July 29, 2006 segueing into July 30
Our morning routine was about the same as last week’s, except we put off doing the bath until evening since that is what we’ll be doing for day program in order to save some time in the morning. We finished just in time for me give Gary a kiss and run off to my chiropractor appointment at 11:45. After that I went to the hospital to a) ask them what to do about the bladder situation, and b) collect Gary’s second load of stuff. Concerning a), they told me that because Gary had been discharged as an inpatient, our options were to go to the Piedmont emergency room or to try the outpatient services number, which they gave me. (Later, when Gary called the number, the only item on the recorded menu that seemed to pertain to the situation at hand was to call the urology emergency number; since he doesn’t feel bad and isn’t running a fever and has no other symptoms of a urinary tract infection, he decided to wait and see what develops.)
So I collected Gary’s stuff, went back to the apartment, unloaded a few of the items we’d decided we needed, gave him the report concerning a), then gave him another kiss (I decided we both needed lots of those today) and went off to Fresh Market. I swooped down the aisles, sacrificing my principles for convenience ;-) by buying pre-cooked items for him at the deli in addition to the fruits and vegetables (including a case of zukes for me). Gary was delighted with my choices and said that though he’d learned which items to choose from the hospital menus and which to avoid, he was really looking forward to having some real food again.
After I dashed in with the groceries and gave Gary another kiss, it was time to head out for my next session with my personal trainer. So what comes next is another accounting of my workout, be forewarned.
I started out with ten minutes on the bike as before, then we moved into the main workout. For the first exercise, she stretched an exercise tube between the posts of a squat bench at mid-shin level, and I did “step-overs,” first stepping over the tube with one leg, then stepping back with it; the tendency, she said, was to let the knee turn out during this, but the correct form was to keep it pointed straight ahead. She said my form was good. My hip flexors burned after about six reps. She had me do twenty (mean person ;-)), first with the right leg, then the left. Then another fifteen with the right leg and then the left.
Next I was to have my back against the wall and be in a seated position (the deeper you squat, the more difficult the exercise). She handed me a weight (oh, shoot – I forgot to write down how heavy it was), and the exercise was to lift the weight from a downward of about forty-five degrees to over my head until it touched the wall – so, a type of front raise, being careful not to arch my back. I did fifteen of those. (At this point she mentioned that wall squats – by which she meant simply holding the position I was in (without using the weight) for an increasingly longer amount of time– was a very good strength builder.)
Next I did a type of lunge: I started with my feet together, then took a small step forward and bent both knees in a lunge, similar to what I had done the first day, only without the arm movements and with the lunge being dynamic instead of “in place.” She said my form was good – I found it much easier to maintain my form than during the exercise on that first day when I’d had to coordinate arms with legs. I did 15 reps stepping forward with the right leg, then fifteen with the left.
Next I repeated the “wall squat with weight” exercise, twenty reps. Then I repeated the lunges. She said that that exercise could be made harder by “sitting back” farther during it, and/or bending the legs more, as long as the knees don’t go past the toes. She again commented my form was good, and I believe I can thank all my years of standing in front of a mirror watching my form while I did weights for that.
Next she had me sit on a stability ball and simply lift my leg at the knee, the goal being to keep my balance on the ball, having to recruit some core muscles for that. It was easier on my left leg than on my right, for some reason, so to make the exercise harder, I lifted my leg out straight. She said to make the exercise even harder, one could do bicep curls at the same time.
We finished up the strength-training aspect of the workout with angled pushups – she put a bar on the squat rack and I did twenty pushups leaning on that. I almost told her about Gary’s one hundred pushups, but thought better of it – wouldn’t want to put ideas in her head! I told her I found those relatively easy, and maybe we could have put the bar down lower. She said she hadn’t been worried about the strength issue with me but with how the exercise would affect my back, so she had been having me do a progression – first wall pushups, now these, next time maybe knee pushups on the floor. I should have kept my mouth shut ;-)
We next did stretching, she leading me through them. First a “plié” stretch, where one was supposed to lean to each side while in the plié. I’m glad I couldn’t see myself in a mirror and I’m glad my former-ballet-dancer little sister couldn’t see me. Next I did a chest stretch, one arm angled on the wall at a ninety degree angle. Then a couple towel stretches: stand on a towel with one foot and pull on it while using the other arm to reach across the head and stretch the neck; lie down on the floor and loop the towel around the foot to do hamstring and calf stretches. Then I hugged my knees to my chest, then from that position I put arms out on the floor at shoulder level and twisted to one side then the other. Then I rolled over and arched my back up like a cat, then went into yoga’s child’s pose. Then I stood and did a couple arm stretches, first pulling one arm across the body, then reaching down the back with the hand.
