Muscles are moving!!!!!

On Tuesday, my P/T came and tried a muscle stimulator on my body. She put electrodes on certain parts of my body and then turned the machine up until she could see a muscle moving. It felt like my muscle was twitching and pulsating. Anyway, the next day I was sore-like I had worked out. I have not not felt that kind of tiredness in a long time. It was pretty cool. We bought our own machine so that we can use it every day. The machine pulses some kind of electricity through my body for 10 seconds. During this time I have to try and exercise that part of my body. For example, when she puts the electrode on my calve muscle near my ankle, my foot lifts and I have to try and hold it for 10 seconds. Then it will go off for 10 seconds. During this time, I rest. Now, obviously I am not holding my ankle up on my own yet, but that is why it is so important to use this machine. It is still exercising my muscles- I have to keep trying to work with it. The hope is that I will do it on my own. Floria said that she was happy to see muscle movement. It was very little but it was there. She keeps telling me that is not going to be an easy or a quick process. I know this...but good to be reminded. I dream of it just being easy.

Anyway, I am standing with the knee immobilizers for 20 minutes every other day with Mike and working on some core stuff everyday on my own. When Mike is gone, my mother-in-law helps me with the standing. She is always so nice about helping whenever and where ever we need her.

Well, I will keep working hard. I am not sure how much to post because it seems a little boring right now. I suppose I will figure this out as I go along. Thanks for all of your support-it means lots to us.

The long road ahead of us

On Monday, we met with a physiotherapist. She seems to be very good at what she does and we were impressed with her. She is going to work with me, Mike and I will continue the exercises we have been doing and she will give me my own exercises that I can do on my own. We have to stimulate my muscles in order for me to exercise them. I will also continue to go to acupuncture. Meeting with Floria, (that is my p/t's name) was very good but I will tell you that I was overwhelmed. I am so glad I had the procedure, but this part is not going to be easy. I think that the hardest part for me is the patience that I still have to have and the wondering of what will come of this. I have big dreams, but i have had big dreams for my body for 12 years now. I suppose that today, I am feeling like the idea of patience is so far away from me. I will work very hard on all of the exercises but I also must continue to have the heart of perseverance. Mike is overwhelmed as well. As I am preparing my mind to get ready to endure this battle with my body, I am trying so hard to keep my husband encouraged. We are hopeful and we try to encourage each other always; however, this becomes a bit of a challenge when you are feeling like all of this is just to hard. I thank God that these feelings go away. God is going to do great things. His timing is CERTAINLY not mine, but we need to wait on Him. So, first things first, we look to Him for the strength to begin this part of our journey.

Being at home

We are very happy that we live in Canada and that we are home. It is a good thing to be far, far away from what you know so that you can remember to be grateful for what you have and where you live. To be able to have fruit whenever I want, or having cold milk that smells normal with my cereal, or eating something other then chicken are wonderful things. To explain these good things a little more, we were not supposed to eat fruit because it would have been washed with their regular water which we were told not to drink either. (Funny thing though, my husband thought he would eat and drink that stuff anyway so that he could tell people that it was fine. Well, he got sick.) Poor guy! I guess he can't tell people to just eat it anyway:) And, who eats boiled milk with cereal? And the smell was not so great either. I really do like chicken, but a variety of food is nice. I am a picky eater as it is, so this was not a great part of the trip for me. However, Mike and Kevin found a Pizza Hut one night and they smuggled in a personal size pizza for Jen and I. I had a cheese pizza and it was like I had never eaten anything better in my life. We were all very happy after that supper.

On a more serious note, my leg is getting better. I had a bruise from my groin all the way down to my foot. I was sure that I was going to have to get my leg amputated. That would have sucked seeing as how this procedure is supposed to help my legs and my walking. Losing a leg would just seem wrong because of that huh? I was very concerned. My groin is torn and more then likely it will not grow back together. But, the doctor says that it won't affect me too much. the pain is so much better. Mike was so concerned for me and he felt so bad for me. He is so good to me. If you can believe it though, I can make him mad sometimes. It's hard to imagine, I know. One morning, my leg was looking so bad, he told me to stay in bed all day. He caught me rolling my eyes at him and that did not go over very well. So, I made a deal with him. I said I would stay in bed until 10 AM. He ended up thinking that was ok as long as I put my feet up all day. He was just caring about me and rolling my eyes at him just kind of came out, accidentally. It was not very nice of me. I mean he had every reason to be concerned about me when he was not there-I was getting dressed one morning to go to a movie with him and I could not fit my left leg into my pants. Once I did get them on, I looked ridiculous. One normal leg and one that looked like it was about to tear my pants open. And i could not put my shoe on either. It was either one shoe or no shoes. I went with no shoes. Sounds fun, right?

