26th of February

7.58pm Tuusday (bajan) evening. Today Jaana had a great OT sessions, but in the afternoon for her PT, she had developed the same cold as Camille and me. As I do not want this to drag on and hurt her rehab program, I have gotten out GP to come at 8.30am tomorrow morning. It will be the first time she meets Jaana, so I think it is good they have a rendez-vous. Otherwise, she is doing slow progress through steady exercises. On Thursday, there will be additional support with a therapist staying with us for more than a week. We do not want to push her more than she can take, as she has until now never resisted any exercises.
Yesterday, I had a high cub 40ft contained dumped in front of the house. It will take me a full 3 weeks to get this sorted so you might have to bare with sporadic reports. Due to Jaanas cold and the container we have for now skipped lunches this week. I wish to continue as soon as she gets better.

23 of February

4.01pm Saturday afternoon. Today is somewhat of a resting day, but I have somethings to report anyway. Jaana is making some progress with her speech. She does not realize it yet fully i think, but she is very capable of answering with rather clear 'yes' and 'no' instead of nodding or shaking her head. We made some exercises today and she said, 'ja', 'nej', 'hej', 'hello', 'apa' very clear. She successfully continues to communicate with me by raising her finger going through the alphabet. She has said numerous of sentences like this and burst out in tears of joy when she realize she managed to make herself understood. Life like this goes on slowly, but in a very peaceful and quite way. Barbados is excellent in this way that nothing is done in a hurry, and everything is allowed to take it's time, even Jaanas rehab.
I took the kids down to the beach for a swim. Now even Camille have started to enjoy herself in the ocean. The boys are half fish by now. When things settle a bit more and it is becoming off season down here, I will take a diving course with at least Ludde.

22nd of February

6.44pm Friday evening. Jaana had a full day today with three and a half hours of therapy and a lunch with me at The Tides in between. She is eating heaps since she got home, and gobbled up a "double cream mars bar and oreo cheesecake" like it was going out of fashion. The therapists are doing an excellent job, although they say the same thing like everyone; it will take time and the road is bumpy. They very much different to the ones in Singapore, where I have to say they were a bit more unorganized. Here they seem to work more as a team.
Tomorrow will be a day without organized therapy but we will do something together instead. Even though Jaana burst out in tears every so often, it is becoming more seldom and it is more out of happiness than anything else. The therapists notice this very often when they complement her and she realize she accomplished something.
Kids are doing fine. Ludde and Totte will start surfing lessons next Saturday morning. They have friends already surfing so I guess this will be my weekend drive to the surfing spots. They both swam with turtles last time they were out buggy boarding. Camille will have her friend, my lawyer, over during the weekend. Last weekend we all went to her house house for an afternoon tea party. This weekend, we will stay home as I know Lynne is very keen to met Jaana. they only met a few times, but got along very well together.

20th of February

7.27pm Wednesday evening. Today Jaana had her first rehab sessions down here. She was very tired in the end after a morning session and then an afternoon one. In the middle of all this I promised her to take her for lunch. We went to a nice fish restaurant by the sea where we have eaten many times before. She recognized the place and the owner with whom we chit-chated a bit. Her spirit is still very fragile and she is crying a lot (sometimes of sadness and sometimes from being happy). The occupational therapist will proceed rather gently and the physiotherapist moved straight in and commenced a thorough evaluation. She will have OT/PT every day and ST 4 times a week. In addition, there will be things we do at home, when going for lunch (I have promised to take her out 2-3 times a week) and when ever there is time and will.
The kids are happy to have mom back, specially Camille. She draws pictures and jumps up in her bed all the time and wants to be close to her. All three of them are now enjoying school which pleases me the out most.

18th of February

5.08pm Monday afternoon. Last night Jaana slept like a log. With the time difference and the trip to get over, she fell asleep around 5pm and woke up after 6am. I left to get the kids to school around 7am and when I got back she was wide awake and had already showered. I have a nurse assistant to help out during the day with various things. Around noon I told Jaana that I was going to the closest town to buy some quiche for her. She got very sad and wanted to say something. We have made up this way that I go through the alphabet and she raises the finger when to stop. This way she told me in Swedish: "I want to come along". We were both so happy to communicate and she immediately started crying when she realized that she will be able to make me understand more and more what she wants (even though I am sure there are plenty of misunderstandings). Anyway, we went down to Holetown and grabbed a table at her favorite brasserie. She had Blackened Dolphin fish (no, it is not flipper) which is a fantastic fish in Cajun spices pan fried to blacken. With some gazpacho, water, diet coke and beer with the fish, she was well content. Then back to the house, I left to pick up the kids. She did not want to let go of my hand and got a bit sad. She had a fantastic day and I think she is enjoying her life more and more. She knows it is only getting better, and with more work, it will do so faster.

