June 18, 2006
After I got over my crying jag (see last of previous entry), Gary called the tech to oversee me putting him in the chair. Over the intercom, she told me to get the sling around him. I don’t know if I remembered the technique correctly, but the sling ended up properly positioned. So, as long as it worked . . . I then started bringing the hoyer over (it runs along a track in the ceiling), and at this point the Gruenhage clan walked in. I got the sling chained to the hoyer, and brought Gary’s wheelchair in from the bathroom. Mom G nervously asked at this point if I intended to now move Gary to the chair. I assured her I had no intention of doing so without the tech present – wouldn’t want to dump Gary on the floor.
The tech came, said the sling was A-OK, and had me bring Gary over to the chair. I couldn’t remember how to get him seated (I knew I had to let go of his legs, but what did I hang onto instead?), so she did it and told me I could do that part tomorrow. I told her, no, I wanted to do it now. So Gary operated the controls to lift the sling up a little, and then we redid that part. Gary tightened his binder, put on his seatbelt and his chest strap (like a seatbelt but goes around him at chest height), and then we took off for the garden. We went around a bit, then stopped for a pleasant chat with Gary’s roommate Greg and his family, who also had come to visit this weekend and were out in the garden.
Then it was time for the rec room. Gary started out with table tennis this time, playing Bob. That seemed to go better than pool, but still, if a shot went wide or too shallow, he couldn’t reach it, and we wondered how two people in wheelchairs could play if they didn’t have a ball boy or girl. Bob asked me if I wanted to play, and thinking he meant play him, I said no – Gary had told me how Bob had won all these trophies in table tennis in his high school and college days. But they had meant Gary. I said, well, you realize I’ve never played this game before and the ball will probably be all over this room. He said I’d probably be just his speed. It was kind of funny – I made a number of lucky shots – the ones where the ball hits the very edge of the table. He said he didn’t believe I’ve never played before, but I swear at best I was just trying to hit the ball back and keep up a volley and at worst I was trying to defend myself from getting hit with the ball. Justin asked Gary for a replay at pool, and Norma took Gary’s place and played with me. She had the kind of philosophy I like – the goal was to see how long we could keep a volley going, not score points. She turned the paddle over to Donne, and it got harder, cuz he hit the ball harder. He also said he couldn’t believe I hadn’t played before (these people are kind), and he turned his paddle over to Bob – I thought it was about time someone walked over to my side of the table so I could turn my paddle over to them.
Meanwhile Gary was doing much better at pool than he had yesterday – in fact, he was winning!
Back to the table tennis. Bob is a highly skilled table tennis player, but fortunately he was kind. At least relatively so – he decided I needed some practice in moving about the table. Actually, I didn’t want to do that all that much for several reasons: my leg, which has been acting up since the moving, my general unfitness level which guaranteed I’d be sore, and the fact that I was tired out. So I played a little more (it’s hard to quit when I’m enjoying myself at something, even though I know I’m going to pay for it later), but turned my paddle over to Justin the moment he asked if I wanted to watch him play his dad. I then learned Gary had won his game! But he was heading back to his room, so I figured he was a bit tired. I was too, so I headed back with him, as did his mom (and Norma too? I forget). As we got in the elevator, my brother called – our ad in the paper for the free spa and free 5-gallon glass bottles was a success – a person came and took not only the spa but all fifteen or so bottles! Joe said he had a feeling the guy was going to use the bottles to make moonshine. In which case, perhaps he’s going to stomp muscadines in the spa for wine. Joe said the guy also took the “cat barrier” doors Joe had just removed. I told Gary all this and Gary said we should have told Joe to tell the guy to go around to the side of our house and take all the garden pots and other gardening-related items we have laying over there.
Soon after we got back to Gary’s room, the others rejoined us, and then all too soon after that, it was time for the Gruenhage clan to leave for the airport. Gary said goodbye to his mom first, thanking her for coming. He started to cry, with the result that his sister and his brothers and I immmediately had tears spring to our eyes too. His mom told him she hadn’t expected him to look as good as he did. The goodbyes to the others were made, and after they left Gary and I shared an extra long hug.
