May 2, 2006
Oh, lovely. The hotel is under lock-down, for how long, I don’t know. This means no one gets in without using their door key to open the front entrance doors, or unless they convince the concierge over the intercom that they have a “good reason.” I forgot to ask the guy at the desk what that meant, whether they were even taking new occupants. The reason for the lock-down is McAlister’s, a restaurant just to the other side of the parking garage from me, was robbed yesterday (during the day!), plus a hotel guest had a gun put to his head and was robbed at the Texaco station behind the hotel – I can see the station right outside my window. I could do without this additional excitement – I will be running the twenty yard dash between the front of the hotel and the entrance to the parking garage from now on.
Back to more mundane stuff.
As you could probably have guessed, my trip to the chiropractor was not smooth sailing. I never noticed that 280 split into 280 and 31, and I ended up on 31, the wrong road. I didn’t discover my error until way too late, and my twenty minute trip thus took me an hour. I have concluded I need a GPS navigational system in my car. :-) Not that I will get one – I think I can handle Auburn traffic. I had gotten directions originally from a person at the chiropractic clinic, and I again called them when I got lost, telling them someone at a gas station had told me how to get back to 280 (I was down at 65, for those familiar with the area), but that I wasn’t confident I could get to the clinic once I was back on 280. Unfortunately I spoke to the same person I had originally, and she told me once again to “look for the Office Depot on the left.” I don’t like directions like that. I can’t be looking for landmarks while I am driving – I need street names, distances. If you tell me I can’t miss the landmark, believe me, I will miss it (well, except I was able to spot the art museum on College Street in Auburn with the big lake in front of it). Unfortunately the clinic receptionist was unable to supply street names and distances. Right-brain versus left-brain? Anyway, I did find it after much anxious driving. Next time I will go on Yahoo and blow up the area around the final destination. I had tried to use Yahoo to get directions from my hotel to the clinic, but the directions were very different, and the person at the clinic made it sound so easy.
I am seeing various indications that I am getting more tired out – I never get enough rest, no matter how long I lay in bed or meditate. Examples (besides the fact that I think I’m crabbier): The clinic person had told me it would probably be about six lights after I got back on 280, but I couldn’t keep track of how many I had passed. At the clinic I kept misplacing my belongings, repeating things I would then realize I had already said, and I couldn’t remember what had been said to me moments before, even when I consciously tried to repeat them to myself several times so I would remember. And when I am with Gary sometimes it gets very hard to string his letters into words, and if he asks for something and the nurse isn’t available and I forget to write it down, it goes out of my mind. Anyway, I can see the increase in these occurrences. This is frustrating.
Back to the clinic. It was a different experience than what I’ve had at others. It started out with some computerized testing, supposedly “thermal testing” and “EMG testing,” showing the problem areas, etc., by placing electrode-like devices down me spine. Part of me wants to believe the testing is useful, but my cynical side feels like it’s for show: impress the customers with the computer readouts. Next time, if I think of it, I’m going to ask whether the results had any bearing on the treatment she gave me – I could have told her my upper back was tight and my lower back was screwed up without that. :-) She’ll probably tell me it gave her a baseline.
After the computer scanning, I laid on the “intersegmental treatment table” – a new experience. It felt good. A roller ran up and down my spine, concentrating on a small area at a time. It felt like laying in the ocean on my back and riding the waves, only the wave would be at only one part of the spine. I had the thought that you would not want someone watching you while this was being done to you, as your body is literally lifted up and down wherever the wave is concentrated. It was very relaxing, except that the “wave” was ice cold – probably good for the spine, but it chilled me. (Note to sister Janet – I think those aquamassage machines we tried in that shopping gallery in the casino in Vegas were even better than this.) After ten minutes of having my intersegments treated, I moved to the room to get “crunched.” (My chiropractor in Auburn informed me that “we (chiropractors) do not ‘crunch’ people,” but I think that describes the sensation.) First she pumped up and down on the drop table while pushing with her hands up and down my spine, also a different technique from my Auburn chiropractor. Then came the adjustments. I don’t know if it was the intersegmental treatment or just her skill, but she was good – very little effort on her part, whereas in Auburn I sometimes feel like I am being wrenched.
