May 8, 2006
I didn’t really finish yesterday’s thread, so I will start with it. I felt like I was smiling absurdly with delight when Gary was going through the Topology Proceedings stuff with our visitors yesterday. It made me very happy to see him just treating it as business as usual. Our visitors mentioned, as others have, that it is good to see that Gary seems his normal self – same sense of humor, same positive attitude, same spirit. (And I will add “same sweetness.”) When afterwards I mentioned to them that I still wondered about what would happen when we got home and Gary came more face to face with how this was going to affect his life, Piotr gave words of reassurance along the lines of, “With his attitude, he’s going to be fine.” I immediately felt at greater ease – I mean, I think that’s the case too, but it’s good to hear it from others.
Soon after that visit I went back to my hotel room and sat on the bed and returned a call from my sister while heating up a small frying pan in the bathroom. At one point we hung up so she could look up some information. I never heard my cell phone when she called a few minutes later because I was . . . occupied. I think the fire alarm in my room is entirely too sensitive. Perhaps not coincidentally I was told my room rate is increasing soon. (When I called my sister back and started, “You’re not going to believe what happened,” she returned, “Oh yes I would.” She followed up by saying that I should just call down to the front desk and tell them to be prepared for a fire drill once a week. Who needs little sisters anyway?)
When I returned to see Gary about five-ish, they had just turned him and changed his dressing and he was on the tired side from that and from the visiting, so after a few minutes I left him so he could rest. When I returned at eight I found him in the most talky mood he’s been in with me since being here – his pointer was in near-constant motion whereas normally there are lots of long gaps of silence between us (for one thing, it’s not like I’m doing a lot of interesting things that I can regale him with tales thereof, and for another, I find it far easier to write than talk; I told him in our first days here I was sorry, but I wasn’t a very entertaining person; he said just my being there was enough; I said good, because it wasn’t like he had a choice ;-)). One thing he related was the odd thing that had happened to him in the afternoon – his bed deflated on him. He said all of a sudden he felt himself sinking. He kept pushing the call button but no one came (great – nice to know they’re on their toes here). By the time the nurse finally showed up the bed was completely flat. She was quite surprised, but got it pumped up again. Maintenance people have come to look at it, but no one knows what happened. Just a few days earlier I had told Gary I received an email from a person in England who was relating her hospital experiences from the time when her daughter was in for major heart surgery. One day her daughter’s bed started moving back and forth about three inches in both directions. The bed wasn’t electric nor was it attached to anything. The brakes on the wheels were on. When a nurse came to check, the bed moved even faster, and the nurse left the room squealing. Then the bed stopped. It turned out this woman’s daughter’s cubicle had a legend of being haunted – usually people reported seeing a man dressed in a black suit opening some of the cabinet doors just before he walked through the wall. We’re hoping the ghost hasn’t crossed the ocean.
Gary mentioned that the staples in his back were supposed to come out Monday (today). We exchanged a skeptical look. I said we should get a bulletin board where we put up the schedule of when the doctors are supposed to do what, according to their own words to us. So let’s see – his staples should’ve been removed today, but we haven’t heard anything. His cast was supposed to be replaced maybe a week ago. Etc. Etc. Etc. Gary smiled and said we had to be careful not to make them mad cuz they had all the power. I asked him, by the way, how was communication with the new nurses going, if they spoke loudly enough for him. He said it was going fine – if he couldn’t hear them and put his hand by his ear, they got the message. I told him not to be shy of doing that, not to be like me with the Chinese acupuncturist, nodding agreement, not knowing what she was saying. Gary spelled out “We are now going to cut off your head,” then gave a big smile, widened his eyes, and nodded eagerly.
Another thing Gary mentioned was that he’ll be glad to eat. I asked him what he wanted to eat. He said it didn’t matter.
We said some mushy stuff too, but I’ve probably told you too much of that as it is. ;-)
I still felt loose and relaxed from the massage when I returned back to my room. There was still the calf cramping, though, and I had the thought to put an instant ice pack on it just when I went to bed. The result of all this is that last night I slept the best I’ve slept since I’ve been here. I’m hoping that keeps up. In the morning I took a leisurely stroll to the health food store and picked up a small bottle of potassium. The massage therapist had mentioned potassium deficiency as being a possible cause of my leg cramps, saying it didn’t feel like it had a muscular cause. I have been aware that that is a typical cause but felt unable to do much about it since I can’t eat the foods nor take the supplements to offset it. Since it had been a while since I’d tried a potassium supplement, I thought, what the heck, try it now. I had the tablet with plenty of rice, but my stomach has been upset from it ever since shortly after taking it – I realize now I should have tried taking only part of a tablet. After my stomach settles, I’ll try it again but in a small dose.
