27th of June

7.13pm Friday evening. Jaana has been fighting on this week, despite having had a bit of a stomach bug. Hopefully this is gone for tomorrow, as she is scheduled to have some water therapy in the morning. A few minutes ago, Jaana walked up the stairs again to go to bed. The first part of the stairs is always a bit better and she gets tired in the end. The better part is slowly improving all along and she certainly has the strength to walk on her own again. What is being practiced a lot for this is her balance in the hips. Her initiation is still a bit limited, but as she makes physical progress, I hope this will come along as well. Me, Jaana and Parmi joke regularly, in which she is participating with nice gestures all the time. Her spirit is still rather intact.
The kids have one more week of school. They are all ready for their long break (until September 9th) and so am I. Camille is at a friends this evening, and I am just about to go and pick her up. Ludwig has his Norwegian/Danish friend for a sleep over and Jonathan is joining them playing Backband on the PS3.
I would have hoped to been able to post pictures from the rehab sessions, but I am still waiting for the pictures from the therapist who took it.

20th of June

6.45pm Friday evening. I just wanted to write something short about Jaana's progress since our Miami trip. There will be a photo posted shortly, taken from today to show some of the same. However though, I just brought her upstairs, when she is walking on her own in the stairs with me helping out with the balance. At the top of the stairs, she stood all on her own holding my hand to correct the balance herself. When she felt she was falling backwards she pulled and pushed when falling forward. This lasted for at least 3 minutes and she could have done more, but it was the end of the day and she wanted to rest. Fantastic! I can really see some good progress being made in the last couple weeks and we are now pushing hard as she is ready for some more exercises. Perhaps the road is a long one, but at least we can now see some great progress.
The neurologist professor is coming down to Barbados again in July, when he will see Jaana to check up on her progress.
Yesterday Jaana went out for lunch with three other mums in school and with Parmi. They all had great fun and Jaana (I as told) enjoyed it very much and smiled/laughed many times. This will, I am sure, be a reoccurring event.

18th of June

7.31pm Wednesday evening. All therapist have no stepped up the notch one gear since we came back from Miami. They all think they have a fair chance in getting some more out of Jaana after the Warfarin is out of the picture. She is also crying a bit less and putting in excellent result and attitude in all sessions. As an example from today, Jaana had therapy from 9am to 11.30am without getting too tired. Just a few minutes ago, I helped her upstairs, but she walked and held the railing as I helped her with her balance. She is very strong, but it is still the coordination, balance and initiation which are the major tasks ahead. Anyway, I am quite pleased with her effort right now, and I can not ask for more. Her progress is measured from the daily written reports, which show clear progress. Sometimes when you see at first hand everyday it is easy to miss.
The kids are all looking forward to their break in two weeks. There are quite a few tests done and more coming up. Results are of all sorts, but they mostly make us very proud. Jonathan can not wait for Saturdays and his surfing. He told me the other day that wen he gets old he will live on the south coast so he can be closer to the surfing. Camille is having more friends than I find time to drive her to. Saying that, she still miss her friends from Singapore and speak about them often.
I have been watching some cricket (one more 20-20 game on Friday) which I have to say, is not a bad game. It is the only game where you can play for 5 days and there is no winner!

13th of June

6.55am Friday morning. Since being back from Miami, Jaana has continued with her rehab as usual. No immediate difference, rather than the botox is certainly starting to kick in. Maximum effect should be after around 3 weeks, but her left arm is now easy to extend so she will focus a lot of training on this. Otherwise, she is ready to do more walking and training exercises with the parallel bars and speech therapy. Some of the mild side effect of the warfarin is disappearing (itchiness etc) and she does obviously not bleed so easily anymore.
Summer is here in Barbados with a lot more rain. This is very welcome as the lawns were getting burnt down before. Some very light tropical depression has moved across the island, but nothing close to a heavy rain storm in Singapore yet. Australia is touring the West Indies with test cricket matches all over and now it is the turn for Barbados. The whole island sort of stops. I will take the kids on Saturday and for the 20-20 next week.
Kids are fine. They are all looking forward to their summer break (and so am I!).

7th of June

7.25am Saturday morning. Jaana and I returned safely home to Barbados last Thursday. She was very happy to be home again and to see the children. That was the most difficult part of the trip; for both of us to leave the kids for a few days. Now all is good again and she is recuperating from the trip. There is one little soar which needs to heal a bit more, which will limit some poart of the physio therapy for a week or so. Since we know now that there is no real physical issue making up her speech problems, we can push a bit harder and demand that she answers more with words. This should eventually strengthen her vocal cord muscles. The other issue is also to have her initiate more things herself. This will take a very long time and is quite hard to practice, since she is the one who needs to initiate the exercise. I guess for this we need to be very patient and just hope that this will heal over time.
Kids are fine. Ludde had his birthday and missed us not being there in the morning, but was happy we got back the same day at least. Camille had heaps of fun and enjoyed very much the time with my friend who stayed here while we were gone. Today is surfing day for Jonathan and he has saved money for a surfboard which he is very excited about.

4th of June

6.48pm Wednesday afternoon. Jaana and I are just back in the hotel room in Miami after having spent one night at the Jackson Memorial Hospital over night. Her INR value was a bit high upon arrival so we needed to wait one day with some Vitamin K injected and some salad to get her value lowered. That was ok this morning so the scheduled angiogram was done which later showed all her blood vessles well healed. As the professor earlier saw hints of dissections, the confirmation of these being back to normal and her blood values still not showing any irregularities, a decision was taken to stop the warfin treatment. This was the major reason for the trip, so all well. Blood thinners can be very bad if used for a longer period of time, so this is great news. There were additional studies conducted which confirmed Jaana has no large PFO (whole in the heart) which could have let cloths through from other parts of her body. Botox was injected to ease up some tone in her left arm and tomorrow we are doing a ENT study to check out if spacticity has anything to do with her speaking difficulties. As you can imagine, it has been a few very busy days and Jaana has at times showed fear for these examinations. I have tried to do my best to calm her and at the end, she as always been willing to participate. I am very proud of her to assamble the courage to go through with these tests. Some of them. not without risks.
Tomorrow is Ludwigs birthday. He is a little bit disappointed that we will not be there in the morning, but at least we will come home in the late afternoon to celebrate with him. I have bought his present here in Miami, but that is a secrete...
While we have been gone, a fantastic friend of mine has been staying with the children. Parmi is as always of great importance and is as always taking care of all household business perfectly.