The Weeks of September 21 to October 4

We've had quite a few interesting things happen in the past two weeks. About a week and a half ago I got home from school early enough to suggest a walk to Joanie. We drove down to the lake as twilight was beginning. After taking one walk around, I suggested a second lap. For the first time since her stroke, Joanie completed two laps. That feat was trumped about three days later when she got to talking to a good friend, Teri, and managed three laps! She was worn out, but exuberant. A week ago Thursday, Joanie had another appointment with her neurologist. He shared the results of her MRI of the neck--no pinched nerves. The great news is that no one is talking about the possibility of neck surgery. The frustrating news is that no one yet knows the cause of her shoulder pain. We'll take what we can get.

Monday evening we met with Joanie's orthopedic surgeon, Steve. He examined her left arm/hand for range of motion. He found that she seems to have complete range of motion in fingers (still stiff), hand, wrist, forearm, and elbow. Her shoulder movement is less than we'd like because of pain, but shows no signs "freezing up"! Joanie came home feeling very positive about her progress with such good news. She was delighted to be able to share the good news with her Occupational Therapist who has tried everything to improve her movement and strength.

Last Wednesday, the school arranged for all the teachers to take a CPR and First Aid class. Earlene (wife of Bob, the only other male teacher)brought Joanie down for a blood test and to attend the class. Joanie did very well, even though the class ran from 12:30 till 5:30 PM. She'd left her pain pills at home but managed to attend class and tried to practice on the dummies. My goal was for her to be exposed to CPR even if she couldn't complete it, or take the tests. Needless to say, she took the evening off when we finally got home. The next day, Nadine, took Joanie to therapy, went out to lunch with her, and brought her home. They looked at Nadine's latest scrapbook because they both love them. Usually a neighbor takes Joanie down to therapy, but it just happened that one was out of state and the other was having carpet laid in her house.

Today, we are getting our first rain of the year and it's 52 degrees outside at 1:28 PM. I started the heater up yesterday afternoon and, because Joanie's always cold, I'm her "new best friend". Last week when we returned home from church we had five bucks sleeping in our front yard! I grabbed my trusty phone to take a couple of pictures but the distance and lighting prevented me from getting a decent photo. We see these bucks all the time. They see our yard as a buffet. This time of year they rub tree trunks to get velvet off their antlers. The bark on our dogwood is rubbed off on one side.

About two months ago, Joanie tried her hand at watercolor painting again. Over the past several years she has become quite accomplished and so she was anxious to see the affect the stroke had. She tried to complete a painting from last spring and was disappointed. She set her paints aside until the past couple of weeks. This time she started experimenting with a new painting involving bamboo pens dipped in ink. She's been feeling more comfortable with the process and has enjoyed the challenge. She took her unfinished painting to a monthly gathering of friends who paint. They appreciated her progress and commented that she was returning to her former style.

When the bold branches
Bid farewell to rainbow leaves -
Welcome wool sweaters.
B. Cybrill