I got directions back to the hotel, unfortunately from the same person who had tried to get me there and who couldn’t figure out how to use mapquest. So she gave me her own directions – I was supposed to be watching for Red Mountain Expressway and veer onto that, but I am sure there never was a sign for it. Really, I am sure. I was afraid I had missed something again, but saw the University exit off 280.Then I was home free. After making a zucchini stop, I arrived back at the hotel at 5, so in total spent three hours on this adventure. I’m not absolutely sure I’ll continue the treatments. Admittedly, my back feels better, but the treatment did nothing obvious for the leg symptoms, and in fact the driving aggravated them. And though hopefully next time I’ll find the clinic more easily, it’s still a bit of a distance to drive, and I don’t like the Birmingham traffic. I’ll try the treatment a few more times and see how I do. If it seems helpful I might have to dig in the old wallet and take a cab, like city folk do. ;-) I must say I did like the people at the clinic – they were all very caring.
After I dropped off the zukes and took a quick breather, I headed toward the hospital, belatedly realizing that poor Phil Zenor had probably been sitting there a while. Gary was up to the visit, and the nurse even allowed us to stay longer than the visiting time, though Gary got tired after about forty-five minutes. There was small talk, and talk about Gary’s class, which Phil and Stu are taking care of for Gary, and some math talk. Phil brought Gary a biography of R.L. Moore and a DVD of “Walk the Line,” which the two of us had wanted to see but haven’t yet.
By the way, Gary today (Tuesday) said he answered Phil incorrectly when asked if he was bored. Gary said that he wasn’t bored, that he was too tired and felt too weirded out to be bored. I’m sure that’s a combination of the drugs and the unnatural sleep.
After the visit Phil asked if I wanted to see a movie, but I said I had to make my dinner (and I also needed to meditate). I think Phil thinks I need to get out to get away from this, but I think that is an extrovert speaking. :-) For me, I recover by going back to my room, resting, writing this blog, slowly working through the emails, reading, meditating, watching DVDs, taking a hot bath, getting a massage, etc. I am very much the introvert and need lots of quiet time.
Monday’s mail call: Thanks to Liljana and Marion Scheepers, Michel, Gary and Elise Grabner, Mirna Džamonja (not sure if that “j” at the end is the right letter), and Gary’s mom.
Something I want to pass on: when Phil told Gary that he was glad Gary seemed to be in good spirits, Gary replied that the emails, letters, and cards have been a great help in that regard. (Of course, he hasn’t seen the emails yet, but I tell him who has written.) So know that you are a very important part of his recovery.
Now for Tuesday’s news. Even though I still have no idea how long I’ll be here, I extended my stay for another week to the 26th so I don’t run into the problem where I almost get kicked out because they are booked for some event (which happened with the motorcycle racing day). The hotel manager tells me they are renaming the sixth floor “The Daniels wing.” They should – I’m sure I’ve paid for it by now. ;-)
For the magazine problem: Someone (I will name your name if you wish :-)) told me that there are machines that will turn pages but that they cost hundreds of dollars, so I agree: we’ll just wait for the cast to come off. :-) Turning down the edges of the pages, as was also suggested, didn’t seem to help. I thought of putting two rubber bands vertically instead of one horizontally and that helped a little. Manipulating his reading material is even harder for Gary now, because they won’t let him raise the head of the bed very high anymore because of the bedsore.
My tender-hearted little sister arrived at about 11:30. We talked, relaxed, ate, and then headed over to Gary for the two-thirty visit. He was more out of it than I have ever seen him, and I was worried, but it turned out that they had bronched him again and he was still under the influence of all the drugs they use for the procedure. So basically Diana and I just stayed there talking quietly while I “petted” Gary’s head to let him know we were there. His trauma doc came in and told us the procedure went fine and there wasn’t much fluid to pull out from his lungs this time. There wasn’t anything new to report, really. Their main goals are to wean him off the ventilator and take care of the bedsore. They may up him to “10 and 2" on the trache collar tonight, but they want to make sure they don’t do so too quickly. He was told not to use the exercise band because it might pull on the staples on his back (the result of having so many different specialists working on him is that they don’t always agree in their recommendations). I worried that since he had been using it there might have been more damage because of it, but he admitted he hadn’t been using it. So I guess it was a good thing he hadn’t been doing as he had been told ;-) (or perhaps that they had said “do it when you feel like it,” and he hadn’t felt like it).
