So long and Farewell

The final Update.

Since it has been deemed that Jane will live, by Jane herself I have decided to suspend the blog, and the rules. Jane is fine, she can get up on her own, and move things back to the way they belong in her eyes. She has been a good girl for the past week, walking and moving without being told, and she even threw a dinner party for Marilyn Coleman’s Birthday. The only problem has been a nagging cough that could be allergies or the vocal cords, so we are off to the Dr. on Friday, and then we will head to the beach on the weekend.

As for plans for the future, She has friends coming in the end of April, and on May 4^th she will meet with the surgeon to get clearance to drive and resume her normal amount of insane activities.

This summer, we will be at the beach, and I will put her in Cardiac Rehab in Lewes, and I fully expect her to have a book club running at the beach, as well as working on her new book entitled “Cows, not just good for milk. “

So that is our sign off from the blogosphere, I’m so glad you enjoyed our little rants, and I might think of writing a summer blog, called, My Summer With Mother, or something else witty. So thanks so much for the love and support, and hopefully we will not have any other major surgeries for quite sometime.

P

New Monday

What a Difference. Caroline and I did a dramatic reading of Jane’s Open Letter, and I am happy to say that seemed to do the trick. She surprised us by taking a walk around the cul-de-sac unprovoked, and even came with me to take Caroline to the train Station. Today she went with me to run errands. She did refuse to get out of car saying, “Paige I know people here! What if someone sees me,” I begged and she would not relent, but baby steps are better than no steps at all.

The cough has been better, She takes an allergy pill in the morning, and then when it wears off her cough starts, so with my vast medical knowledge I have decided she has allergies.

We have been sitting in the garden, and she tells me what to water and what weeds to pull, as she types on the laptop to her public.

She is getting used to the life however, she has written out her menu for tomorrow, and is getting a bit more rebellious and telling we what do. I might have to explain we are not in Upstairs Downstairs.

She has also decided to accept visitors again starting Wednesday. So Email or call the house to arrange the time. 1-4 is the perfect visiting time, and if you want. We are usually sitting out in the garden, bickering or reading.

P

An Open Letter To My Public

A Letter From Jane. Some of you received this e-mail, but I thought I would interpret any misconceptions the patient may have led you to believe. My interpretations are in italics.

I want to wish all of you a happy Easter on this gorgeous Good Friday and hope that you enjoy a celebration with your families this weekend. Caroline comes in tonight and I know Paige is really looking forward to having her with us, as am I. Yes this is correct.

It's been a good week with the beauty of my garden and the warm sunshine lifting our spirits. I continue to take short walks and keep blowing into my spirometer faithfully. Paige and I have watched lots of movies and done some reading as well as enjoyed the companionship of Henry, Puck and GiGi. But most of all we have taken pleasure in our many visitors this week and appreciate the efforts they have made to hasten my recovery period. I would like to thank you all for stopping by and bringing us delicious food, which have enjoyed eating.

My health has been good with one exception, and that has been a persistent cough. Those with whom I have spoken know that I can't talk without coughing. Nighttime is especially difficult because I can hardly stop coughing. Paige discussed this with my doctor's assistant and they determined that it is caused by the trauma to my vocal cords from the tube I had down my throat during surgery. Unfortunately, the only cure for that is for me not to talk! There is no cure; we just have to wait for it to heal. Talking will not affect the healing time, talking will only make her cough when she talks. We have only had this problem a couple of days so we are still figuring out how to deal with it. Jane has self-diagnosed “no talking” and is whispering. I have said that whispering is bad for the vocal cords. She does not believe me, but what do I know I have only been dealing with sensitive actors and their sensitive voices for 10 years. So I will not be available for conversation for the next few days. I know several of you were planning to come by next week, but I hope you will understand that I first have to allow my vocal cords to heal so I get this cough under control. Please come by, we are going to have visitors every other day and we have no idea how long this will last. She needs the companionship; it is just that the visitors will have to be the talker. I will be housebound for the next several weeks O.K. this is a flat out lie. She has been told she can go out and has been encouraged to do so. She is very nervous about car travel, I took her to see the cherry blossoms just the other day and she was fine. There is some discomfort with the seat belt, but that will get better with time. I also think after one more week with me nagging her, she will be wiling to go anywhere. So there will be plenty of time for you to come by and visit, or for us to talk on the phone. I have even have her ichat and skype ready if you want too! In the meantime, Paige is always available for conversation and I am reading my e-mails.

Thanks so much for your concern, prayers and good wishes. I feel much better already and have much to be thankful for. Happy spring!

Love,

Jane

As you can see she needs more encouragement, and help now. The key to cardiac recovery is exercise. I finally printed out the Cleveland Clinic’s breathing and exercise guide today. Why I did not think to do this two weeks ago is beyond me, but she read it and was already doing some of the deep breathing exercises they recommend. I also found out she needs to be taking 7-10 minute walks not the 5 minute putz around the house that she has been doing.

Many of you have asked me if there is anything you can do, well I need help with Miss Stubborn Pants to get her to believe in herself to help her heal.

May your weekend be filled with chocolate bunnies and jellybeans!

