Blog at http://drpeg2003.blogspot.com/
June 5, 2006 (1:30pm)
The other Residence Inn called me and, through the Shepherd coordinator, offered me the $79 per night rate. Helped in my decision by the fact that the rates were the same, I decided to try out the first, more conveniently located Residence Inn. The good news is that when I called them this morning they gave me a $55 a night rate! The bad news was they didn’t have the availability of a room for sixty days, just thirty. I took it, hoping that at some time while I am there something will open up for my remaining time in Atlanta. And if it doesn’t, I’m still covered – the other Residence Inn person told me that if the first Residence Inn doesn’t work out for any reason, I could still book with them at the $79 rate for the remainder of my time here. Great, huh?
The recreational therapist came and talked with Gary for about a half hour late in morning. We thought it funny how she would, in all seriousness, ask Gary’s questions like: I am a recreational therapist, what do you think I do? (Um, help me adapt my recreational activities to my current circumstances?) Part of our program is community re-entry, what do you think that is? (Um, helping me get back into the community after I go home?)
She told us Shepherd is one of the largest Therapeutic Recreational (TR) Centers in the country. They have a team of specialists that help the patients adapt their interests to their new situation. The specialists are in: horticulture (Gary wants to learn how to continue to grow his tomatoes and peppers – I’m sure this will involve raised-bed techniques; however, he said he has no interest in learning how to mow the lawn or trim the bushes); art (the person said many patients were surprised to discover they had unknown talents in this area – I said I’d be very surprised if Gary showed such talent (snicker); Gary told the person to move on to the next area of speciality. But I should mention, besides painting the art program covers photography, sewing, and more); music (Gary also passed on this, being a listener rather than a performer); sports (Gary said he’d be interested in table tennis, billiards, cardio, strengthening, board games, card games (those last two are considered sports??? ;-)); aquatics (Gary would be interested except for the fact that for the next six months, because of the flap surgery, he cannot be submerged in water); and outdoor recreation (Gary passed on that, but it includes camping, fishing, boating, hunting, canoeing, kayaking).
When Gary is ready to participate in these activities, they will assess whether his needs in the different areas will be better served by being with a group or with individual attention.
As I mentioned, the therapeutic recreation program also includes community re-entry: the participants go on outings such as going out to dinner (but they are only given $12 to spend, and Gary joked that there was no place in Atlanta that he would like to eat where a meal cost only $12), to the grocery store (which he definitely needs to re-learn how to do ;-)), out shopping (he says that’s a necessity, not a pleasure, and I agree), to a movie, on a camping trip, to the airport (unfortunately he won’t be flying until the flap is fully healed, probably 6-12 months, since he won’t be able to do the sliding on his booty necessary to get from the wheelchair to an airplane seat; he’ll have to learn this type of thing – including the basic skill of the sliding transfer – later, either by returning to Shepherd’s day program for a while, or by seeing if there’s someplace closer to home that teaches such things).
She finished by doing an “eval,” asking Gary about how he’d typically spent his time before the accident, what actitivites he’d done, what he enjoyed doing. Based on this they will come up with a TR program for him and schedule that into his days when he is ready.
Gary then took a nap, then did his weights on his right side – he’d already done them on the left in the morning – while I stretched his feet. While he was doing his weights the “bridge builder” came and talked to us for a while. The bridge program kicks in for a year after Gary is discharged; they will contact us once a month, and we are supposed to bring any problems at all to them. He asked if we had any questions now, so we asked about home help, and the guy said he would get a list of agencies that hopefully can help us out (though the Browns said they might know of someone who can help us, if he is available).
Next we went to a class – they wheeled Gary’s bed down to the second floor classroom. It was the first hour of what I had already heard on Saturday, but I figured it would only be to our benefit for me to hear it again. I learned two new things: 1)Gary doesn’t have to worry about the possibility of his heart having a weird response to exercise (decreasing in rate instead of increasing), because that could only happen to someone with an injury at T3 or above; 2) the low blood pressure happens (or may happen) because the signals from the brain telling the veins and arteries in the legs to constrict don’t get to them, so that’s why binders and ted hose may be necessary (I should have been able to figure this out, but didn’t think about it).
I was the only non-patient attendee, and it was a totally different experience hearing the lecture with the patients than with the family members, and not just because all throughout the hour people’s timers were going off, reminding them to do their weight shifts. The patients seemed much more somber, which is understandable, not cracking smiles at the lecturer’s jokes.
But I could be misinterpreting. Gary, for instance, said he had a hard time staying awake during it. Maybe the others were dozing off as well.
When we got back to the room, Gary commented that it had been a nice day, because three different things had happened (the TR, the bridge builder, the class), and he had enjoyed the variety. Just then, the day was made even nicer, when a bunch of helium balloons from Gary’s brother Bob were delivered. That made us laugh.