After that visit Diana offered me a massage. Yes! Bliss. She is *very* good – it is the first time I’ve gotten one from her. Connie, if you ever need another therapist in your office, try to lure Diana away from Ocean City, N.J. And if anyone reading this is ever in Diana’s area, check her out. She did a combination of trigger-point therapy and deep massage. Ahhhh. (She can also do
Swedish massage for the wimps.) It was a good kind of hurting, though when she got to my feet I considered yelling “uncle!” She informed me my back was full of cords and “crunchies” (not a technical term ;-)) – and it was like trying to massage bubble wrap. When it was over (saved by the bell of it being time for the next visit with Gary), I felt limp as spaghetti. The endorphins kicked in shortly thereafter and I felt really good. Too bad I can’t afford to hire her as my personal masseuse for at least the duration of my stay here.
The person who I was supposed to get the massage from on Sunday had generously offered to let Di use her massage table while she is here. I couldn’t find the numbers I had written down for her (leading my sister to crack when I later said I had to write something down or else I would forget that it didn’t matter if I wrote it down because I would lose the paper – thanks, sis), but then I realized I would have her home number on my cell phone under “numbers called.” This cell phone definitely has its uses. :-) The massage person was reached, and she is even going to come by and drop the table off for us at the hotel tomorrow morning! Amazing!
At the 5:30 visit, Gary was a bit more alert, but his eyes kept closing. So the talking was pretty subdued. Di went off to the Curry’s after that visit, and I did my usual routine and then returned for the 8:30 visit with Gary. I asked how he was feeling, and he spelled out “perky.” I raised an eyebrow. He spelled out “joke.” He was obviously still sleepy, so I read him some Dylan until it was time to go.
And thus ends the night. With my sister here I probably won’t have the time to be so chatty (yea! you say), but I will be sure to tell you of any developments with Gary.
Oh, lovely. The hotel is under lock-down, for how long, I don’t know. This means no one gets in without using their door key to open the front entrance doors, or unless they convince the concierge over the intercom that they have a “good reason.” I forgot to ask the guy at the desk what that meant, whether they were even taking new occupants. The reason for the lock-down is McAlister’s, a restaurant just to the other side of the parking garage from me, was robbed yesterday (during the day!), plus a hotel guest had a gun put to his head and was robbed at the Texaco station behind the hotel – I can see the station right outside my window. I could do without this additional excitement – I will be running the twenty yard dash between the front of the hotel and the entrance to the parking garage from now on.
Back to more mundane stuff.
As you could probably have guessed, my trip to the chiropractor was not smooth sailing. I never noticed that 280 split into 280 and 31, and I ended up on 31, the wrong road. I didn’t discover my error until way too late, and my twenty minute trip thus took me an hour. I have concluded I need a GPS navigational system in my car. :-) Not that I will get one – I think I can handle Auburn traffic. I had gotten directions originally from a person at the chiropractic clinic, and I again called them when I got lost, telling them someone at a gas station had told me how to get back to 280 (I was down at 65, for those familiar with the area), but that I wasn’t confident I could get to the clinic once I was back on 280. Unfortunately I spoke to the same person I had originally, and she told me once again to “look for the Office Depot on the left.” I don’t like directions like that. I can’t be looking for landmarks while I am driving – I need street names, distances. If you tell me I can’t miss the landmark, believe me, I will miss it (well, except I was able to spot the art museum on College Street in Auburn with the big lake in front of it). Unfortunately the clinic receptionist was unable to supply street names and distances. Right-brain versus left-brain? Anyway, I did find it after much anxious driving. Next time I will go on Yahoo and blow up the area around the final destination. I had tried to use Yahoo to get directions from my hotel to the clinic, but the directions were very different, and the person at the clinic made it sound so easy.