Anyway, we are going to be interviewing physio therapists; we want the right one. Now that my leg is healing, I will start excersising again. I have a tough road ahead of me but I am going to give it my all. I know there will be ups and downs-I will share them as they come. My ups and downs are my husbands as well. He is always with me every step of the way. We need your prayers for this part of our journey.

LaDawne

Jet Lag-What a Thing!

I have never flown across the world before and so I did not know what to expect to feel like. I feel pretty bad and I don't like it! But, It will get better. More importantly though, I am finally able to post some stuff. I was not allowed to leave my hospital room so I was never able to post anything. Well, I am finally home and so I will be writing about a few things. I will do it in different posts though. If I don't, it will just be one big blob of information.

The day before my procedure, the doctors had been looking at all my tests and they were very skeptical as to whether or not even had MS. This made the surgeon question whether or not he should even do the angioplasty. My tests showed that I had a number of small blockages, but nothing big. The angeography was the test that would show exactly what was going on with my veins. The doctors just needed to take my case. I will tell you that I was very upset-I tried to be strong. But, that did not work out to well. I really did believe that God brought us to India for this purpose and so I was really scared that it would not happen. Doesn't that sound horrible? Thanks God for bringing us here for this procedure that might not happen. I have a problem trusting Him, obviously. I cried a bit here and there, but I needed to remain strong and positive for my husband. I prayed that God would allow this procedure to happen and that the doctors would see what was wrong. And I really could feel all of your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. Well, they did; in fact they found more then they thought. Three veins were blocked! Incredible! Incredible that this made me happy-but I was so happy.

Before I go on, I want to try and explain the procedure to you. They get you all set up and then they give you some "sleepy medicine." This kicks in right away so I did not even feel the catheter go up my groin. I only knew it was inside of me when I began to feel this tightening all through out my body. It was as if something was being moved around in my chest area. That's when I realized that this exact thing was happening. And then, I knew the balloons were in there because I could feel them opening and I could hear the veins stretching. That was weird. It was painful, but not un-bearable. I was just so glad to be getting it done.

The doctors talked to us lots during the next few days and they were very encouraging. This has been going on in my body for years and so I need to give it time. Also, it is in my spine and so when your spine becomes damaged, it shrinks. This means that the doctors cannot tell what spot is a lesion and what spot has not been nourished by proper blood flow. We need to be patient. Deep in my heart, I knew that I could walk out of the procedure but I also knew that God doesn't always give us miracles the way we want them to happen. However, I believe this is a part of His plan for us and so now, Mike and I wait for the good things that God will reveal to us inside my body. I can't wait!

More to come,

LaDawne

Home Sweet Home

Well we made it back safe and sound. Everyone is a quite tired but very happy to have arrived home with no delays or mishaps on the trip.

For the next few days LaDawne is going to take it very easy, just to recover from all the physio she had to endure as well as the jet lag. There was an incedent on our last day at the hospital during one of LaDawne's physio treatments. It happened when one of the therapists was stretching out her muscles. He seemed to have over stretched them and caused an injury that will set LaDawne's therapy back a bit. This frustrated me more than LaDawne. You know, my wife has a such a good attitude! I'm still learning a lot from her.

Once we get a little more rest we will post again. I am really excited about what is too come. Both LaDawne and I have a lot of hope that God is going to show us all a little of what he can do.

Mike

Last Day in India

Alas the week is over and we are heading home. We are all feeling a little tired but excited to be going home. The experience we have had here has been good. We are so happy that we could be here to support Mike and LaDawne and be part of this experience with them. They have done so well. LaDawne has to have a blood thinner medication by injection everyday for the next 3 weeks. Mike and I get to inflict a little pain on her. Aren't we nice. We are hoping to hit a market on the way to the airport as LaDawne was not able to do her shopping yet. One last excursion and then we are homeward bound. Thanks again for your prayers. They were truly felt and appreciated. We are so excited to see you all soon.