After lunch, under the tech’s supervision, I got Gary got back into bed and turned on his side – I still need help there, because I’m too afraid of hurting my back to tug him over in the bed by the sheet. But once he is far enough on one side of the bed, I can do the actual turning of him with his help (the key is to bend his leg at the knee and fold it over his body, since that helps turn his entire lower body; he can grab onto the rail and turn his upper body at the same time). And I’ve pretty well got down the placement of the pillows for padding the points of pressure, except when he is in the prone position – haven’t done that one with him yet.
Once he was settled in, I read some emails to him, and then he was ready for a nap. I worked on the blog while he slept. After he woke, he did his weights. I left earlier than usual because fatigue suddenly hit me hard and I hurt like hell. At the motel I went to the front desk and asked how long my neighbor was checked in for. They said he was long term. I said his dogs had disturbed me last night, and they said they would try to find a room that didn’t have dogs near to it – personally, I think they should make it a policy they require those with pets to at least register that fact.
I decided to talk to this neighbor. He answered the door when I knocked. I said I didn’t mean to be antagonistic, but I was under a lot of stress because my husband had been in a bad accident and was in the hospital. I said I had to live in a hotel the next thirty days, and that last night I hadn’t been able to return to sleep after his dogs had woken me, that I’d felt horrible all day because of that (not too much of an exaggeration), and that I couldn’t take that. I wanted to know if last night’s events were typical, in which case I would move to another room.
The divil turned out not to be such a bad fella after all.
Or rather, this guy claimed not to be the evil one. True, he had one dog. What had happened was that he’d been out walking his dog in the back here, and two unleashed dogs had attacked his – that had been the horrible racket I’d heard. The attacking dogs had turned out to belong to someone else staying here, and the two men had gotten into an argument, the one telling the other to leash his dogs, the other saying he didn’t have to – that’d been all the raised voices I’d heard. My neighbor said he’d complained to the management about the unleashed dogs, and they’d said they’d take care of it. My neighbor was sympathetic to my situation and assured me I wouldn’t have trouble with noise from their side. So I’m cautiously optimistic.
My body stopped hurting so much after I meditated. When I returned to the hospital Gary told me I had missed a visit by Michel Smith (head of Auburn’s math dept. and supremely supportive of getting Gary back to work this fall, as well as of our situation in general). Michel had been on his way to the airport and had stopped in to see us on the way.
Gary’s dinner had been something he hadn’t even ordered (catfish fingers – “fingers” meaning it’s going to be heavily breaded and deeply fried). Gary had pulled off as much breading as he could and eaten the catfish, forgetting that he still had some of those chicken drummettes left over from the other day. When I reminded him, he said he’d take some now, so I warmed them up in the microwave they have in the gym (odd place for it!), and brought him some of the leftover BBQ beans and some salad greens. Later, he had some Ben and Jerry’s.
To finish the night we did some grooming tasks. Gary forgot to brush his teeth when he’d been sitting up earlier in the day, so he had to do it in bed, spitting into the suctioning device (sort of like that thing at the dentist’s) that is standard equipment above everyone’s bed – thank God the days are over when that device was used to suction out his trache hole (which has closed, but you can still see where it was). I lotioned his feet, which have been very dry lately – maybe as a result of the ted hose and/or bivalves and/or those other boots he’d worn (we’re not sure what happened to the bivalve experiment – the person who made them had said she would be the one to put them on him, but she hasn’t done so since Thursday; either she doesn’t work on weekends or she’s decided this is a failed experiment). Then I stretched his ankles. We do that three times a day – when they get his chain loops made, he’ll be able to do it himself. Again, he’ll eventually be fully independent in his personal care and so forth, though for a while there will be some restrictions until his flap is fully healed, which worse-case scenario is generally a year. We haven’t figured out how he’ll be able to turn and pad himself in bed every so many hours during the night, but we’re both hoping he can – neither of us wants to wake me regularly during the night to turn him ;-). He said he saw a video on the hospital’s channel showing some guy turning himself, but this guy had a lower injury than Gary does and so had the use of his abdominal muscles. But since they said Gary would be independent, we’re thinking this must mean he’ll be able to do that too.
The hotel again seemed quiet when I returned to it, and I hoped it wouldn’t prove to be a deception. It wasn’t – I got a good night’s sleep. Thank God.
