June 13, 2006 (9:54pm)
This morning Gary had the skin class. I got to miss most of the gross pictures this time around cuz I had to leave for my orthopedic doctor appointment. Gary said later that he was sure the reason for the pics was to indelibly print on people’s minds the horrors of pressure sores, but that he had other reasons for never forgetting what could happen from the simple act of not being turned frequently (or turning oneself frequently) off one’s pressure areas.
My doc appointment was a bummer. And I don’t want to believe the guy. He claimed that there was nothing I could do for myself by way of physical therapy (or surgery – not that I would be interested in that) to be free of back pain; he reiterated that point later, saying there was no way I was going to be able to handle Gary’s care without having back pain as a result. I had been hoping that he would set me up with some physical therapy, but what he did was write me a prescription so I could get membership to the open-to-the-public gym at Shepherd. But this prescription did not include any sort of exercise guidance. What he gave me for that was a little booklet. I noticed the exercise that had caused me a huge setback (back arches, aka, “the cobra”) was one of the recommended exercises. So much for that.
I will check out that gym anyway. I’m not extremely hopeful I’ll get any help, but I will try to weasle some from the staff.
While I was in the doctor’s waiting room, my brother, Joe, called. He had sat in a chair in the kitchen and decided that Gary would be able to reach the faucets – good news, since at first he thought the counter might be so high that all Gary would be able to do is heave the dishes over the counter and into the sink (we might have gone through a lot of dishes that way). We will ask Joe about a roll-under kitchen sink to make the task of dishwashing easier for Gary – hey, I still want chief bottle washer to remain chief bottle washer (I am best at dirtying up the pots and pans) ;-). Joe thinks Gary can get into the fridge all right, but opening the dishwasher may not be possible.
I asked Joe about the kitties (which is dangerous – I have been missing them much more intensely after hearing Joe talk about them). He said Blackjack is mostly unseen, but Tigger seeks out Joe hourly to get a petting. Tigger was always the more demanding of the two for petting, usually wanting it at the most inopportune times, as cats do, but normally he only insisted upon it a few times a day – he seems to be making up for all the time he hasn’t had companionship. Hope Joe can tolerate it!
The Browns dropped in for a scheduled visit soon after I returned to Gary’s room from the doc’s. We had a nice chat, and then they continued on their way to a Real Analysis sypmposium (that's math, not psychiatry, for the nonmathemticians out there ;-)). They plan to return for a visit this coming Saturday afternoon, and so will no doubt meet some of Gary’s family.
After lunch someone came in and asked Gary if he was ready to go to his 1pm class. There wasn’t one on his schedule, we told her, but Gary would be glad to go to one. We might not have said that had we known it was the third of the Wellness and Leisure classes – fortunately the last one. Gary asked me afterwards if I had the same opinion of it as the other two. I rolled my eyes. “Me too,” he said.
At least those are over now.
In the afternoon we went through some of the mail Joe brought up from home. We discovered a bill for the ambulance that had taken Gary from Birmingham to Atlanta. Insurance had paid only a third of it. Gary looked at what we owed. He looked at me. “If I’d known it was going to cost us that much, I would’ve had you take me,” he said. “Yeah, I would’ve loaded you in the back of the Escort with all my stuff,” I replied.
Looking through the mail, I also discovered I had completely forgotten about the paperback book club I belong to (and haven’t actually bought anything from in years, ever since I discovered half.com and the used section of amazon.com). By default I had ordered $65 dollars of books I didn’t want. I called the customer service number, explained the situation, and to my surprise, they put an “order only” status on my membership, so I don’t have to reply to any further mailings, and as well they said that when we got home we could just send back the unwanted books and the charges would be removed from our account. Pretty great.
There was also mail delivered from Shepherd. Thanks to Ferenc Fodor, to my mom for the cute shorts set, and to Chayna (I never knew you had another name!).