It was then time for me to go to the chiropractor, but before leaving, since Gary had just finished the Gödel book, I set up the CD player Gary’s cousin had brought with one of her CDs – “The Orchid Thief”. We had seen the movie based on it and enjoyed it, and I know Gary really likes the author of the book, Susan Orlean – I’ve gotten him several of her books over the past couple years. He particularly likes her short pieces. He does, in general, like collections of short works (though he likes longer books too): each Christmas I get him, or have others get him, the year’s volumes of Best American Essays, Best American Travel Writing, Best American Sports Writing, Best American Magazine Writing. As he generally prefers nonfiction to fiction, we skip the Best American Short Stories, etc.
When I came back in the evening and asked, he said he’d enjoyed what he’d heard of The Orchid Thief, but as is typical these days, he’d dozed off during it, and then it took him awhile to figure where to back up to.
We finished the evening with “practical stuff” – correspondence concerning the adaptations to be made on our home. My brother is planning to go to Auburn in about a week to start in on the remodeling. Sasha Shibakov has volunteered his labor. He says he is particularly good at destroying things. I hope it is safe to let him in our house ;-)
I’m sure the kitties are going to be quite put out with all the activity. Blackjack, I’m sure, will take up residence in the woods on our back lot. Probably Tigger too. I expect they’ll still find their way to their food bowls, though perhaps I should tell Joe to move the bowls outside to the back patio, so the cats don’t have to brave entering the house.
During the night I had another “performance anxiety” dream. I recall having one in Birmingham as well. In it, I was supposed to be giving a talk at a math conference, and I got up to the podium and realized it’d been ages since I’d looked over my notes and I was completely unprepared. I’ve had variations on this – sometimes I look down at my notes and they’re on a completely different topic than what I’m familiar with – sometimes it’s not even math – or the notes are complete gibberish. When I tell Gary I had such a dream, he always says, “hey, that’s my dream,” so I know he has them too. Sometimes mine are about swimming – I can’t find the heat sheet that tells what race I’m in, I can’t find my suit or am wearing one too large, etc. (My mom said she has similar dreams, usually involving some large dinner party she is supposed to be giving, where the cooking becomes an endless task and she can’t get the food on the table.) Since I haven’t been to a math conference or a swimming meet in about ten years, I don’t know why these are still the subjects of my dream. I’m not sure why I’m having them now – maybe a feeling of being unprepared for my current situation. I’ve heard such dreams serve a positive purpose – since the dreamer doesn’t want to experience such anxiety in real life, they are more likely to prepare themselves for their real-life tasks. I’m not sure I need the extra goading. :-)
All for now.
June 5, 2006 (1:30pm)
The other Residence Inn called me and, through the Shepherd coordinator, offered me the $79 per night rate. Helped in my decision by the fact that the rates were the same, I decided to try out the first, more conveniently located Residence Inn. The good news is that when I called them this morning they gave me a $55 a night rate! The bad news was they didn’t have the availability of a room for sixty days, just thirty. I took it, hoping that at some time while I am there something will open up for my remaining time in Atlanta. And if it doesn’t, I’m still covered – the other Residence Inn person told me that if the first Residence Inn doesn’t work out for any reason, I could still book with them at the $79 rate for the remainder of my time here. Great, huh?
The recreational therapist came and talked with Gary for about a half hour late in morning. We thought it funny how she would, in all seriousness, ask Gary’s questions like: I am a recreational therapist, what do you think I do? (Um, help me adapt my recreational activities to my current circumstances?) Part of our program is community re-entry, what do you think that is? (Um, helping me get back into the community after I go home?)
She told us Shepherd is one of the largest Therapeutic Recreational (TR) Centers in the country. They have a team of specialists that help the patients adapt their interests to their new situation. The specialists are in: horticulture (Gary wants to learn how to continue to grow his tomatoes and peppers – I’m sure this will involve raised-bed techniques; however, he said he has no interest in learning how to mow the lawn or trim the bushes); art (the person said many patients were surprised to discover they had unknown talents in this area – I said I’d be very surprised if Gary showed such talent (snicker); Gary told the person to move on to the next area of speciality. But I should mention, besides painting the art program covers photography, sewing, and more); music (Gary also passed on this, being a listener rather than a performer); sports (Gary said he’d be interested in table tennis, billiards, cardio, strengthening, board games, card games (those last two are considered sports??? ;-)); aquatics (Gary would be interested except for the fact that for the next six months, because of the flap surgery, he cannot be submerged in water); and outdoor recreation (Gary passed on that, but it includes camping, fishing, boating, hunting, canoeing, kayaking).
When Gary is ready to participate in these activities, they will assess whether his needs in the different areas will be better served by being with a group or with individual attention.