After I got over my crying jag (see last of previous entry), Gary called the tech to oversee me putting him in the chair. Over the intercom, she told me to get the sling around him. I don’t know if I remembered the technique correctly, but the sling ended up properly positioned. So, as long as it worked . . . I then started bringing the hoyer over (it runs along a track in the ceiling), and at this point the Gruenhage clan walked in. I got the sling chained to the hoyer, and brought Gary’s wheelchair in from the bathroom. Mom G nervously asked at this point if I intended to now move Gary to the chair. I assured her I had no intention of doing so without the tech present – wouldn’t want to dump Gary on the floor.
The tech came, said the sling was A-OK, and had me bring Gary over to the chair. I couldn’t remember how to get him seated (I knew I had to let go of his legs, but what did I hang onto instead?), so she did it and told me I could do that part tomorrow. I told her, no, I wanted to do it now. So Gary operated the controls to lift the sling up a little, and then we redid that part. Gary tightened his binder, put on his seatbelt and his chest strap (like a seatbelt but goes around him at chest height), and then we took off for the garden. We went around a bit, then stopped for a pleasant chat with Gary’s roommate Greg and his family, who also had come to visit this weekend and were out in the garden.
Then it was time for the rec room. Gary started out with table tennis this time, playing Bob. That seemed to go better than pool, but still, if a shot went wide or too shallow, he couldn’t reach it, and we wondered how two people in wheelchairs could play if they didn’t have a ball boy or girl. Bob asked me if I wanted to play, and thinking he meant play him, I said no – Gary had told me how Bob had won all these trophies in table tennis in his high school and college days. But they had meant Gary. I said, well, you realize I’ve never played this game before and the ball will probably be all over this room. He said I’d probably be just his speed. It was kind of funny – I made a number of lucky shots – the ones where the ball hits the very edge of the table. He said he didn’t believe I’ve never played before, but I swear at best I was just trying to hit the ball back and keep up a volley and at worst I was trying to defend myself from getting hit with the ball. Justin asked Gary for a replay at pool, and Norma took Gary’s place and played with me. She had the kind of philosophy I like – the goal was to see how long we could keep a volley going, not score points. She turned the paddle over to Donne, and it got harder, cuz he hit the ball harder. He also said he couldn’t believe I hadn’t played before (these people are kind), and he turned his paddle over to Bob – I thought it was about time someone walked over to my side of the table so I could turn my paddle over to them.
Meanwhile Gary was doing much better at pool than he had yesterday – in fact, he was winning!
Back to the table tennis. Bob is a highly skilled table tennis player, but fortunately he was kind. At least relatively so – he decided I needed some practice in moving about the table. Actually, I didn’t want to do that all that much for several reasons: my leg, which has been acting up since the moving, my general unfitness level which guaranteed I’d be sore, and the fact that I was tired out. So I played a little more (it’s hard to quit when I’m enjoying myself at something, even though I know I’m going to pay for it later), but turned my paddle over to Justin the moment he asked if I wanted to watch him play his dad. I then learned Gary had won his game! But he was heading back to his room, so I figured he was a bit tired. I was too, so I headed back with him, as did his mom (and Norma too? I forget). As we got in the elevator, my brother called – our ad in the paper for the free spa and free 5-gallon glass bottles was a success – a person came and took not only the spa but all fifteen or so bottles! Joe said he had a feeling the guy was going to use the bottles to make moonshine. In which case, perhaps he’s going to stomp muscadines in the spa for wine. Joe said the guy also took the “cat barrier” doors Joe had just removed. I told Gary all this and Gary said we should have told Joe to tell the guy to go around to the side of our house and take all the garden pots and other gardening-related items we have laying over there.
Soon after we got back to Gary’s room, the others rejoined us, and then all too soon after that, it was time for the Gruenhage clan to leave for the airport. Gary said goodbye to his mom first, thanking her for coming. He started to cry, with the result that his sister and his brothers and I immmediately had tears spring to our eyes too. His mom told him she hadn’t expected him to look as good as he did. The goodbyes to the others were made, and after they left Gary and I shared an extra long hug.