I thanked her for the workout. She told me she’d been easy on me today because on Monday I’m supposed to meet with another trainer, the one with a background in physical therapy, and he would really work me. Uh-oh.
I had seen a pharmacy across the street from the workout place, so went there to see if they had the supplies Gary had forgotten to get at the Shepherd apothecary. They didn’t, but they sent me to a nearby pharmacy that carried some medical supplies, and I was able to get everything there, so that worked out great.
I called Gary once I got to the hotel – which I hadn’t checked out from yet – and he said he was doing fine, that he’d had a nice conversation with Norma. I then made up for the fact that my workout was supposed to have been an easy one: since I had to make at least a half-dozen trips of going up and down the stairs carrying things, I’m sure that counts as a leg workout in itself.
After checking out, I had one more grocery item to get – some laundry detergent I can tolerate – so I got that at the Publix close to my hotel. I realized after I got to the apartment that I should have gotten more, given all the times we are running the washer to do the towels and washcloths. Unfortunately, the Publix close to the apartment doesn’t carry any “natural” washing stuff. I can do with just baking soda in the wash, but Gary has the psychological need for something that suds ;-).
I made it back to the apartment by six, brought in some stuff from he car, then made my dinner and turned on the oven so Gary could warm up his Italian sandwich from Fresh Market in it. While he finished dinner I tried to organize some of our stuff (I’m sure Debra is going to think the place is in chaos when she comes tomorrow ;-)). I remembered some more things I needed from the car, and went to get them. There was a fantastic lightning display going on. Two men were sitting out watching it. One was in a wheelchair. He looks to be in his early twenties and is in the Day Program (Gary had talked to him earlier and found out he’d started it last Wednesday). The other man I assume is his father. As I passed by, I greeted them, and they asked me if I could take them grocery shopping tomorrow. My stomach dropped. I made some excuse about having company tomorrow and not having the time. When I got back inside the apartment, I told Gary about it, and told him I felt really bad because while I know they are in a tough situation themselves, I just can’t help them out – I can’t take on any more (I meant psychologically, if not physically). I was upset; Gary said they’d find someone else and that he understood, that he was amazed at all I’d been able to do for him.
I don’t know what to say when I next run into these people if they ask again. I suppose I should try to be somewhat forthright, but my inclination is to park around the side of the building, go out the back of our apartment, and avoid running into them.
After Gary was done eating, about 7:15, we got him in to bed so we could give could do the bath and the rest of our regular routine. We finished about nine. He had decided to do an IC about 10:30, and I would need to help him prone after that. He dozed, but I stayed awake and worked on the blog – I figured it would be harder to go back to sleep if I dozed, then helped him prone, then went back to bed.
By the time we got him proned, it was close to 11:30. I took a five minute hot bath and went to bed. I fell asleep quickly, fortunately. Gary was going to try to delay some of his program in the morning, instead of doing a practice run for Day Program, as we’d originally planned. By delaying, his intention was I would get more sleep. I was awakened by his light at 6:15am. I peeked out and watched him a short time, but he had gotten himself turned and seemed to be doing his IC fine on his own, so I went back to bed and dozed/meditated/slept until about eight. He was sleeping lightly, and when I woke him he said he wanted to rest some more, so he did that and I worked on the blog. When he was ready, we started in with the morning routine. We are going to time it, so we know how long we need to allow in the morning to get him to day program at 9. We are going to skip his morning stretching routine during the weekdays these next two weeks, figuring they’ll do that sometime at day program.
