Progress

You may be wondering why I have not been posting as much recently, the answer is just that we have been busy.  We are all doing fine, my family is coming out of winter very nicely and we have been able to squeeze in a decent amount of family skiing (thanks mostly to an aggressive push from Delphine).

Mom has been doing great recently as well.  She is walking now with a 4 wheeled walker/chair combination that allows her to move pretty quickly and to sit and rest when she is tired.  This means that she can basically keep up with us and her PT and OT have really improved her strength to the point that she can cover some pretty long distances without needed to take a break.

This all adds up to a much improved lifestyle and a lot more independence, and long with that will come a new address.  Mom will be leaving the nursing home tomorrow and moving to a new assisted living facility (address below) on Tuesday.  The Mirabella is a new building in the South Lake Union area of Seattle, it has a big and diverse community of residence who primarily live independently.  Most of the residents are approximately mom’s age and she is looking forward to making some new friends.

Mom’s cancer treatment is also progressing pretty well.  She has completed her first 3 week Chemotherapy course and after a week off she is set to begin her second course this week.  We will know more in a couple of month how her cancer is responding on what a longer term outlook will look like.  For now, mom is very much looking forward to a more active and normal lifestyle.  Along those lines mom loves visitors.  I know that everyone’s lives are extremely busy but as time permits and as the whether improves if any of you have the opportunity to make it to Seattle this spring or summer, please consider adding a visit with Jan to your agenda – she would love to see you all and misses regular interaction with her friends and family.

A huge thank you to Claudia Peck (mom’s youngest sister), Claudia has been the rock of mom’s support network here for most of the past 4 months.  We are blessed to have her in our lives and to have her available to help us and to be spending time with mom every day.

Grandma and Aleta at Husky Basketball

Picky eater (or ‘peas are peas’)

Jan opens with: “I barf every day after PT and OT. So I’m thinking of limiting the time. Come back from PT: barf. OT: barf.”

Stephanie is here and helping plan Jan’s meals right now, among other things. Claudia says: “I think we need to get an ice machine installed. Tell anyone who visits to bring ice.” Stephanie adds: “cranberry juice.”

Jan says, “You can tell them I finally found my Legally Blond purse. Tell them they feed me too much.” In the background, Stephanie and Claudia discuss desserts.

Matthew (our regular blogerator) has been traveling for work and vacation.

“You ordered Diet Pepsi for every meal next week–even breakfast–so by Wednesday, we’re gonna hear: ‘Another friggin Diet Pepsi!’,” says Stephanie. “Because you like it right now. That’s the problem of ordering your meals a week in advanced.”

“That’s why I pick her meals,” says Claudia. Ah, is this fun or what?