July 11, 2006
When I entered Gary’s room this morning, he did not look extremely happy. It looked like the tech had just helped him transfer into his chair, and when I asked him how it went, he said “scratchy,” which I guess is our new code word “not so great.” He told me later that the tech had held him by under his armpit, completely throwing his technique off. I told him he needed to tell her what he wanted her to do. He said he had thought that this was just her way of doing it and that it would be all right. I reminded him of what they had said in the travel class yesterday – that he was the one who knew his body, and he was the one who knew what assistance he needed in transferring, and he needed to be assertive in letting people know how to help him – which I know goes against his natural tendency.
We went off to a session with the PT. We worked on car transfers – boy, do we need work on that. She had him try doing it on the driver’s side – not that he’ll be needing that skill for a while! – but that was even harder than the passenger side because with the wheel he had even less room to work in. After that we went to our own car, and (after I threw the stuff into the back – I had forgotten about that note to myself!) he practiced transfers into the passenger seat. These were harder than the transfers into the passenger side of the Saturn had been – the distance from his chair to the car seat was farther. But we’re thinking that if he uses the transfer board (which he wasn’t) he might do all right as long as he has a little additional aid by a human until he gets the process down himself. (With the board he can do the transfer in little hops and not one big leap, which should also help with problems like the window frame getting in the way – he gave his head a pretty big bonk on it today.)
We headed back toward the gym, which meant Gary had to go up one level of the parking ramp. The PT remarked he was going up it very well, and he told her he was surprised (and obviously pleased) at how easy it was – he is definitely stronger! An even bigger surprise: he easily negotiated the short steep ramp from the parking garage to the entrance to the building – that was the ramp that had been giving him so much problems. That one he said was just a matter of getting the right technique (having good momentum, going up it at the correct angle). Unfortunately each curb cut has its own quirks, so it will be a matter of getting used to each one (unless they are well-designed) and not a matter of applying the same technique.
The PT then wanted him to practice transfers, and when she heard he’d gotten his new bed, she thought it’d be a good idea if we practiced them there. He did a good one (me aiding slightly), and she said she was going to “check us off” on bed transfers – no more hoyer!
Next we had a Van Modifications class, sponsored by the rec therapists. It was again a case of a lot of information being covered in too little time, IMHO. I felt like I got very little out of the presentation – a topic like this is just not within my bailiwick in the first place, but epecially when a lot of information is crammed into a short time and I’m tired (I’m still feeling the effects of last week’s intensive family training and, to top it off, am having my period). I didn’t understand what the steps were that we should go through to get such a van – the lecturers threw out the names of resource organizations like NMEDA (National MobilityEquipment Dealers Association), which is an organization that apparently connects you with an authorized mobility dealer so you can make sure your van is to your needs and properly outfitted; ADED (the Association for Driver Rehabilitation Specialists -don’t ask me how they got that acronym), which evaluates and trains those with disabilities to return to driving safely; the Vehicle Manufacturers Mobility Programs, which offers rebates; the Vocational Rehab Department of State Governments. Anyway, it wasn’t organized in a way I could grasp as to who we were supposed to contact when about what (or maybe my confusion was due to my frame of mind), though I did get a bit of clarification on that when I talked to one of the speakers at the end.
Besides covering these resource organizations, the lecture also covered the pros and cons of minivans and full vans, lifts versus ramps. The lecturers seemed to be suggesting that full vans were better than the minis, and lifts better than ramps, but Gary said that was only true for those needing power chairs, and that he’s been planning on getting a minivan with a ramp. One thing we’ll have to make sure of is that he can wheel his chair up such a ramp as I don’t think I could handle pushing him up it – the angle will be twice as steep as the approved ADA angle.
A couple helpful things we learned are that it is possible to rent the various vans for a day or so (so if we want we can try some out before making our final decision) and that some local dealers are willing to come to Shepherd with their vans so that they can be test-ridden-and-driven. We plan to take advantage of that.