In the late afternoon, I left for the chiropractor. I was not surprised to see Alex (Sasha) Shibakov drive into Shepherd just as I was driving out – I think we have some kind of car karma. He was stopping in for a visit before continuing on his way to our house to help out Joe. I am sorry I didn’t get a chance to say hi to him this time – he is probably sorry too, since this meant I didn’t pay him for the stainless steel three-piece Chinese steamer he picked up for me at an Oriental store near the DeKalb Farmers Market (the check’s in the mail, Sasha ;-)). I noted upon my return that he had brought Gary more chocolate! Soon we are going to need a drawer just for chocolate, I think ;-)
And upon that return, I brought Gary a Mellow Mushroom (name of the chain) pizza served with some Fresh Market baby greens – Gary had known ahead of time that the dinner choices tonight were uninspiring, so had placed the request. He very much enjoyed the food.
I gave him a toe-to-head application of skin cream – some areas were looking dry – and then we finished “Capote” – it worked in the DVD player. We both thought it a very good movie. Now, let’s see, what movie’s next . . . Maybe “Crumb.”
To finish the evening, the tech came in to watch me struggle with Gary’s bivalves. She commented to Gary, “Your wife is strong.” Hah, not strong, just determined to get his damn heel in there right. She claimed I did everything perfectly, so if there is a red spot tomorrow, I’m going to blame her ;-). She then rolled Gary to his other side (I don’t know if I ever put this – he is getting turned every three hours these days), and it seemed to me that on the side now exposed, his incision line looked different – opened up more, and a yellowish color. This set off alarm bells in my head, and the tech went and got the nurse for me. The nurse hadn’t seen the area since the staples had come out, so wasn’t sure what it had been looking like, but since I said it was different, she made a note of it and said she would have the skin team told of it tomorrow morning so they can come and check it. Hopefully it is nothing to worry about. I hadn’t noticed it looking this way before, and it had been all right when the person came to put Gary in his final stretch – the one hundred and ten degree stretch – that is to precede his beginning to sit up (hopefully tomorrow, for thirty minutes). So maybe the opening up is due to that last stretch. Maybe it was expected. But I am extra cautious of such things these days – best to err on the side of caution.
So, I will find out about that tomorrow.
All for tonight.
This morning Gary had the skin class. I got to miss most of the gross pictures this time around cuz I had to leave for my orthopedic doctor appointment. Gary said later that he was sure the reason for the pics was to indelibly print on people’s minds the horrors of pressure sores, but that he had other reasons for never forgetting what could happen from the simple act of not being turned frequently (or turning oneself frequently) off one’s pressure areas.
My doc appointment was a bummer. And I don’t want to believe the guy. He claimed that there was nothing I could do for myself by way of physical therapy (or surgery – not that I would be interested in that) to be free of back pain; he reiterated that point later, saying there was no way I was going to be able to handle Gary’s care without having back pain as a result. I had been hoping that he would set me up with some physical therapy, but what he did was write me a prescription so I could get membership to the open-to-the-public gym at Shepherd. But this prescription did not include any sort of exercise guidance. What he gave me for that was a little booklet. I noticed the exercise that had caused me a huge setback (back arches, aka, “the cobra”) was one of the recommended exercises. So much for that.
I will check out that gym anyway. I’m not extremely hopeful I’ll get any help, but I will try to weasle some from the staff.
While I was in the doctor’s waiting room, my brother, Joe, called. He had sat in a chair in the kitchen and decided that Gary would be able to reach the faucets – good news, since at first he thought the counter might be so high that all Gary would be able to do is heave the dishes over the counter and into the sink (we might have gone through a lot of dishes that way). We will ask Joe about a roll-under kitchen sink to make the task of dishwashing easier for Gary – hey, I still want chief bottle washer to remain chief bottle washer (I am best at dirtying up the pots and pans) ;-). Joe thinks Gary can get into the fridge all right, but opening the dishwasher may not be possible.
I asked Joe about the kitties (which is dangerous – I have been missing them much more intensely after hearing Joe talk about them). He said Blackjack is mostly unseen, but Tigger seeks out Joe hourly to get a petting. Tigger was always the more demanding of the two for petting, usually wanting it at the most inopportune times, as cats do, but normally he only insisted upon it a few times a day – he seems to be making up for all the time he hasn’t had companionship. Hope Joe can tolerate it!