Jen & Kevin

Ready for discharge

Alright tonight we fly out at 10:50pm and arrive in Calgary at 4:30pm Sunday. LaDawne has one more physio session and consult with the Doctor and we can finally leave the hospital. It really has seemed like we have been here a long time, LaDawne is excited about being able to where civilian clothes again and get out of the giant sized hospital Moo Moo she has had to endure during her stay.

We are really thankful to all of the staff here at Medanta. They have really taken a lot of care in making sure my wife is as comfortable as possible. As far as hospital stays go this would have to be our best experience. But it is still a hospital and LaDawne and I both have a distaste for them.

Having Jen and Kevin here has been a huge benefit for both LaDawne and I. Getting Jen's take on the methods of practice here in the hospital has calmed us. And as a team both Jen and Kevin are a big encouragement, keeping us optimistic and providing some comic relief when things got a little stressful. It is also very helpful being able to talk to someone that completely understands without repetition. Sometimes the language barrier gets to be a little tiring.

Well we post again when we get to an airport somewhere on the way home, if not we will be posting when we arrive at home.

With Love from India,

Mike.

Touring India

Hi everyone! Thought we would give you a little update as well. We did end up getting to do a bit of touring the last two days. We went to a market on Wednesday and that was a fun experience. Not easy to leave without buying anything. You feel a little pressured but they do make very beautiful things. We also saw some monuments around Delhi like the Indian gate and Lotus Temple. All very amazing in architecture. Yesterday we went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Wow. It is beyond amazing. The detail and splendor is beyond words. Not wonder the Emperor went into debt making this resting place for his wife. The day was extremely hot. It felt as though we would melt away. Probably somewhere in the mid 30's causing us to burn a bit as well. Not to bad though. The drive to Agra took us 4 hours. Our driver certainly got us there in good time. They know speed and have an incredible ability to dodge things. Good thing we are not doing the driving. lol. We saw an elephant and monkeys yesterday as well. Pretty neat. We could spend a month here and not see everything we would want to.

We were happy to see what we did but are so happy to be going home tomorrow. We miss our little girl and our family, friends and the familiarities of home. We saw a flyer today for Pizza Hut and we were all drooling. As much as we enjoy naan, rice, samosas, chicken tick etc., we are missing American foods. You start to miss the basics like toast and cereal. We are trying to make sure Mike gets out today. He needs a little breather from the hospital. Mike and Kevin will do some touring today and maybe a market as well. LaDawne has a shopping list ready for them. You know how she likes to shop!! It is raining quite heavily today so they will likely want to stay in the taxi while touring. We are becoming very familiar with taxis. Rupees are their currency here so we have figured out the exchange rate and are becoming more efficient in knowing what is worth what(ie 300 rupees for a taxi to the hotel).
Well I feel as though I am rambling a little. I am spending the day with LaDawne today and I look forward to that. She is very eager to leave the hospital and get home to her independence. She has done so well though. I am very proud of here. The 15 hour flight tomorrow will be tough so please pray for that. Thank you so much for your prayers. Some of us have been feeling a under the weather at times and it is nice knowing there are people praying for us. As Mike already mentioned, we are hopeful that this procedure will help LaDawne. She is in good spirits and that is very helpful already. Physio will be a good thing. The care and support from the staff here has been amazing(From the nurses, to Dr's to the foreign patient staff). The Health care system is very different but they do a good job. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Much Love,

Jen & Kevin

One more day in Incredible India

Hello,

Well it sure has been quite an experience. The Doctors here are recommending aggressive physio-therapy, due to LaDawne's severe muscle atrophy. We are glad we can stay a couple of days past the surgery to get a good Idea of what kind of physio would be most beneficial for her. So far it includes 15min on a peddle machine followed by 15min of standing with knee immobilizing braces and on a support stand. Keep in mind LaDawne is not standing on her own yet! We have hope that with this good follow up at home she will continue in her recovery. The Doctors did say that because it has been so long since her initial attack that it will take a long time for recovery. I talked to LaDawne about this and she is up for the challenge. Her experience with physio so far has been very tiring for her, but we are gonna whip this girl into shape! =)

Tomorrow we get discharged and are off to the airport. All of us are a little exhausted and ready to go home. I have full intentions of firing up the BBQ as soon as we arrive home for dinner. LaDawne is looking forward to getting home and being able to talk you, her friends. She will also make a post as soon as we get home, as this work-station I am on is in accessible to her.