P.

P.S. Our dear friend Chris Lindley just has knee surgery. So any extra good vibes please send his way.

MOOVE MOOMA MOOVE

Today it has been two weeks since our hero was cut open and she is doing great. In fact you would never know that she had open heart surgery, except that big old fresh scar down the center of her chest. Jane Jane has been doing really well, and her appetite is back. I will let you know that she was quite upset when I told her she could not have a Berger cookie last night. (It was 11:30 to late for chocolate, but she was flying high on her painkillers) We have set up a simple a schedule. She sits upstairs and watches TV all morning, walking 5 minutes an hour. Then she moo-ves downstairs to accept visitors in the afternoon, She did admit to me yesterday that three people is too much and we would like to keep it to two visitors a day. Then she looks at all the lovely flowers that everyone has sent and ponders the existence of the tooth fairy or how to solve a problem like Maria.

Our next project will be getting Mooma to Moo-ve Moo-re.

Now that the rains have parted, I am bound and determined, to get her outside.

I have not had to call the biological children yet, but I will. (I did have to call them earlier this week with an issue. Go figure no one answered the phone)

She loves to chat on the phone so give her a call, and set an appointment to stop by. If you want to bring food, she is on low sodium, high fiber diet, and I remind you that she needs to do her walking. She will say I will do it when they leave, and I ask you her public to say I would love to take a walk in the garden with you, or why don’t you show me Henry’s favorite spot to pee in the living room.

Thanks again for the entire blogosphere of warm wishes, but we really need to get her to move.

Until the next post.

P.

UPDATE: Jane has a bad cough due to the tube down her throat she has been told not to talk so much. So she request, no phone chats, but e-mails. thanks

A letter from Jane

Greetings from Mooma Jane (formerly known as Mama Jane)!

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been ten days since my surgery and I feel this good. Of course, the brilliance of a spring day is always hard to beat especially when the daffodils are lifting their heads to the morning sun. However, it has been the love and support of family and friends that have seen me through this experience. I can’t thank you all enough for your cards, phone calls, prayers, e-mails and flowers but, most of all, I want to thank you for following Paige’s blog and for writing messages on it. She would read them to me each evening and the joy it brought me cannot be described. Love and laughter are the two things you need most for your heart to heal and I certainly have had those in spades thanks to all of you.

As I sat looking out my window at the landmark dome of Johns Hopkins Hospital I was frequently overwhelmed by feelings of gratitude for just being alive thanks to the superb skills of my surgeon and their medical staff. Since this is where Caroline had her own open heart surgery twenty-one years ago we are both incredibly indebted to this venerable institution. I received excellent care and cannot say enough good things about Hopkins.

My children have all been so supportive each in their own way, and from reading the blog you know that wasn’t always easy. Let’s just say that you go from feeling like you cannot possibly move to feeling like you are once again fully alive yet still unable to do some of the things we all take for granted. As soon as the nurse comes today to remove some sutures and I finally get to take a shower I think even Paige, “The Enforcer,” will find it hard to hold me down. Isn’t it amazing to think much of my success is made possible by some wonderful cow out there in Moo Moo Land, in addition to the miracle of the human body?

Please do call or come by whenever you can. The Incredible/Irreplaceable Paige is keeping track of our calendar so I won’t get too tired, but I will certainly welcome your company. As much as I love reading and watching movies, it can’t compare with human contact. Besides, I don’t want Paige to get tired of me! Recuperation from open heart takes a long time, so don’t worry about missing out on a visit to the Cow Lady. I’ll be hanging out at Rabbit Hill until beach time.

Love to you all,

Jane

Day 1 at home

Today was kind of a rough day. Henry being the ever-dutiful boy decided that everyone should get up very early. Mooma was doing OK, but she did not what to leave the upstairs. She has been putzing, but not as much as I would like her to putz.

Now that I have the netflix streaming disc for the wii, she might never leave the room. She is watching “the way we live now” right now, and I think it would be in my best interest to not show her how to work it.

I do have a plan of action to get her downstairs, I am going to place a Berger cookie and a glass of milk on the pate and tell her to get it. I will let you know how that works out.

Well Thanks for all the visit request. I have been updating them in the March page, if you want to know whom what and when. Have a good weekend everybody.

P.

Born Free

Well the new and improved Mooma has made it back home. She busted out of Hopkins with a clean bill of health. She has given me her death ray stare many times, on my request for her to do more laps. The nurse said (and I made her say it twice) it was endurance and not speed that she needs to work on. I let her take it easy today, but no more of that. I even let her have another cookie (a gem of a ginger cookie delivered by Janet and Jean the most excellent neighbors) if she promised to work hard tomorrow. Henry told me that I have been had. Caroline leaves tomorrow for NYC so she is in my clutches until the return of the biological child.

We have big plans to watch many BBC shows on TV and we might start solving mysteries throughout mason hill. You know I think there is an incredible amount of hoodlums in the hood, why just today a strange man came and swept a pile of debris from the front yard.

The one thing Mooma does need is visitors, it will help her do better in her walking so let us know when you can come buy and take her for a walk or putz.