June 12, 2006 (9:25pm)
The last of Gary’s drains for his flap surgery was removed from his back this morning. When the nurse pulled the drain out, she let me see it; I told her to show it to Gary too. “I’m glad that’s out of me,” was his comment.
While they were removing the drain and some of the dissolving sutures that were still along his incision line, I attempted to open a big box, sent from Japan by Kohzo Yamada. I got it open and pulled out something that at first I couldn’t fathom. Then I saw it was chains of hundreds of folded papers – identical origimi figures – all the paper chains connected to one point at the top so they hung in a circle. “Did he make this?” I asked in amazement. Gary opened the beautiful paper card that accompanied the gift. In it, Kohzo explained that in Japan they had the tradition of making a thousand origami cranes (the entire creation called a “senbazuru”) for prayers for cure of sickness or injury. Kozho and his family began making the senbazuru when they heard of Gary’s accident through Haruto Ohta (who heard it from me – his was the only email address of Gary’s Japanese math friends that I could find offhand – he is the one who in the past has sent me seeds for Japanese pickling melons and other oriental squash family members). Haruto Ohta had also folded some of the cranes. The majority of them – over seven hundred of them – were folded by Kozho’s wife, Kazuko! They sent it with the strong hope that Gary would be getting better as soon as possible.
One of the nurse’s stood on a chair and hung the senbazuru from the ceiling. In this way we will have the constant reminder of the friendship, concern, and care that the Yamadas have shown us, and not only that, we hope the Yamadas won’t mind if we use the senbazuru as a symbol of the friendship, concern, and care that all of you have shown in this time.
Little Laura’s chocolates and candies straight from France were another welcome surprise of the day! Gary pronounced them exquisite and thanks you so very much, Laura.
And there was also a group card from an aunt and cousins (the Meinzens) of Gary’s.
My brother Joe came to visit and to discuss the house. The changes to the bathrooms appear to be doable. He had some good suggestions for moving things around in the master bedroom in order to free up more space (it being a given that the big bed has got to go; pieces of furniture in the family room will have to go for a similar reason). And he had the good suggestion of clearing off the back patio so that is more livable – it is currently covered with the remains of my gardening passion (I can only handle one passion at a time, and when I took up writing, gardening fell by the wayside, except for a few herb plants that have put up with my neglect); as well, there is an ancient spa (aka jacuzzi) out there that I haven’t used since my early CFS days (either the heat of the water or the chlorine making me sick). So, if anyone wants a spa, it is free for the taking, as is – it hasn’t been turned on in years nor have we opened the top, and the redwood near the motor is rotted, but if you’re interested . . . :-)
One problem not yet solved is that of the cat barrier. The doors from the kitchen area into the family room area make that entranceway too narrow for a wheelchair, and so the doors need to be removed. But, those are the doors we chain closed at night in order to keep the cats in the kitchen area – in particular, to keep them as far away from the bedrooms as possible. Joe saw the wisdom in this. He didn’t chain the doors, plus he left his bedroom door open, and Tigger decided to spend the night with him. Tigger made sure Joe knew he was there, giving Joe’s eyebrows a good licking about once an hour throughout the night. Actually, it wouldn’t have done any good had Joe shut the bedroom door – Tigger (or Blackjack, if Joe was someone he was friendly with) would have scratched on the door furiously and howled until let in (or put out) – we’ve discovered this the few times we’ve accidently forgot to chain the cat barrier. (Don’t you hate it when people go on and on about their pets?)
Joe wasn’t sure the kitchen was going to be accessible to Gary, thinking the sink was going to be too high and the area too small for Gary to be able to maneuver into it and open the fridge or the dishwasher. When Joe returns to our home, he’ll do some measuring and sit in a chair in the kitchen to see what he’d be able to do.
During our visit, the bivalve person came in – unfortunately she claimed Gary had gotten those red spots on his foot because I had put those contraptions on wrong (Gary claims that the bivalve person is the only one who can put them on right – the nurses have trouble with it too). So she was there to watch me put them on and offer tips. I did the right one without her offering comment (well, except that I started off putting the left bivalve on his right foot, but that was her fault – that was the one she handed me). On the left one she said I hadn’t shoved his heel in far enough. So I did it over from the start, this time doing it right, but I’m paranoid about not being able to figure out I’ve got it in far enough.
Fortunately we seem to have misunderstood how long he needs to wear them for. Once he is sitting up all day, he shouldn’t need to wear them at night: the angle his foot will be kept in while sitting, along with the stretching exercises he’ll do on his ankles during the day, should be enough to keep his ankles from going into contracture. But if he notices any loss of range of motion, something will have to be done about that – more stretching, changing the angle his feet are kept in when he sits, or the dreaded bivalves (or possibly another type of boot if we can find some that fit). I really hope we don’t ever have to use the bivalves after this – when I woke up on Tuesday, I discovered I had pulled a muscle in my back. Could be from the strain of getting the bivalve on, could be from the vacuuming I did in the apartment (the vacuum is very light, but still, I’m afraid it doesn’t take much to throw me off kilter physically . . .).
All for this entry.