At the morning visit the nurse explained what was next on the agenda in terms of breathing. They are weaning Gary off the supplemental oxygen now – at one point he was getting an about 45% concentration if I remember correctly. Now it is 38. Then they will go down to 31, then 28, and then he’ll go off the extra oxygen (recalling your chemistry, air is 21% oxygen). He’ll still be receiving humidified air through the trache collar until the trache hole is closed up. So tied in with this is getting him off the collar. They will be putting in smaller cannulas into the trachea (he’s on an eight, which I assume means an eight mm diameter cannula; then they’ll go to a six, then a four, then they’ll remove it completely and the hole will heal up naturally). The putting in the smaller cannulas is dependent on how he does with the less oxygen concentration. I asked him afterwards if they had let him know when they had decreased the oxygen concentration. He said no, and that psychologically he thought it best they didn’t tell him that kind of thing. He spelled out, “We are decreasing your oxygen,” then stuck his tongue out like he was being asphyxiated.
After that visit I had an appointment at the chiropractor. I gave myself forty-five minutes to make it. What a difference a week (and some sleep and, in general, less discombobulation) can make. Armed with my Yahoo! map, which made sense this time as opposed to the last time when it was gibberish, I made it with ten minutes to spare. I continue to be impressed with this chiropractor. For any Auburn-Opelikans familiar with the former resident of the area, I rank her up with Steve Garrett.
Oh, and she claimed the computer stuff helped her determine how deeply she should work, etc.
After that it was off to Radio Shack – a couple blocks away – to see about speakers for the DVD player. The young guy manning the store didn’t seem to know anything about it and sent me over to the Walmart across the street. You know you are in trouble when a Radio Shack person is recommending you talk to someone at Walmart. Actually, the older guy at Walmart did know what I needed, but his section of the store was being reorganized and he didn’t know where the speakers were at the moment. He thought using headphones on a splitter might work better, in terms of being able to hear, but was also unable to put his hands on a splitter. So I went back to Radio Shack and got a splitter. Further down in the same mall I saw an Office Max, so went in and asked if they had speakers for a DVD player. The guy who I asked showed me their speaker section and told me I could look through them to see what would work. Gee, thanks. I sat on the floor and looked through several booklets of nonsensical instructions until another worker came by and asked if I needed help. Astute observation. Turned out any of the speakers would do, and I made him show me exactly how everything should be plugged in, having brought the DVD player along so as to make sure I got things right. It turned out to be far simpler than I thought (I never did make heads or tails of the diagrams that were the only instructions provided on the speakers I went for) and I went away with a feeling of success.
I had some food and then went to tell Gary about the day’s adventures. His news was that the physical therapist had come by. He still cannot do any therapy until his sore is healed – they’re thinking Thurs. Gary and I had, in the morning, looked over some material that my older sister had gotten off the web about spinal rehab hospitals, in which the closest one to home ranked in the top 25 by U.S. News and World Report is in Atlanta (Birmingham didn’t make it). Gary had asked the therapist about his options of where to go for the more intensive therapy when it comes time. She said Atlanta was a good place. She also said most everyone from Alabama comes here. She mentioned that another advantage to here was this was where his spine docs were. I pointed out that since we hadn’t seen them since that first week, I wasn’t sure why that was such an advantage. He tapped out: good point. So, anyway, we are just beginning to think about things like that.
I then went to have a rest. When I returned, Gary was fast asleep, so I wrote him a note and returned to the hotel. When I went back around eight, Gary said the nurses got a big kick out of my note. Maybe it was because I had unthinkingly referred to him as “Pookie” in it. I set up the DVD speakers, and they worked well. He put one on his chest, and I took the other and propped it up on the head of his bed, which I stood behind. We watched about forty minutes of “Walk the Line,” and then Gary told me he thought I shouldn’t stand anymore and sent me off for the night.
Today’s mail call: Thanks for cards go to Debra Talley, Marilyn and Steve Foreman, Bruce Noda, the Auburn Math Dept, Ferenc Fodor of Hungary, and Kenichi Tamano of Japan, who sent along a beautiful card made as only the Japanese can do – he told us that the picture (done in some collage-like technique; I don’t know what the proper name for it is) represents the Chinese legend that the carp has the strength to swim up even waterfalls.
And there was another card from Gary’s mom, this time with a Christmas picture taken in the early nineties of Gary putting together a race track for his nephew Justin.