The presentation was mainly geared toward those who would only be passengers, not drivers, so we stayed after the lecture and asked some questions. Gary wanted to know if “turny chairs” can be installed in both the passenger side and the driver side (these are the chairs that turn 360 degrees, so that Gary could wheel into the van from a side or back ramp, wheel next to the chair, turn the chair in whatever direction is best for a transfer, transfer into the chair, secure his wheelchair to the floor of the van, then turn in his chair to face the front, either as passenger or driver). The lecturers didn’t know the answer for certain and told Gary to ask the dealers. He is also to make certain that the dealers understand that though until at least December he will be a passenger in the van, after that the intention is that he will take and pass the driver’s evaluation and class and so will then become a driver of the van. To drive, he will, of course, be using hand controls. I will use foot pedals, same as always (I still have a hard time picturing myself driving a van – I’ve never liked big vehicles).
I’m not sure how long it will take for us to decide on and get a van. We’re assuming that for a while after he gets home he’ll be transferring into a car and maybe using that LETA bus.
After that lecture we headed back to the room, me telling Gary he was going to have to be the one responsible for choosing the van. I told him that I felt overwhelmed by the lecture, confused by it all, and therefore frustrated – and that when I get frustrated I get very very crabby. Sweet Gary said he knew that and could tell I was tired and not to worry, he would handle the van decisions.
Before getting very far we were waylaid by another rec therapist, who informed us we will be having airport mobility class all day next Wednesday – for part of it we actually go to the airport and the Delta people let us practice transferring into a plane (I think they also serve a snack – oh boy, airplane food :-p).
Joe had tried contacting us a couple times when we were involved in the van lecture, so we called him back. “All hell was breaking loose” at our house, according to him. I was afraid that meant there’d been some disasters, but it “just” meant that a lot of things were happening all at once here at the end of Joe’s tenure, plus that there was much that still could be done but there wasn’t going to be enough time to do it all, turning things into a pressure situation. I was kind of spacey at the time of our conversation, so I don’t know how much of it I retained, but I think the main hassles were such things as coordinating the various kinds of workers (tile, wood floor, plumber) and having to repaint something (I forget what right now) because the yellow color that Joe had thought would look good had not – he’d renamed it “Mustard Gas Yellow” (he said that the math dept. volunteers had stayed very quiet when they’d seen it, and after several hours, he’d finally said, “So, you really hate this color, don’t you?” They’d agreed they did :-)). Thank God Gary and I don’t have to directly deal with this. I’m sorry Joe does, but we are grateful he is shouldering this burden.
Because we’d stayed late to the Van Modification lecture and Gary had to get in lunch and an IC, we were late to the next class, but it turned out not to matter – it was one we’d already been to and was on his schedule accidently (thank God, because it was one of those first rec lectures ;-)). So we went to find the skin nurse, because I wanted to talk with her today. I wanted to take over the care of Gary’s flap again, but I wanted to know exactly what was to be done. The skin nurse had seen him early in the morning and told him everything looked great, including that newly reddened area. I agreed that his flap looked much better, but I was dubious that the raw part I had seen last night now looked “great.” (Gary had relayed the skin nurse’s words to me while we were in the elevator with the PT on the way to the parking garage to practice transfers. The PT had said to me, “So, you agree with the skin nurse on one thing out of three.” (I forget now what the third thing was.) Gary smiled and said that in case she hadn’t noticed, I was a perfectionist, adding that that was a good thing when it came to his flap.)
We found the skin nurse in her office, and I questioned her about every little detail I could think of about his flap and the surrounding area. At the end she said the nurses could take care of it if I wanted, but I said no, I didn’t mind doing it, but I needed to know exactly what needed to be done. She gave a little smile and said, “I know how you are.”
People are getting to know me entirely too well ;-)
Since we no longer had that class, we had a big two hour break before the next therapy session. I tried to work on the blog a little, but I felt too tired to be very productive. I half-heartedly suggested to Gary we could work on some therapy stuff, maybe balance exercises or something, but he wasn’t in the mood for anything either, also feeling tired out (he said he hasn’t slept well since Sunday – too many interruptions to his sleep by nurses coming at inopportune times).
