Monday, April 13, 2009

Late post

I meant to post after J.J.'s appointment this morning, but the day has gotten away from me. So anyway, here's the rundown:

1. The appointment this morning yielded less than desirable results. J.J.'s sleep study (conducted on 2/27/09, remember) was abnormal. J.J. had about 8-12 episodes per hour in the lab of either apnea or hypoxia. While the doctor said this is actually considered pretty mild, with J.J.'s history of stroke, he recommended utilizing a CPAP machine. J.J. is to use this at least four hours each night until 5/1/09, when his sleep study will be repeated. The hope is that with the weight J.J. has lost he may not need the machine any longer at this time. So keep your fingers crossed, because it's taken every iota of persuasive power I possess to convince J.J. to use the machine until then.

2. Tonight was the first meeting of J.J.'s Aphasia Support Group. There are separate groups for the caregivers and the survivors. J.J. (as usual) was the youngest survivor, although there are a couple of people in the group who were not much older than J.J. when they had their strokes. I thought the caregivers group was really helpful. J.J. really disliked the survivors group, which he said was too much like speech therapy. I'm hoping he'll give it one more month to see if this was an anomaly. But I'll investigate other support groups as well just in case.

3. My work is insanely busy. It's after 9:30 and I still have probably another four hours worth of work to do tonight. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up on this.

4. Our first night of babysitting passed uneventfully. The kids both love Karen, who is an elementary school teacher during the day and is just trying to sock away a little extra money. I went in to kiss Leah good night a few minutes ago, and she asked me if Karen could come over to play again tomorrow night! I think we found a good fit.

I think I hit all the relevant points of the day. I'll try to post more thoughtfully tomorrow; for now, I must get back to work!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Erin, I know the CPAP machine doesn't sound like fun - but it made a world of difference in my brother! He was a new man after just a few nights. It totally changed him because he was actually getting good quality sleep. He is much more relaxed and rested, less grouchy and feel so much better he is actually pleasant to be around again. It helped him have the energy to loose weight, etc... stay positive! Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  2. i'll second the endorsement of the CPAP...at least 1/2 the people i talked when working @ Principal swear by it....it's a pain @ 1st and there's a period of adjustment, but they seemed really happy with results
    Ross

    ReplyDelete