I didn’t really finish yesterday’s thread, so I will start with it. I felt like I was smiling absurdly with delight when Gary was going through the Topology Proceedings stuff with our visitors yesterday. It made me very happy to see him just treating it as business as usual. Our visitors mentioned, as others have, that it is good to see that Gary seems his normal self – same sense of humor, same positive attitude, same spirit. (And I will add “same sweetness.”) When afterwards I mentioned to them that I still wondered about what would happen when we got home and Gary came more face to face with how this was going to affect his life, Piotr gave words of reassurance along the lines of, “With his attitude, he’s going to be fine.” I immediately felt at greater ease – I mean, I think that’s the case too, but it’s good to hear it from others.
Soon after that visit I went back to my hotel room and sat on the bed and returned a call from my sister while heating up a small frying pan in the bathroom. At one point we hung up so she could look up some information. I never heard my cell phone when she called a few minutes later because I was . . . occupied. I think the fire alarm in my room is entirely too sensitive. Perhaps not coincidentally I was told my room rate is increasing soon. (When I called my sister back and started, “You’re not going to believe what happened,” she returned, “Oh yes I would.” She followed up by saying that I should just call down to the front desk and tell them to be prepared for a fire drill once a week. Who needs little sisters anyway?)
When I returned to see Gary about five-ish, they had just turned him and changed his dressing and he was on the tired side from that and from the visiting, so after a few minutes I left him so he could rest. When I returned at eight I found him in the most talky mood he’s been in with me since being here – his pointer was in near-constant motion whereas normally there are lots of long gaps of silence between us (for one thing, it’s not like I’m doing a lot of interesting things that I can regale him with tales thereof, and for another, I find it far easier to write than talk; I told him in our first days here I was sorry, but I wasn’t a very entertaining person; he said just my being there was enough; I said good, because it wasn’t like he had a choice ;-)). One thing he related was the odd thing that had happened to him in the afternoon – his bed deflated on him. He said all of a sudden he felt himself sinking. He kept pushing the call button but no one came (great – nice to know they’re on their toes here). By the time the nurse finally showed up the bed was completely flat. She was quite surprised, but got it pumped up again. Maintenance people have come to look at it, but no one knows what happened. Just a few days earlier I had told Gary I received an email from a person in England who was relating her hospital experiences from the time when her daughter was in for major heart surgery. One day her daughter’s bed started moving back and forth about three inches in both directions. The bed wasn’t electric nor was it attached to anything. The brakes on the wheels were on. When a nurse came to check, the bed moved even faster, and the nurse left the room squealing. Then the bed stopped. It turned out this woman’s daughter’s cubicle had a legend of being haunted – usually people reported seeing a man dressed in a black suit opening some of the cabinet doors just before he walked through the wall. We’re hoping the ghost hasn’t crossed the ocean.
Gary mentioned that the staples in his back were supposed to come out Monday (today). We exchanged a skeptical look. I said we should get a bulletin board where we put up the schedule of when the doctors are supposed to do what, according to their own words to us. So let’s see – his staples should’ve been removed today, but we haven’t heard anything. His cast was supposed to be replaced maybe a week ago. Etc. Etc. Etc. Gary smiled and said we had to be careful not to make them mad cuz they had all the power. I asked him, by the way, how was communication with the new nurses going, if they spoke loudly enough for him. He said it was going fine – if he couldn’t hear them and put his hand by his ear, they got the message. I told him not to be shy of doing that, not to be like me with the Chinese acupuncturist, nodding agreement, not knowing what she was saying. Gary spelled out “We are now going to cut off your head,” then gave a big smile, widened his eyes, and nodded eagerly.
Another thing Gary mentioned was that he’ll be glad to eat. I asked him what he wanted to eat. He said it didn’t matter.
We said some mushy stuff too, but I’ve probably told you too much of that as it is. ;-)
I still felt loose and relaxed from the massage when I returned back to my room. There was still the calf cramping, though, and I had the thought to put an instant ice pack on it just when I went to bed. The result of all this is that last night I slept the best I’ve slept since I’ve been here. I’m hoping that keeps up. In the morning I took a leisurely stroll to the health food store and picked up a small bottle of potassium. The massage therapist had mentioned potassium deficiency as being a possible cause of my leg cramps, saying it didn’t feel like it had a muscular cause. I have been aware that that is a typical cause but felt unable to do much about it since I can’t eat the foods nor take the supplements to offset it. Since it had been a while since I’d tried a potassium supplement, I thought, what the heck, try it now. I had the tablet with plenty of rice, but my stomach has been upset from it ever since shortly after taking it – I realize now I should have tried taking only part of a tablet. After my stomach settles, I’ll try it again but in a small dose.