. . . We have figured out it will take us about forty-minutes to get him dressed and into the wheelchair. About thirty-five minutes of that was spent in getting his t.e.d. hose on. And that’s not all that much of an exaggeration! I told him they should have given me classes in that.
He also figured out we’ll need to get started at six in order for him to catch the bus at 8:20. We decided to have him take the bus because with us having to transfer him into the car, we’d have to start that about 8:30 anyway, and this will be simpler on the both of us. I could ride in the bus too, but I’m going to take the car so I won’t feel stuck over there.
Debra Talley, fellow SteeleWatcher and RSFic’er came at noon. She and I went to Fresh Market to pick up something for her and Gary to eat. (She got a small uncooked pepperoni pizza .I picked up one of those for Gary for some other meal but had the Fresh Market person make up some salmon and tuna and California roll sushi for Gary. This was much less work than having Gary either push his way up the street to the restaurants, for which he would need help from me, or go through the process of breaking down his wheelchair, loading it into the car, transferring him into the car, driving about two minutes, putting together his wheelchair, transferring him out of the car, then going through the whole process again after we ate. That process will go quicker once he gets the car transfers down really well, but as with the other stuff, it’s going to take more practice.)
We returned to the apartment and had a nice conversation and a nice meal, Gary even getting a slice of the key lime pie that Debra had also bought. Then we watched Debra’s “The Matador” DVD, which we really enjoyed seeing again and she enjoyed seeing for the third time ;-). After that, Debra showed us pictures that had been taken during her L.A. interview – she is going to be in one of the extra segments (the one about the fans) on the soon-go-be released fourth-and-fifth season Remington Steele DVD. She also showed us the wonderful watercolors she’s painted – she only discovered fairly recently that she could paint! Then we said our goodbyes. I was very happy that we were able to get together with her while we were in Atlanta – this was the last chance we would have to do so before our return home.
Both Gary and I were then ready for the nap, so we got him transferred into his bed, and now I’m headed off to my own.
All for now. ;-)
Our morning routine was about the same as last week’s, except we put off doing the bath until evening since that is what we’ll be doing for day program in order to save some time in the morning. We finished just in time for me give Gary a kiss and run off to my chiropractor appointment at 11:45. After that I went to the hospital to a) ask them what to do about the bladder situation, and b) collect Gary’s second load of stuff. Concerning a), they told me that because Gary had been discharged as an inpatient, our options were to go to the Piedmont emergency room or to try the outpatient services number, which they gave me. (Later, when Gary called the number, the only item on the recorded menu that seemed to pertain to the situation at hand was to call the urology emergency number; since he doesn’t feel bad and isn’t running a fever and has no other symptoms of a urinary tract infection, he decided to wait and see what develops.)
So I collected Gary’s stuff, went back to the apartment, unloaded a few of the items we’d decided we needed, gave him the report concerning a), then gave him another kiss (I decided we both needed lots of those today) and went off to Fresh Market. I swooped down the aisles, sacrificing my principles for convenience ;-) by buying pre-cooked items for him at the deli in addition to the fruits and vegetables (including a case of zukes for me). Gary was delighted with my choices and said that though he’d learned which items to choose from the hospital menus and which to avoid, he was really looking forward to having some real food again.
After I dashed in with the groceries and gave Gary another kiss, it was time to head out for my next session with my personal trainer. So what comes next is another accounting of my workout, be forewarned.
I started out with ten minutes on the bike as before, then we moved into the main workout. For the first exercise, she stretched an exercise tube between the posts of a squat bench at mid-shin level, and I did “step-overs,” first stepping over the tube with one leg, then stepping back with it; the tendency, she said, was to let the knee turn out during this, but the correct form was to keep it pointed straight ahead. She said my form was good. My hip flexors burned after about six reps. She had me do twenty (mean person ;-)), first with the right leg, then the left. Then another fifteen with the right leg and then the left.