After lunch, under the tech’s supervision, I got Gary got back into bed and turned on his side – I still need help there, because I’m too afraid of hurting my back to tug him over in the bed by the sheet. But once he is far enough on one side of the bed, I can do the actual turning of him with his help (the key is to bend his leg at the knee and fold it over his body, since that helps turn his entire lower body; he can grab onto the rail and turn his upper body at the same time). And I’ve pretty well got down the placement of the pillows for padding the points of pressure, except when he is in the prone position – haven’t done that one with him yet.
Once he was settled in, I read some emails to him, and then he was ready for a nap. I worked on the blog while he slept. After he woke, he did his weights. I left earlier than usual because fatigue suddenly hit me hard and I hurt like hell. At the motel I went to the front desk and asked how long my neighbor was checked in for. They said he was long term. I said his dogs had disturbed me last night, and they said they would try to find a room that didn’t have dogs near to it – personally, I think they should make it a policy they require those with pets to at least register that fact.
I decided to talk to this neighbor. He answered the door when I knocked. I said I didn’t mean to be antagonistic, but I was under a lot of stress because my husband had been in a bad accident and was in the hospital. I said I had to live in a hotel the next thirty days, and that last night I hadn’t been able to return to sleep after his dogs had woken me, that I’d felt horrible all day because of that (not too much of an exaggeration), and that I couldn’t take that. I wanted to know if last night’s events were typical, in which case I would move to another room.
The divil turned out not to be such a bad fella after all.
Or rather, this guy claimed not to be the evil one. True, he had one dog. What had happened was that he’d been out walking his dog in the back here, and two unleashed dogs had attacked his – that had been the horrible racket I’d heard. The attacking dogs had turned out to belong to someone else staying here, and the two men had gotten into an argument, the one telling the other to leash his dogs, the other saying he didn’t have to – that’d been all the raised voices I’d heard. My neighbor said he’d complained to the management about the unleashed dogs, and they’d said they’d take care of it. My neighbor was sympathetic to my situation and assured me I wouldn’t have trouble with noise from their side. So I’m cautiously optimistic.
My body stopped hurting so much after I meditated. When I returned to the hospital Gary told me I had missed a visit by Michel Smith (head of Auburn’s math dept. and supremely supportive of getting Gary back to work this fall, as well as of our situation in general). Michel had been on his way to the airport and had stopped in to see us on the way.
Gary’s dinner had been something he hadn’t even ordered (catfish fingers – “fingers” meaning it’s going to be heavily breaded and deeply fried). Gary had pulled off as much breading as he could and eaten the catfish, forgetting that he still had some of those chicken drummettes left over from the other day. When I reminded him, he said he’d take some now, so I warmed them up in the microwave they have in the gym (odd place for it!), and brought him some of the leftover BBQ beans and some salad greens. Later, he had some Ben and Jerry’s.
To finish the night we did some grooming tasks. Gary forgot to brush his teeth when he’d been sitting up earlier in the day, so he had to do it in bed, spitting into the suctioning device (sort of like that thing at the dentist’s) that is standard equipment above everyone’s bed – thank God the days are over when that device was used to suction out his trache hole (which has closed, but you can still see where it was). I lotioned his feet, which have been very dry lately – maybe as a result of the ted hose and/or bivalves and/or those other boots he’d worn (we’re not sure what happened to the bivalve experiment – the person who made them had said she would be the one to put them on him, but she hasn’t done so since Thursday; either she doesn’t work on weekends or she’s decided this is a failed experiment). Then I stretched his ankles. We do that three times a day – when they get his chain loops made, he’ll be able to do it himself. Again, he’ll eventually be fully independent in his personal care and so forth, though for a while there will be some restrictions until his flap is fully healed, which worse-case scenario is generally a year. We haven’t figured out how he’ll be able to turn and pad himself in bed every so many hours during the night, but we’re both hoping he can – neither of us wants to wake me regularly during the night to turn him ;-). He said he saw a video on the hospital’s channel showing some guy turning himself, but this guy had a lower injury than Gary does and so had the use of his abdominal muscles. But since they said Gary would be independent, we’re thinking this must mean he’ll be able to do that too.
The hotel again seemed quiet when I returned to it, and I hoped it wouldn’t prove to be a deception. It wasn’t – I got a good night’s sleep. Thank God.
posted by Peg Daniels at 5:30 AM
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