16th of February

1.21pm Saturday afternoon. JAANA IS HOME! Yesterday after a few delays we arrived in Barbados safe and sound. She was a bit nervous of how the kids were going to react to seeing her and was scared to "disappoint" them. However though, as you all know, the kids and myself did not expect to look for any miracles, rather to get Jaana home. Everyone is very pleased to have her here. She is a bit tired, but not too bad. After a few days rest, she will recommence her rehabilitation program on Wednesday, with physio, occupational and speech therapy. On Monday, we will have a nurse assistant starting to help out with showering and toilet visits etc. In addition, I will replace the previous house keeper so Parmi will get some better help with everything around the house. Parmi was very please to see Jaana again and Jaana felt the same. They really get along very well together and Parmi is a trooper.

A quick reminder since it seems like many of you are requesting contact info. It can all be found on a posting around the 1st of November 2007.

12th of February

7.28am Tuesday morning. I spoke for a short time to Jaana just now and she was very tired. Seemed like she has a small cold, but that is nothing which some warm dry Barbados weather can take care of. The house is more or less prepared for her even though we are still waiting for the container from Singapore. She will be discharged from the center on Wednesday lunch time, but Jaana and I will not leave until Friday morning.
I am flying this late afternoon to Stockholm via London, and will not bring my computer. Therefore, the next blogg posting will be with the whole family reunited at home. We can not wait...

7th of February

7.02am Thursday morning. I just came off the phone with Jaana. She was a bit sad again and is ready to come home now. I have now booked myself to leave Barbados Thuesday evening and be up in Stockholm Wednesday afternoon. I will then watch Jaana during her rehab for a day and we will leave Friday morning at 9.30m. During this time I will meet with the therapist and get a better understanding what they have done and are currently focusing on. Everything is line up here so I think her transition should be a smooth one.
The kids are doing fine. Now Camille and Totte seem to have found all the friends and Ludwig still has hiw Danish/Norwegian buddy he plays with. Unfortunately they are not in the same class, but it works out anyway.
A few days ago there was a meeting with all Swedes in Barbados. There are 65 down here, which is a lot more than I thought. Many with kids and they are now planing on getting on with extra Swedish education for the children! Fantastic, bonus I think.

3rd of February

5.05pm Sunday afternoon. Jaana has had some vacation this weekend, being at her mothers. Eventhough she might be a bit more tired monday morning, I am confident that she enjoyed not being at Humlegarden over the weekend. When there is no therapy and nothing special going on, it must feel quite long. Anyway, she is back now and will commence the last two weeks. It might depending on flights that the last week will be cut a bit short.
Kids went swimming today. Ludde had his friend over and Camille is crying since he did not let her play with them...

2nd of February

9.07pm Saturday evening. Jaana has made steady progress lately, with focus being made on occupational and speech therapy. Her hand skills have gotten a lot better and she is now working with a machine called the LightWriter. With this she can write and then the machine will spell out the text. It is true that a normal laptop could do the same, but this is rather smaller and specialized. To be able to do this, she has been working a lot with hand exercises.
The therapist in Sweden has suggested that it would be good if she could stay for another week. Naturally, she is very keen on coming home, but has agreed to extend her stay until 14th of February. So we will need to wait a bit longer, but she is fighting for everyone!
Down here preparation is on its way. The physio table/bed is getting ready, a huge mirror should be installed next week, a drive way for wheelchair has been created and various equipment will join her from Sweden. There are still some small issues with bathroom/shower which is being worked on. I have assembled a great team of therapist and contacted two neurologists here in Barbados. Furthermore, introduction was made before with a neurosurgeon, just to have the contact.
I have ordered more frequent fogging of the premises to avoid mosquito bites. This is common practice (and learned in Singapore) to keep them at bay. As we found some rats as well (close to the cane fields) poison and traps has been established.
The kids are doing fine. Tomorrow we should try to head out to do some buggie boarding which the boys love. Camille is not as eager to swim as her brothers, and is still on Singapore shopping detox. Shopping here is far and few between, so I guess I will fill up a couple of bags very quickly during my 12 hour stay in Sweden in a couple of weeks.