As I mentioned, the therapeutic recreation program also includes community re-entry: the participants go on outings such as going out to dinner (but they are only given $12 to spend, and Gary joked that there was no place in Atlanta that he would like to eat where a meal cost only $12), to the grocery store (which he definitely needs to re-learn how to do ;-)), out shopping (he says that’s a necessity, not a pleasure, and I agree), to a movie, on a camping trip, to the airport (unfortunately he won’t be flying until the flap is fully healed, probably 6-12 months, since he won’t be able to do the sliding on his booty necessary to get from the wheelchair to an airplane seat; he’ll have to learn this type of thing – including the basic skill of the sliding transfer – later, either by returning to Shepherd’s day program for a while, or by seeing if there’s someplace closer to home that teaches such things).
She finished by doing an “eval,” asking Gary about how he’d typically spent his time before the accident, what actitivites he’d done, what he enjoyed doing. Based on this they will come up with a TR program for him and schedule that into his days when he is ready.
Gary then took a nap, then did his weights on his right side – he’d already done them on the left in the morning – while I stretched his feet. While he was doing his weights the “bridge builder” came and talked to us for a while. The bridge program kicks in for a year after Gary is discharged; they will contact us once a month, and we are supposed to bring any problems at all to them. He asked if we had any questions now, so we asked about home help, and the guy said he would get a list of agencies that hopefully can help us out (though the Browns said they might know of someone who can help us, if he is available).
Next we went to a class – they wheeled Gary’s bed down to the second floor classroom. It was the first hour of what I had already heard on Saturday, but I figured it would only be to our benefit for me to hear it again. I learned two new things: 1)Gary doesn’t have to worry about the possibility of his heart having a weird response to exercise (decreasing in rate instead of increasing), because that could only happen to someone with an injury at T3 or above; 2) the low blood pressure happens (or may happen) because the signals from the brain telling the veins and arteries in the legs to constrict don’t get to them, so that’s why binders and ted hose may be necessary (I should have been able to figure this out, but didn’t think about it).
I was the only non-patient attendee, and it was a totally different experience hearing the lecture with the patients than with the family members, and not just because all throughout the hour people’s timers were going off, reminding them to do their weight shifts. The patients seemed much more somber, which is understandable, not cracking smiles at the lecturer’s jokes.
But I could be misinterpreting. Gary, for instance, said he had a hard time staying awake during it. Maybe the others were dozing off as well.
When we got back to the room, Gary commented that it had been a nice day, because three different things had happened (the TR, the bridge builder, the class), and he had enjoyed the variety. Just then, the day was made even nicer, when a bunch of helium balloons from Gary’s brother Bob were delivered. That made us laugh.
It was then time for me to go to the chiropractor, but before leaving, since Gary had just finished the Gödel book, I set up the CD player Gary’s cousin had brought with one of her CDs – “The Orchid Thief”. We had seen the movie based on it and enjoyed it, and I know Gary really likes the author of the book, Susan Orlean – I’ve gotten him several of her books over the past couple years. He particularly likes her short pieces. He does, in general, like collections of short works (though he likes longer books too): each Christmas I get him, or have others get him, the year’s volumes of Best American Essays, Best American Travel Writing, Best American Sports Writing, Best American Magazine Writing. As he generally prefers nonfiction to fiction, we skip the Best American Short Stories, etc.
When I came back in the evening and asked, he said he’d enjoyed what he’d heard of The Orchid Thief, but as is typical these days, he’d dozed off during it, and then it took him awhile to figure where to back up to.
We finished the evening with “practical stuff” – correspondence concerning the adaptations to be made on our home. My brother is planning to go to Auburn in about a week to start in on the remodeling. Sasha Shibakov has volunteered his labor. He says he is particularly good at destroying things. I hope it is safe to let him in our house ;-)
I’m sure the kitties are going to be quite put out with all the activity. Blackjack, I’m sure, will take up residence in the woods on our back lot. Probably Tigger too. I expect they’ll still find their way to their food bowls, though perhaps I should tell Joe to move the bowls outside to the back patio, so the cats don’t have to brave entering the house.
During the night I had another “performance anxiety” dream. I recall having one in Birmingham as well. In it, I was supposed to be giving a talk at a math conference, and I got up to the podium and realized it’d been ages since I’d looked over my notes and I was completely unprepared. I’ve had variations on this – sometimes I look down at my notes and they’re on a completely different topic than what I’m familiar with – sometimes it’s not even math – or the notes are complete gibberish. When I tell Gary I had such a dream, he always says, “hey, that’s my dream,” so I know he has them too. Sometimes mine are about swimming – I can’t find the heat sheet that tells what race I’m in, I can’t find my suit or am wearing one too large, etc. (My mom said she has similar dreams, usually involving some large dinner party she is supposed to be giving, where the cooking becomes an endless task and she can’t get the food on the table.) Since I haven’t been to a math conference or a swimming meet in about ten years, I don’t know why these are still the subjects of my dream. I’m not sure why I’m having them now – maybe a feeling of being unprepared for my current situation. I’ve heard such dreams serve a positive purpose – since the dreamer doesn’t want to experience such anxiety in real life, they are more likely to prepare themselves for their real-life tasks. I’m not sure I need the extra goading. :-)
All for now.
posted by Peg Daniels at 7:26 AM
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