At three-thirty the garden rec specialist was supposed to come to his room. When she wasn’t there by three-forty-five, I called her number, got no answer, so went off to find someone to locate her. I got Gary’s OT to page her, and then I returned to Gary’s room. A person from Human Resources was there. Evidently she is going to pitch a story to our town’s newspaper, all about Gary and his rehab here at Shepherd. She wanted to take his picture tomorrow afternoon to send off to the paper. I told her that Gary’s nurse had taken some great pictures of him at the Peachtree Road Race and had sent the pictures to me by email. I said I would forward the email to her. She said that would be good but would still take his picture tomorrow – I told him he had to shave ;-)
It was time for me to leave for a massage (the garden rec therapist never came). Just before I left, I asked Gary if he still loved me even though I’d been crabby today. He said, “Yeah. You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t have days like that.”
I told him I wasn’t sure how I should take that ;-)
In the evening he had the thought that if he proned I could get at his skin wound more easily, so this was the first time the two of us attempted to get him in that position ourselves. We were successful, and he was right, that position enabled me to dress his wound in a fraction of the time it had taken me before (and I told him that though that newly reddened area looked better than last night, that one application of antifungal cream I’d made hadn’t completely healed it as the skin nurse had claimed). After that, we got him on his back and I helped him stretch. Then we put him on his side and I climbed in for a quick hoodle. As we lay there in the semi-dark, he noted that originally they had planned to discharge him just two days from now. We laughed – no way was he ready to go home. We joked that we would have had to throw a tent over him in the parking lot of Fresh Market, because we couldn’t even get him in a car on our own to take him out of this area.
He said that he was going to miss being fussed over by all the nurses and staff (except during the hours of 10pm to 8am ;-))when it was time to go home, that while having the injury was not enjoyable (and at this he needed a hug), some of the consequences of having it, like the cards and the letters and the reconnecting with old acquaintances and the fussing, have been, and what would he have when he got home? Just Blackjack and Tigger and me.
Hmm.
All for now.
When I entered Gary’s room this morning, he did not look extremely happy. It looked like the tech had just helped him transfer into his chair, and when I asked him how it went, he said “scratchy,” which I guess is our new code word “not so great.” He told me later that the tech had held him by under his armpit, completely throwing his technique off. I told him he needed to tell her what he wanted her to do. He said he had thought that this was just her way of doing it and that it would be all right. I reminded him of what they had said in the travel class yesterday – that he was the one who knew his body, and he was the one who knew what assistance he needed in transferring, and he needed to be assertive in letting people know how to help him – which I know goes against his natural tendency.
We went off to a session with the PT. We worked on car transfers – boy, do we need work on that. She had him try doing it on the driver’s side – not that he’ll be needing that skill for a while! – but that was even harder than the passenger side because with the wheel he had even less room to work in. After that we went to our own car, and (after I threw the stuff into the back – I had forgotten about that note to myself!) he practiced transfers into the passenger seat. These were harder than the transfers into the passenger side of the Saturn had been – the distance from his chair to the car seat was farther. But we’re thinking that if he uses the transfer board (which he wasn’t) he might do all right as long as he has a little additional aid by a human until he gets the process down himself. (With the board he can do the transfer in little hops and not one big leap, which should also help with problems like the window frame getting in the way – he gave his head a pretty big bonk on it today.)
We headed back toward the gym, which meant Gary had to go up one level of the parking ramp. The PT remarked he was going up it very well, and he told her he was surprised (and obviously pleased) at how easy it was – he is definitely stronger! An even bigger surprise: he easily negotiated the short steep ramp from the parking garage to the entrance to the building – that was the ramp that had been giving him so much problems. That one he said was just a matter of getting the right technique (having good momentum, going up it at the correct angle). Unfortunately each curb cut has its own quirks, so it will be a matter of getting used to each one (unless they are well-designed) and not a matter of applying the same technique.
The PT then wanted him to practice transfers, and when she heard he’d gotten his new bed, she thought it’d be a good idea if we practiced them there. He did a good one (me aiding slightly), and she said she was going to “check us off” on bed transfers – no more hoyer!