The Browns dropped in for a scheduled visit soon after I returned to Gary’s room from the doc’s. We had a nice chat, and then they continued on their way to a Real Analysis sypmposium (that's math, not psychiatry, for the nonmathemticians out there ;-)). They plan to return for a visit this coming Saturday afternoon, and so will no doubt meet some of Gary’s family.
After lunch someone came in and asked Gary if he was ready to go to his 1pm class. There wasn’t one on his schedule, we told her, but Gary would be glad to go to one. We might not have said that had we known it was the third of the Wellness and Leisure classes – fortunately the last one. Gary asked me afterwards if I had the same opinion of it as the other two. I rolled my eyes. “Me too,” he said.
At least those are over now.
In the afternoon we went through some of the mail Joe brought up from home. We discovered a bill for the ambulance that had taken Gary from Birmingham to Atlanta. Insurance had paid only a third of it. Gary looked at what we owed. He looked at me. “If I’d known it was going to cost us that much, I would’ve had you take me,” he said. “Yeah, I would’ve loaded you in the back of the Escort with all my stuff,” I replied.
Looking through the mail, I also discovered I had completely forgotten about the paperback book club I belong to (and haven’t actually bought anything from in years, ever since I discovered half.com and the used section of amazon.com). By default I had ordered $65 dollars of books I didn’t want. I called the customer service number, explained the situation, and to my surprise, they put an “order only” status on my membership, so I don’t have to reply to any further mailings, and as well they said that when we got home we could just send back the unwanted books and the charges would be removed from our account. Pretty great.
There was also mail delivered from Shepherd. Thanks to Ferenc Fodor, to my mom for the cute shorts set, and to Chayna (I never knew you had another name!).
In the late afternoon, I left for the chiropractor. I was not surprised to see Alex (Sasha) Shibakov drive into Shepherd just as I was driving out – I think we have some kind of car karma. He was stopping in for a visit before continuing on his way to our house to help out Joe. I am sorry I didn’t get a chance to say hi to him this time – he is probably sorry too, since this meant I didn’t pay him for the stainless steel three-piece Chinese steamer he picked up for me at an Oriental store near the DeKalb Farmers Market (the check’s in the mail, Sasha ;-)). I noted upon my return that he had brought Gary more chocolate! Soon we are going to need a drawer just for chocolate, I think ;-)
And upon that return, I brought Gary a Mellow Mushroom (name of the chain) pizza served with some Fresh Market baby greens – Gary had known ahead of time that the dinner choices tonight were uninspiring, so had placed the request. He very much enjoyed the food.
I gave him a toe-to-head application of skin cream – some areas were looking dry – and then we finished “Capote” – it worked in the DVD player. We both thought it a very good movie. Now, let’s see, what movie’s next . . . Maybe “Crumb.”
To finish the evening, the tech came in to watch me struggle with Gary’s bivalves. She commented to Gary, “Your wife is strong.” Hah, not strong, just determined to get his damn heel in there right. She claimed I did everything perfectly, so if there is a red spot tomorrow, I’m going to blame her ;-). She then rolled Gary to his other side (I don’t know if I ever put this – he is getting turned every three hours these days), and it seemed to me that on the side now exposed, his incision line looked different – opened up more, and a yellowish color. This set off alarm bells in my head, and the tech went and got the nurse for me. The nurse hadn’t seen the area since the staples had come out, so wasn’t sure what it had been looking like, but since I said it was different, she made a note of it and said she would have the skin team told of it tomorrow morning so they can come and check it. Hopefully it is nothing to worry about. I hadn’t noticed it looking this way before, and it had been all right when the person came to put Gary in his final stretch – the one hundred and ten degree stretch – that is to precede his beginning to sit up (hopefully tomorrow, for thirty minutes). So maybe the opening up is due to that last stretch. Maybe it was expected. But I am extra cautious of such things these days – best to err on the side of caution.
So, I will find out about that tomorrow.
All for tonight.
posted by Peg Daniels at 5:38 AM
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