Thank you all again for you love.

Sincerely,

Mike

Just a couple more days of follow up.

Hello all,

Mike here just checking in to let you all know that all is well. LaDawne seems to have more energy than I do at the moment. The surgery went well and the Doctor came to talk to us last night. There were 3 veins that had been blocked with one in particular down by the spine that had a lot of blockage. This Azygos vein had been blocked for a long time, already having grown new veins around to compensate for the lack of proper flow. I find it interesting that, regardless of MS, Doctors in Calgary would not go so far as to check her vascular system.

At any rate, LaDawne is doing well and we still wait for some bigger positve results from this procedure. LaDawne is not dicouraged, knowing that results will take time. She also realizes that even if there are no positive results the progression will be slowed if not halted. It is very important that we remain realistic as well as optomistic. There have been so many ups and downs in our walk with this disease we have learned to curb our emotions to the point of having low expectaions. We thank you all for your contiued prayers and support. We are very hopful for complete recovery and trust that God will be glorified in any case.

yours truely,

Mike

Surgery is done!

Hi all. I am posting on behalf of Mike and LaDawne. The surgery was at 9am today and was done around 11am. It ended up being delayed a day due to other patient emergencies. The Dr said everything went well and they were able to open up 3 blocked veins. LaDawne said the sensation of the angioplasty felt a little strange when the ballon was inflated. The vein in her thoracic(chest) area was quite blocked so we are hoping that the restored blood flow will be a postive thing. Thank you so much for your prayers. It is not easy being in another country undergoing a surgery. LaDawne is a trooper and despite feeling a little groggy she is in good spirits. She is happy that they found veins that needed to be opened. There are so many differences in how things are done here. We do a lot of waiting but the care is good. We will be hearing from the Dr's later today and we will update more then. Please continue to pray that there will be healing and no complications.

Jen

The Streets of New Delhi

Questions I Ponder...

...Why do the streets have lines or traffic lights?

Every one is everywhere - bicycles, cars, trucks, scooters, motorbikes, pedestrians, rickshaws, and our taxi driver singing away with his favourite Indian music. At least we are all driving the same direction! Oh wait...I take that back. This morning we took just a little shortcut - against the flow on a one way!! Our driver is good at dodging oncoming traffic.

...where is all the Chai Tea?

I've seen lots of coffee shops, but none (so far) have served Chai. This was one of the things I was looking forward to the most. This morning, though, a very nice lady, Rashmi, found someone to make us a few cups of Chai. SOOOOO GOOD!

...Why do cars have horns anyway?
Now I know!! The are used to say "Here I am!! Coming through!!!" Our taxi driver was turning a corner honking away. A man on a bike so casually tapped the front corner of the car and proceeded to continue cycling right in front of us! The really neat thing about driving in India, Is that you don't have to wait for an opening in a busy street. You just drive right in and hope for the best. No wait time at all. Drivers around here are so efficient. Especially on any kind of bike. It is amazing what kind of places those guys can fit. Oh ya one more driving tip. Fold in your side mirrors...they may get ripped off from a car trying to pass. It is not uncommon to see 5-6 vehicles (bikes included) across a 3 lane street.

That will be all for now. We plan on hitting the streets of New Delhi later today.

Kevin & Jen

Tired in Delhi

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay in posts but we had quite a challenge finding a spot to access the internet.

We arrived in Delhi yesterday morning around 1:30am and went directly to the hospital. Because of the time of day the hospital seemed deserted. We went through the admittance process with our main contact at the hospital, Sanjeev. By the time all was said and done we got to bed around 4am. Jen and Kevin found their way to the hotel without incident (only one cockroach thus far in the room!). LaDawne and I were up at 6am for our tea followed by breakfast at 7:30. We have yet to get more than 4 hours of sleep at one time.