I am seeing various indications that I am getting more tired out – I never get enough rest, no matter how long I lay in bed or meditate. Examples (besides the fact that I think I’m crabbier): The clinic person had told me it would probably be about six lights after I got back on 280, but I couldn’t keep track of how many I had passed. At the clinic I kept misplacing my belongings, repeating things I would then realize I had already said, and I couldn’t remember what had been said to me moments before, even when I consciously tried to repeat them to myself several times so I would remember. And when I am with Gary sometimes it gets very hard to string his letters into words, and if he asks for something and the nurse isn’t available and I forget to write it down, it goes out of my mind. Anyway, I can see the increase in these occurrences. This is frustrating.
Back to the clinic. It was a different experience than what I’ve had at others. It started out with some computerized testing, supposedly “thermal testing” and “EMG testing,” showing the problem areas, etc., by placing electrode-like devices down me spine. Part of me wants to believe the testing is useful, but my cynical side feels like it’s for show: impress the customers with the computer readouts. Next time, if I think of it, I’m going to ask whether the results had any bearing on the treatment she gave me – I could have told her my upper back was tight and my lower back was screwed up without that. :-) She’ll probably tell me it gave her a baseline.
After the computer scanning, I laid on the “intersegmental treatment table” – a new experience. It felt good. A roller ran up and down my spine, concentrating on a small area at a time. It felt like laying in the ocean on my back and riding the waves, only the wave would be at only one part of the spine. I had the thought that you would not want someone watching you while this was being done to you, as your body is literally lifted up and down wherever the wave is concentrated. It was very relaxing, except that the “wave” was ice cold – probably good for the spine, but it chilled me. (Note to sister Janet – I think those aquamassage machines we tried in that shopping gallery in the casino in Vegas were even better than this.) After ten minutes of having my intersegments treated, I moved to the room to get “crunched.” (My chiropractor in Auburn informed me that “we (chiropractors) do not ‘crunch’ people,” but I think that describes the sensation.) First she pumped up and down on the drop table while pushing with her hands up and down my spine, also a different technique from my Auburn chiropractor. Then came the adjustments. I don’t know if it was the intersegmental treatment or just her skill, but she was good – very little effort on her part, whereas in Auburn I sometimes feel like I am being wrenched.
I got directions back to the hotel, unfortunately from the same person who had tried to get me there and who couldn’t figure out how to use mapquest. So she gave me her own directions – I was supposed to be watching for Red Mountain Expressway and veer onto that, but I am sure there never was a sign for it. Really, I am sure. I was afraid I had missed something again, but saw the University exit off 280.Then I was home free. After making a zucchini stop, I arrived back at the hotel at 5, so in total spent three hours on this adventure. I’m not absolutely sure I’ll continue the treatments. Admittedly, my back feels better, but the treatment did nothing obvious for the leg symptoms, and in fact the driving aggravated them. And though hopefully next time I’ll find the clinic more easily, it’s still a bit of a distance to drive, and I don’t like the Birmingham traffic. I’ll try the treatment a few more times and see how I do. If it seems helpful I might have to dig in the old wallet and take a cab, like city folk do. ;-) I must say I did like the people at the clinic – they were all very caring.
After I dropped off the zukes and took a quick breather, I headed toward the hospital, belatedly realizing that poor Phil Zenor had probably been sitting there a while. Gary was up to the visit, and the nurse even allowed us to stay longer than the visiting time, though Gary got tired after about forty-five minutes. There was small talk, and talk about Gary’s class, which Phil and Stu are taking care of for Gary, and some math talk. Phil brought Gary a biography of R.L. Moore and a DVD of “Walk the Line,” which the two of us had wanted to see but haven’t yet.
By the way, Gary today (Tuesday) said he answered Phil incorrectly when asked if he was bored. Gary said that he wasn’t bored, that he was too tired and felt too weirded out to be bored. I’m sure that’s a combination of the drugs and the unnatural sleep.
After the visit Phil asked if I wanted to see a movie, but I said I had to make my dinner (and I also needed to meditate). I think Phil thinks I need to get out to get away from this, but I think that is an extrovert speaking. :-) For me, I recover by going back to my room, resting, writing this blog, slowly working through the emails, reading, meditating, watching DVDs, taking a hot bath, getting a massage, etc. I am very much the introvert and need lots of quiet time.