The last of Gary’s drains for his flap surgery was removed from his back this morning. When the nurse pulled the drain out, she let me see it; I told her to show it to Gary too. “I’m glad that’s out of me,” was his comment.
While they were removing the drain and some of the dissolving sutures that were still along his incision line, I attempted to open a big box, sent from Japan by Kohzo Yamada. I got it open and pulled out something that at first I couldn’t fathom. Then I saw it was chains of hundreds of folded papers – identical origimi figures – all the paper chains connected to one point at the top so they hung in a circle. “Did he make this?” I asked in amazement. Gary opened the beautiful paper card that accompanied the gift. In it, Kohzo explained that in Japan they had the tradition of making a thousand origami cranes (the entire creation called a “senbazuru”) for prayers for cure of sickness or injury. Kozho and his family began making the senbazuru when they heard of Gary’s accident through Haruto Ohta (who heard it from me – his was the only email address of Gary’s Japanese math friends that I could find offhand – he is the one who in the past has sent me seeds for Japanese pickling melons and other oriental squash family members). Haruto Ohta had also folded some of the cranes. The majority of them – over seven hundred of them – were folded by Kozho’s wife, Kazuko! They sent it with the strong hope that Gary would be getting better as soon as possible.
One of the nurse’s stood on a chair and hung the senbazuru from the ceiling. In this way we will have the constant reminder of the friendship, concern, and care that the Yamadas have shown us, and not only that, we hope the Yamadas won’t mind if we use the senbazuru as a symbol of the friendship, concern, and care that all of you have shown in this time.
Little Laura’s chocolates and candies straight from France were another welcome surprise of the day! Gary pronounced them exquisite and thanks you so very much, Laura.
And there was also a group card from an aunt and cousins (the Meinzens) of Gary’s.
My brother Joe came to visit and to discuss the house. The changes to the bathrooms appear to be doable. He had some good suggestions for moving things around in the master bedroom in order to free up more space (it being a given that the big bed has got to go; pieces of furniture in the family room will have to go for a similar reason). And he had the good suggestion of clearing off the back patio so that is more livable – it is currently covered with the remains of my gardening passion (I can only handle one passion at a time, and when I took up writing, gardening fell by the wayside, except for a few herb plants that have put up with my neglect); as well, there is an ancient spa (aka jacuzzi) out there that I haven’t used since my early CFS days (either the heat of the water or the chlorine making me sick). So, if anyone wants a spa, it is free for the taking, as is – it hasn’t been turned on in years nor have we opened the top, and the redwood near the motor is rotted, but if you’re interested . . . :-)
One problem not yet solved is that of the cat barrier. The doors from the kitchen area into the family room area make that entranceway too narrow for a wheelchair, and so the doors need to be removed. But, those are the doors we chain closed at night in order to keep the cats in the kitchen area – in particular, to keep them as far away from the bedrooms as possible. Joe saw the wisdom in this. He didn’t chain the doors, plus he left his bedroom door open, and Tigger decided to spend the night with him. Tigger made sure Joe knew he was there, giving Joe’s eyebrows a good licking about once an hour throughout the night. Actually, it wouldn’t have done any good had Joe shut the bedroom door – Tigger (or Blackjack, if Joe was someone he was friendly with) would have scratched on the door furiously and howled until let in (or put out) – we’ve discovered this the few times we’ve accidently forgot to chain the cat barrier. (Don’t you hate it when people go on and on about their pets?)
Joe wasn’t sure the kitchen was going to be accessible to Gary, thinking the sink was going to be too high and the area too small for Gary to be able to maneuver into it and open the fridge or the dishwasher. When Joe returns to our home, he’ll do some measuring and sit in a chair in the kitchen to see what he’d be able to do.
During our visit, the bivalve person came in – unfortunately she claimed Gary had gotten those red spots on his foot because I had put those contraptions on wrong (Gary claims that the bivalve person is the only one who can put them on right – the nurses have trouble with it too). So she was there to watch me put them on and offer tips. I did the right one without her offering comment (well, except that I started off putting the left bivalve on his right foot, but that was her fault – that was the one she handed me). On the left one she said I hadn’t shoved his heel in far enough. So I did it over from the start, this time doing it right, but I’m paranoid about not being able to figure out I’ve got it in far enough.
Fortunately we seem to have misunderstood how long he needs to wear them for. Once he is sitting up all day, he shouldn’t need to wear them at night: the angle his foot will be kept in while sitting, along with the stretching exercises he’ll do on his ankles during the day, should be enough to keep his ankles from going into contracture. But if he notices any loss of range of motion, something will have to be done about that – more stretching, changing the angle his feet are kept in when he sits, or the dreaded bivalves (or possibly another type of boot if we can find some that fit). I really hope we don’t ever have to use the bivalves after this – when I woke up on Tuesday, I discovered I had pulled a muscle in my back. Could be from the strain of getting the bivalve on, could be from the vacuuming I did in the apartment (the vacuum is very light, but still, I’m afraid it doesn’t take much to throw me off kilter physically . . .).
All for this entry.
posted by Peg Daniels at 11:58 AM
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