Next I was to have my back against the wall and be in a seated position (the deeper you squat, the more difficult the exercise). She handed me a weight (oh, shoot – I forgot to write down how heavy it was), and the exercise was to lift the weight from a downward of about forty-five degrees to over my head until it touched the wall – so, a type of front raise, being careful not to arch my back. I did fifteen of those. (At this point she mentioned that wall squats – by which she meant simply holding the position I was in (without using the weight) for an increasingly longer amount of time– was a very good strength builder.)
Next I did a type of lunge: I started with my feet together, then took a small step forward and bent both knees in a lunge, similar to what I had done the first day, only without the arm movements and with the lunge being dynamic instead of “in place.” She said my form was good – I found it much easier to maintain my form than during the exercise on that first day when I’d had to coordinate arms with legs. I did 15 reps stepping forward with the right leg, then fifteen with the left.
Next I repeated the “wall squat with weight” exercise, twenty reps. Then I repeated the lunges. She said that that exercise could be made harder by “sitting back” farther during it, and/or bending the legs more, as long as the knees don’t go past the toes. She again commented my form was good, and I believe I can thank all my years of standing in front of a mirror watching my form while I did weights for that.
Next she had me sit on a stability ball and simply lift my leg at the knee, the goal being to keep my balance on the ball, having to recruit some core muscles for that. It was easier on my left leg than on my right, for some reason, so to make the exercise harder, I lifted my leg out straight. She said to make the exercise even harder, one could do bicep curls at the same time.
We finished up the strength-training aspect of the workout with angled pushups – she put a bar on the squat rack and I did twenty pushups leaning on that. I almost told her about Gary’s one hundred pushups, but thought better of it – wouldn’t want to put ideas in her head! I told her I found those relatively easy, and maybe we could have put the bar down lower. She said she hadn’t been worried about the strength issue with me but with how the exercise would affect my back, so she had been having me do a progression – first wall pushups, now these, next time maybe knee pushups on the floor. I should have kept my mouth shut ;-)
We next did stretching, she leading me through them. First a “plié” stretch, where one was supposed to lean to each side while in the plié. I’m glad I couldn’t see myself in a mirror and I’m glad my former-ballet-dancer little sister couldn’t see me. Next I did a chest stretch, one arm angled on the wall at a ninety degree angle. Then a couple towel stretches: stand on a towel with one foot and pull on it while using the other arm to reach across the head and stretch the neck; lie down on the floor and loop the towel around the foot to do hamstring and calf stretches. Then I hugged my knees to my chest, then from that position I put arms out on the floor at shoulder level and twisted to one side then the other. Then I rolled over and arched my back up like a cat, then went into yoga’s child’s pose. Then I stood and did a couple arm stretches, first pulling one arm across the body, then reaching down the back with the hand.
I thanked her for the workout. She told me she’d been easy on me today because on Monday I’m supposed to meet with another trainer, the one with a background in physical therapy, and he would really work me. Uh-oh.
I had seen a pharmacy across the street from the workout place, so went there to see if they had the supplies Gary had forgotten to get at the Shepherd apothecary. They didn’t, but they sent me to a nearby pharmacy that carried some medical supplies, and I was able to get everything there, so that worked out great.
I called Gary once I got to the hotel – which I hadn’t checked out from yet – and he said he was doing fine, that he’d had a nice conversation with Norma. I then made up for the fact that my workout was supposed to have been an easy one: since I had to make at least a half-dozen trips of going up and down the stairs carrying things, I’m sure that counts as a leg workout in itself.
After checking out, I had one more grocery item to get – some laundry detergent I can tolerate – so I got that at the Publix close to my hotel. I realized after I got to the apartment that I should have gotten more, given all the times we are running the washer to do the towels and washcloths. Unfortunately, the Publix close to the apartment doesn’t carry any “natural” washing stuff. I can do with just baking soda in the wash, but Gary has the psychological need for something that suds ;-).