Next we had a Van Modifications class, sponsored by the rec therapists. It was again a case of a lot of information being covered in too little time, IMHO. I felt like I got very little out of the presentation – a topic like this is just not within my bailiwick in the first place, but epecially when a lot of information is crammed into a short time and I’m tired (I’m still feeling the effects of last week’s intensive family training and, to top it off, am having my period). I didn’t understand what the steps were that we should go through to get such a van – the lecturers threw out the names of resource organizations like NMEDA (National MobilityEquipment Dealers Association), which is an organization that apparently connects you with an authorized mobility dealer so you can make sure your van is to your needs and properly outfitted; ADED (the Association for Driver Rehabilitation Specialists -don’t ask me how they got that acronym), which evaluates and trains those with disabilities to return to driving safely; the Vehicle Manufacturers Mobility Programs, which offers rebates; the Vocational Rehab Department of State Governments. Anyway, it wasn’t organized in a way I could grasp as to who we were supposed to contact when about what (or maybe my confusion was due to my frame of mind), though I did get a bit of clarification on that when I talked to one of the speakers at the end.
Besides covering these resource organizations, the lecture also covered the pros and cons of minivans and full vans, lifts versus ramps. The lecturers seemed to be suggesting that full vans were better than the minis, and lifts better than ramps, but Gary said that was only true for those needing power chairs, and that he’s been planning on getting a minivan with a ramp. One thing we’ll have to make sure of is that he can wheel his chair up such a ramp as I don’t think I could handle pushing him up it – the angle will be twice as steep as the approved ADA angle.
A couple helpful things we learned are that it is possible to rent the various vans for a day or so (so if we want we can try some out before making our final decision) and that some local dealers are willing to come to Shepherd with their vans so that they can be test-ridden-and-driven. We plan to take advantage of that.
The presentation was mainly geared toward those who would only be passengers, not drivers, so we stayed after the lecture and asked some questions. Gary wanted to know if “turny chairs” can be installed in both the passenger side and the driver side (these are the chairs that turn 360 degrees, so that Gary could wheel into the van from a side or back ramp, wheel next to the chair, turn the chair in whatever direction is best for a transfer, transfer into the chair, secure his wheelchair to the floor of the van, then turn in his chair to face the front, either as passenger or driver). The lecturers didn’t know the answer for certain and told Gary to ask the dealers. He is also to make certain that the dealers understand that though until at least December he will be a passenger in the van, after that the intention is that he will take and pass the driver’s evaluation and class and so will then become a driver of the van. To drive, he will, of course, be using hand controls. I will use foot pedals, same as always (I still have a hard time picturing myself driving a van – I’ve never liked big vehicles).
I’m not sure how long it will take for us to decide on and get a van. We’re assuming that for a while after he gets home he’ll be transferring into a car and maybe using that LETA bus.
After that lecture we headed back to the room, me telling Gary he was going to have to be the one responsible for choosing the van. I told him that I felt overwhelmed by the lecture, confused by it all, and therefore frustrated – and that when I get frustrated I get very very crabby. Sweet Gary said he knew that and could tell I was tired and not to worry, he would handle the van decisions.
Before getting very far we were waylaid by another rec therapist, who informed us we will be having airport mobility class all day next Wednesday – for part of it we actually go to the airport and the Delta people let us practice transferring into a plane (I think they also serve a snack – oh boy, airplane food :-p).
Joe had tried contacting us a couple times when we were involved in the van lecture, so we called him back. “All hell was breaking loose” at our house, according to him. I was afraid that meant there’d been some disasters, but it “just” meant that a lot of things were happening all at once here at the end of Joe’s tenure, plus that there was much that still could be done but there wasn’t going to be enough time to do it all, turning things into a pressure situation. I was kind of spacey at the time of our conversation, so I don’t know how much of it I retained, but I think the main hassles were such things as coordinating the various kinds of workers (tile, wood floor, plumber) and having to repaint something (I forget what right now) because the yellow color that Joe had thought would look good had not – he’d renamed it “Mustard Gas Yellow” (he said that the math dept. volunteers had stayed very quiet when they’d seen it, and after several hours, he’d finally said, “So, you really hate this color, don’t you?” They’d agreed they did :-)). Thank God Gary and I don’t have to directly deal with this. I’m sorry Joe does, but we are grateful he is shouldering this burden.
