand everyones desire to say goodbye, and there will be plenty of time for that.

I will be loosing our Internet connection and telephone here at Chatsworth Road from Monday. Hence there might be a slight delay in updates, but I will do my best.

3rd of December

9.19pm Monday evening. Jaana's day was filled with physio and speech therapy. I got to learn a few more fact what muscles can stiffen up and contract when not used for a while. Some speech problems can be related to her tongue and jaw muscles. The therapist gently did some exercises and 'pulled' her tongue out and she managed a lot better. We will get some tools for her to bit on to practice the jaw as well. Right now if you ask her to close it, she does so with a bang, and needs to control this a bit better.

2nd of December

8.26am Sunday morning. Jaana slept like a log all night, woke up this morning around 8ish and is now having breakfast. Yesterday, Jari (Jaana's brother) made some exercises with her after dinner, and I think it will be more of the same today. She is now free from most infections/viruses with no fever, thus this is a great time to make physical improvements. She is now hold her head all the time, strong leg movements and improving arm coordination. I will let her stand up for some time today as well to work on the sensation of standing a bit more. Everything else if going to plan.