I made it back to the apartment by six, brought in some stuff from he car, then made my dinner and turned on the oven so Gary could warm up his Italian sandwich from Fresh Market in it. While he finished dinner I tried to organize some of our stuff (I’m sure Debra is going to think the place is in chaos when she comes tomorrow ;-)). I remembered some more things I needed from the car, and went to get them. There was a fantastic lightning display going on. Two men were sitting out watching it. One was in a wheelchair. He looks to be in his early twenties and is in the Day Program (Gary had talked to him earlier and found out he’d started it last Wednesday). The other man I assume is his father. As I passed by, I greeted them, and they asked me if I could take them grocery shopping tomorrow. My stomach dropped. I made some excuse about having company tomorrow and not having the time. When I got back inside the apartment, I told Gary about it, and told him I felt really bad because while I know they are in a tough situation themselves, I just can’t help them out – I can’t take on any more (I meant psychologically, if not physically). I was upset; Gary said they’d find someone else and that he understood, that he was amazed at all I’d been able to do for him.
I don’t know what to say when I next run into these people if they ask again. I suppose I should try to be somewhat forthright, but my inclination is to park around the side of the building, go out the back of our apartment, and avoid running into them.
After Gary was done eating, about 7:15, we got him in to bed so we could give could do the bath and the rest of our regular routine. We finished about nine. He had decided to do an IC about 10:30, and I would need to help him prone after that. He dozed, but I stayed awake and worked on the blog – I figured it would be harder to go back to sleep if I dozed, then helped him prone, then went back to bed.
By the time we got him proned, it was close to 11:30. I took a five minute hot bath and went to bed. I fell asleep quickly, fortunately. Gary was going to try to delay some of his program in the morning, instead of doing a practice run for Day Program, as we’d originally planned. By delaying, his intention was I would get more sleep. I was awakened by his light at 6:15am. I peeked out and watched him a short time, but he had gotten himself turned and seemed to be doing his IC fine on his own, so I went back to bed and dozed/meditated/slept until about eight. He was sleeping lightly, and when I woke him he said he wanted to rest some more, so he did that and I worked on the blog. When he was ready, we started in with the morning routine. We are going to time it, so we know how long we need to allow in the morning to get him to day program at 9. We are going to skip his morning stretching routine during the weekdays these next two weeks, figuring they’ll do that sometime at day program.
. . . We have figured out it will take us about forty-minutes to get him dressed and into the wheelchair. About thirty-five minutes of that was spent in getting his t.e.d. hose on. And that’s not all that much of an exaggeration! I told him they should have given me classes in that.
He also figured out we’ll need to get started at six in order for him to catch the bus at 8:20. We decided to have him take the bus because with us having to transfer him into the car, we’d have to start that about 8:30 anyway, and this will be simpler on the both of us. I could ride in the bus too, but I’m going to take the car so I won’t feel stuck over there.
Debra Talley, fellow SteeleWatcher and RSFic’er came at noon. She and I went to Fresh Market to pick up something for her and Gary to eat. (She got a small uncooked pepperoni pizza .I picked up one of those for Gary for some other meal but had the Fresh Market person make up some salmon and tuna and California roll sushi for Gary. This was much less work than having Gary either push his way up the street to the restaurants, for which he would need help from me, or go through the process of breaking down his wheelchair, loading it into the car, transferring him into the car, driving about two minutes, putting together his wheelchair, transferring him out of the car, then going through the whole process again after we ate. That process will go quicker once he gets the car transfers down really well, but as with the other stuff, it’s going to take more practice.)
We returned to the apartment and had a nice conversation and a nice meal, Gary even getting a slice of the key lime pie that Debra had also bought. Then we watched Debra’s “The Matador” DVD, which we really enjoyed seeing again and she enjoyed seeing for the third time ;-). After that, Debra showed us pictures that had been taken during her L.A. interview – she is going to be in one of the extra segments (the one about the fans) on the soon-go-be released fourth-and-fifth season Remington Steele DVD. She also showed us the wonderful watercolors she’s painted – she only discovered fairly recently that she could paint! Then we said our goodbyes. I was very happy that we were able to get together with her while we were in Atlanta – this was the last chance we would have to do so before our return home.
Both Gary and I were then ready for the nap, so we got him transferred into his bed, and now I’m headed off to my own.
All for now. ;-)
posted by Peg Daniels at 1:18 PM
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