Monday’s mail call: Thanks to Liljana and Marion Scheepers, Michel, Gary and Elise Grabner, Mirna Džamonja (not sure if that “j” at the end is the right letter), and Gary’s mom.
Something I want to pass on: when Phil told Gary that he was glad Gary seemed to be in good spirits, Gary replied that the emails, letters, and cards have been a great help in that regard. (Of course, he hasn’t seen the emails yet, but I tell him who has written.) So know that you are a very important part of his recovery.
Now for Tuesday’s news. Even though I still have no idea how long I’ll be here, I extended my stay for another week to the 26th so I don’t run into the problem where I almost get kicked out because they are booked for some event (which happened with the motorcycle racing day). The hotel manager tells me they are renaming the sixth floor “The Daniels wing.” They should – I’m sure I’ve paid for it by now. ;-)
For the magazine problem: Someone (I will name your name if you wish :-)) told me that there are machines that will turn pages but that they cost hundreds of dollars, so I agree: we’ll just wait for the cast to come off. :-) Turning down the edges of the pages, as was also suggested, didn’t seem to help. I thought of putting two rubber bands vertically instead of one horizontally and that helped a little. Manipulating his reading material is even harder for Gary now, because they won’t let him raise the head of the bed very high anymore because of the bedsore.
My tender-hearted little sister arrived at about 11:30. We talked, relaxed, ate, and then headed over to Gary for the two-thirty visit. He was more out of it than I have ever seen him, and I was worried, but it turned out that they had bronched him again and he was still under the influence of all the drugs they use for the procedure. So basically Diana and I just stayed there talking quietly while I “petted” Gary’s head to let him know we were there. His trauma doc came in and told us the procedure went fine and there wasn’t much fluid to pull out from his lungs this time. There wasn’t anything new to report, really. Their main goals are to wean him off the ventilator and take care of the bedsore. They may up him to “10 and 2" on the trache collar tonight, but they want to make sure they don’t do so too quickly. He was told not to use the exercise band because it might pull on the staples on his back (the result of having so many different specialists working on him is that they don’t always agree in their recommendations). I worried that since he had been using it there might have been more damage because of it, but he admitted he hadn’t been using it. So I guess it was a good thing he hadn’t been doing as he had been told ;-) (or perhaps that they had said “do it when you feel like it,” and he hadn’t felt like it).
After that visit Diana offered me a massage. Yes! Bliss. She is *very* good – it is the first time I’ve gotten one from her. Connie, if you ever need another therapist in your office, try to lure Diana away from Ocean City, N.J. And if anyone reading this is ever in Diana’s area, check her out. She did a combination of trigger-point therapy and deep massage. Ahhhh. (She can also do
Swedish massage for the wimps.) It was a good kind of hurting, though when she got to my feet I considered yelling “uncle!” She informed me my back was full of cords and “crunchies” (not a technical term ;-)) – and it was like trying to massage bubble wrap. When it was over (saved by the bell of it being time for the next visit with Gary), I felt limp as spaghetti. The endorphins kicked in shortly thereafter and I felt really good. Too bad I can’t afford to hire her as my personal masseuse for at least the duration of my stay here.
The person who I was supposed to get the massage from on Sunday had generously offered to let Di use her massage table while she is here. I couldn’t find the numbers I had written down for her (leading my sister to crack when I later said I had to write something down or else I would forget that it didn’t matter if I wrote it down because I would lose the paper – thanks, sis), but then I realized I would have her home number on my cell phone under “numbers called.” This cell phone definitely has its uses. :-) The massage person was reached, and she is even going to come by and drop the table off for us at the hotel tomorrow morning! Amazing!
At the 5:30 visit, Gary was a bit more alert, but his eyes kept closing. So the talking was pretty subdued. Di went off to the Curry’s after that visit, and I did my usual routine and then returned for the 8:30 visit with Gary. I asked how he was feeling, and he spelled out “perky.” I raised an eyebrow. He spelled out “joke.” He was obviously still sleepy, so I read him some Dylan until it was time to go.
And thus ends the night. With my sister here I probably won’t have the time to be so chatty (yea! you say), but I will be sure to tell you of any developments with Gary.
posted by Peg Daniels at 8:04 PM
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