At the morning visit the nurse explained what was next on the agenda in terms of breathing. They are weaning Gary off the supplemental oxygen now – at one point he was getting an about 45% concentration if I remember correctly. Now it is 38. Then they will go down to 31, then 28, and then he’ll go off the extra oxygen (recalling your chemistry, air is 21% oxygen). He’ll still be receiving humidified air through the trache collar until the trache hole is closed up. So tied in with this is getting him off the collar. They will be putting in smaller cannulas into the trachea (he’s on an eight, which I assume means an eight mm diameter cannula; then they’ll go to a six, then a four, then they’ll remove it completely and the hole will heal up naturally). The putting in the smaller cannulas is dependent on how he does with the less oxygen concentration. I asked him afterwards if they had let him know when they had decreased the oxygen concentration. He said no, and that psychologically he thought it best they didn’t tell him that kind of thing. He spelled out, “We are decreasing your oxygen,” then stuck his tongue out like he was being asphyxiated.
After that visit I had an appointment at the chiropractor. I gave myself forty-five minutes to make it. What a difference a week (and some sleep and, in general, less discombobulation) can make. Armed with my Yahoo! map, which made sense this time as opposed to the last time when it was gibberish, I made it with ten minutes to spare. I continue to be impressed with this chiropractor. For any Auburn-Opelikans familiar with the former resident of the area, I rank her up with Steve Garrett.
Oh, and she claimed the computer stuff helped her determine how deeply she should work, etc.
After that it was off to Radio Shack – a couple blocks away – to see about speakers for the DVD player. The young guy manning the store didn’t seem to know anything about it and sent me over to the Walmart across the street. You know you are in trouble when a Radio Shack person is recommending you talk to someone at Walmart. Actually, the older guy at Walmart did know what I needed, but his section of the store was being reorganized and he didn’t know where the speakers were at the moment. He thought using headphones on a splitter might work better, in terms of being able to hear, but was also unable to put his hands on a splitter. So I went back to Radio Shack and got a splitter. Further down in the same mall I saw an Office Max, so went in and asked if they had speakers for a DVD player. The guy who I asked showed me their speaker section and told me I could look through them to see what would work. Gee, thanks. I sat on the floor and looked through several booklets of nonsensical instructions until another worker came by and asked if I needed help. Astute observation. Turned out any of the speakers would do, and I made him show me exactly how everything should be plugged in, having brought the DVD player along so as to make sure I got things right. It turned out to be far simpler than I thought (I never did make heads or tails of the diagrams that were the only instructions provided on the speakers I went for) and I went away with a feeling of success.
I had some food and then went to tell Gary about the day’s adventures. His news was that the physical therapist had come by. He still cannot do any therapy until his sore is healed – they’re thinking Thurs. Gary and I had, in the morning, looked over some material that my older sister had gotten off the web about spinal rehab hospitals, in which the closest one to home ranked in the top 25 by U.S. News and World Report is in Atlanta (Birmingham didn’t make it). Gary had asked the therapist about his options of where to go for the more intensive therapy when it comes time. She said Atlanta was a good place. She also said most everyone from Alabama comes here. She mentioned that another advantage to here was this was where his spine docs were. I pointed out that since we hadn’t seen them since that first week, I wasn’t sure why that was such an advantage. He tapped out: good point. So, anyway, we are just beginning to think about things like that.
I then went to have a rest. When I returned, Gary was fast asleep, so I wrote him a note and returned to the hotel. When I went back around eight, Gary said the nurses got a big kick out of my note. Maybe it was because I had unthinkingly referred to him as “Pookie” in it. I set up the DVD speakers, and they worked well. He put one on his chest, and I took the other and propped it up on the head of his bed, which I stood behind. We watched about forty minutes of “Walk the Line,” and then Gary told me he thought I shouldn’t stand anymore and sent me off for the night.
Today’s mail call: Thanks for cards go to Debra Talley, Marilyn and Steve Foreman, Bruce Noda, the Auburn Math Dept, Ferenc Fodor of Hungary, and Kenichi Tamano of Japan, who sent along a beautiful card made as only the Japanese can do – he told us that the picture (done in some collage-like technique; I don’t know what the proper name for it is) represents the Chinese legend that the carp has the strength to swim up even waterfalls.
And there was another card from Gary’s mom, this time with a Christmas picture taken in the early nineties of Gary putting together a race track for his nephew Justin.
posted by Peg Daniels at 8:00 PM
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