Because we’d stayed late to the Van Modification lecture and Gary had to get in lunch and an IC, we were late to the next class, but it turned out not to matter – it was one we’d already been to and was on his schedule accidently (thank God, because it was one of those first rec lectures ;-)). So we went to find the skin nurse, because I wanted to talk with her today. I wanted to take over the care of Gary’s flap again, but I wanted to know exactly what was to be done. The skin nurse had seen him early in the morning and told him everything looked great, including that newly reddened area. I agreed that his flap looked much better, but I was dubious that the raw part I had seen last night now looked “great.” (Gary had relayed the skin nurse’s words to me while we were in the elevator with the PT on the way to the parking garage to practice transfers. The PT had said to me, “So, you agree with the skin nurse on one thing out of three.” (I forget now what the third thing was.) Gary smiled and said that in case she hadn’t noticed, I was a perfectionist, adding that that was a good thing when it came to his flap.)
We found the skin nurse in her office, and I questioned her about every little detail I could think of about his flap and the surrounding area. At the end she said the nurses could take care of it if I wanted, but I said no, I didn’t mind doing it, but I needed to know exactly what needed to be done. She gave a little smile and said, “I know how you are.”
People are getting to know me entirely too well ;-)
Since we no longer had that class, we had a big two hour break before the next therapy session. I tried to work on the blog a little, but I felt too tired to be very productive. I half-heartedly suggested to Gary we could work on some therapy stuff, maybe balance exercises or something, but he wasn’t in the mood for anything either, also feeling tired out (he said he hasn’t slept well since Sunday – too many interruptions to his sleep by nurses coming at inopportune times).
At three-thirty the garden rec specialist was supposed to come to his room. When she wasn’t there by three-forty-five, I called her number, got no answer, so went off to find someone to locate her. I got Gary’s OT to page her, and then I returned to Gary’s room. A person from Human Resources was there. Evidently she is going to pitch a story to our town’s newspaper, all about Gary and his rehab here at Shepherd. She wanted to take his picture tomorrow afternoon to send off to the paper. I told her that Gary’s nurse had taken some great pictures of him at the Peachtree Road Race and had sent the pictures to me by email. I said I would forward the email to her. She said that would be good but would still take his picture tomorrow – I told him he had to shave ;-)
It was time for me to leave for a massage (the garden rec therapist never came). Just before I left, I asked Gary if he still loved me even though I’d been crabby today. He said, “Yeah. You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t have days like that.”
I told him I wasn’t sure how I should take that ;-)
In the evening he had the thought that if he proned I could get at his skin wound more easily, so this was the first time the two of us attempted to get him in that position ourselves. We were successful, and he was right, that position enabled me to dress his wound in a fraction of the time it had taken me before (and I told him that though that newly reddened area looked better than last night, that one application of antifungal cream I’d made hadn’t completely healed it as the skin nurse had claimed). After that, we got him on his back and I helped him stretch. Then we put him on his side and I climbed in for a quick hoodle. As we lay there in the semi-dark, he noted that originally they had planned to discharge him just two days from now. We laughed – no way was he ready to go home. We joked that we would have had to throw a tent over him in the parking lot of Fresh Market, because we couldn’t even get him in a car on our own to take him out of this area.
He said that he was going to miss being fussed over by all the nurses and staff (except during the hours of 10pm to 8am ;-))when it was time to go home, that while having the injury was not enjoyable (and at this he needed a hug), some of the consequences of having it, like the cards and the letters and the reconnecting with old acquaintances and the fussing, have been, and what would he have when he got home? Just Blackjack and Tigger and me.
Hmm.
All for now.
posted by Peg Daniels at 9:49 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home