During the day LaDawne was brought to several different rooms in the hospital for pre-op tests. The day ended around 2am! we were up and about around 5:45 this morning. LaDawne's surgery is scheduled for 3pm today. The head Doctor for LaDawne is very thorough and well articulated. His competence inspired confidence in all of us. There was a time early in the morning when I was chatting with LaDawne where I broke down expressing my severe angst, thinking we have come half way around the world just to get some test done to tell us something we already knew. So this talk with the Doctor was great for me.

I will add more today or tomorrow after LaDawne's surgery to let you all know how things went.

Jen and Kevin will add another post here with some trip details as well as some cultural experiences with pictures.

Thank you all for your love, we love you too.

Mike

Frankfurt airport is nice this time of year

Hello all.

Just wanted to update you all as to our progress. Our flight was delayed in Houston by 2 hours. It just so happens we had a two hour layover in Frankfurt. Well that left us with to little time to make it to our Delhi connection. But no worries All has been rearranged and is continuing on smoothly. Our contacts in India are most accommodating. We were going to arrive late Saturday night but instead we will be there late Sunday night. All still in time for our appointment at the hospital for Monday morning.

The two flights have been pretty uneventful otherwise, Which is good.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Just a quick story LaDawne wanted me to share with you. While I was typing up this post on the iPod talking with LaDawne. I was sitting in her wheelchair and I decided to put my feet up on a bench. Well, maybe it was the lack of sleep the caused my lack of cordination but I promptly flipped over onto the floor finishing a little untidily on my back. And of course my loving wife, after knowing I was alright of course, was laughing while covering her mouth the way she does. Saying "Im going to be laughing about that for along time."

well that's it for today, we will be back tomorrow.

Mike

Almost Time!

I cannot believe that we leave in 2 days. Mike and I are feeling the reality of this trip today and it is a bit overwhelming. We are excited, nervous, anxious...did I mention scared? There are just so many things to think about. First off, our flight is 23.5 hours-how on earth will I survive that? Mike will be right by my side the whole time-that does make me feel safe. Then, the procedure! We hear great things-is this going to be great for us too? We are begging God for a miracle. And...when we got our vaccinations, the nurse gave us all this information. Don't get bit by dogs or any other animal because rabies can kill you and don't get bit by bugs because malaria can kill you too. Mike is calm, cool and collected as we are hearing all of this where as I am sitting there asking her to write all of this down and asking her what exactly does it mean when you say it will kill me? I need to know specifics. Oh yeah, and should I wear some sort of a net all around me when I am outside? I mean, all I need is to get malaria, right? Mike thinks I am crazy and I actually am beginning to agree with him.

Anyway, this trip brings about many thoughts and emotions for us. I am praying that we will rest in the assurance that God knows what he is doing. Sometimes, I try really hard to debate those words but I do know the truth. He does know. More then this though, I am praying that it is our turn for a miracle. I hear how selfish this sounds but, if I am going to be honest with you, this has been our prayer for a long time

Thank you for all of your support. We are very blessed and very thankful.

Preparations

Hello all,

Mike here just signing in to get this thing started. LaDawne and I have been getting a lot things in order in a short time to make this trip happen. As usual LaDawne puts in a lot of work to make sure all the details are going to work out. She is very tired at the moment, as well as anxious.

For starters, the flight is 23.5hrs. We hope to have bulkhead seats so that I can ferry LaDawne to the washroom when ever it is needed. There are going to be a couple of stops along the way which always make me nervous. I find that I am always anxious about getting to the next plane in time (one of our layovers is only 45min, and the next flight is in a different terminal).

Once we get there we will have to make a constant effort to stay in the air conditioned areas. Heat is never a good thing for LaDawne, she gets so very weak at these times. Today the heat is a incredible 37 degrees Celsius in Delhi.

I have a feeling that once we get into the hospital most of our traveling nerves will have subsided. And a whole new nervousness will set in shortly. I wouldn't doubt if the nervousness will just continue seamlessly.

Anyway, we want to thank all of you for your current and future support and prayers for LaDawne and I on this trip. We will keep you posted on our progress. We love you.

Mike Boehlig.