July 8, 2006
Mail call: thanks to Ron Becher.
I worked on the blog in the morning, trying to catch up. I got to Gary’s shortly before his 11:30 therapy session. I asked him if a nurse had transferred him into the chair. He said he didn’t trust her to do it, so had her hoyer him into it.
The session turned out to be one with his regular PT. He joked that he thought she should take the day off. Perhaps in retaliation, she started him off with doing dips on the mat, where he was to use pushup blocks to give him elevation and then hold the extended position for a second. He did twenty-five, then rested, then continued. I thought he was going to have to take another rest after the next fifteen, but he made it to twenty-five. Barely ;-)
Next she had him get in the “model pose” – lying on one side pushed up on one elbow. She wanted him to hold a weight in the other hand, lift it straight out in front of him, then bring it toward his head while keeping his arm at the same height, then bring it toward his feet – a balance as well as a strength exercise. She set an eight-pound weight in front of him. “Now, lift it straight out in front,” she said. He made to pick up the weight. “Yeah, right,” he said, failing to get it off the mat. We all started laughing at the way he’d said that. She went off and came back with a selection of weights, and handed the tiniest one to him. He looked at the one-pound weight. “And it would be pink,” he joked. He did a couple repetitions of the exercise, then said he could do it with the two-pound weight. He probably was highly motivated not to be using a pink weight ;-)
He did his twenty-five repetitions and collapsed onto his back on the mat, moaning. But when he did the exercise on his other side, he found he could do them with a three-pound weight, and though they weren’t easy, they weren’t such a struggle – he said he hadn’t been sure he was even going to be able to complete the exercise on the other side. We thought maybe the difference was a balance issue – it might have been easier for him to balance when propped up on his left, nonarthritic shoulder.
She asked him what he wanted to do next while she worked with another patient, and he said the hand cycle. She set it up. Since she wants him to build endurance, she lowered the resistance so he could do it for more than a few minutes without needing a rest.
Next came a balance exercise, with him sitting on the edge of the mat. I forget the name of the ball she used with him – a typical exercise ball, sort of like a beach ball (not a heavy medicine ball). First, she wanted him to pick up the ball with both hands and lightly touch it to the mat to both sides of his legs. He couldn’t do it, not having the balance for it. So instead, she had him roll it one-handed over his legs. This he could do. Next he was to do a Harlem globetrotter, rolling the ball behind him on the mat, hands always in contact with it. He tried awhile, but he couldn’t do it – shoulder flexibility got in the way with this, in addition to balance. