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Mom coasting effortlessly down her steps with the help of the lift
Outside the main door, Mom now uses her walker to decline off the newly installed ramp

Mom's chair lift is up and running! The crew came to work on it a couple days last week, and it is fully installed. On Friday, Mom and Dad were able to do some errand-running together - a task pretty near impossible to do without easy access down those condo steps. In addition to the chair lift itself, Dad also got permission to get a ramp built just outside the condo unit's main door, so those couple concrete steps do not present a problem.

When I spoke with Mom on the phone Thursday while they were finishing up this project, she already had a mental list prepared including all the places/people she would like to visit once mobile. Since she encountered this energy boost (which we are assuming is due to radiation) and has been feeling a bit more herself, I think Mom was beginning to feel trapped in the condo. As mentioned before, the steps were a HUGE obstacle. And they prevented her from being able to freely GET OUT INTO THE WORLD whenever she wanted to.

Grandmom tells me Mom prefers the walker to the wheelchair when they are out and about now-a-days, which is good - since her leg strength needs to be reinforced. As Dad mentioned in a recent email, her steroid doses (pills prescribed to reduce swelling of the brain - which had been causing some of her mental cloudiness) have been slowly reducing and now have completely stopped. One of steroid's popular side effects is weakness in the legs. So were are HOPING that she will gain back some leg strength now that that drug is out of her system. As for the brain-swelling, the effect of the radiation treatments (which are now over) should be accomplishinng that.

So, watch out, Janet Johnson is back in action! What a beautiful time of year to enjoy being OUT!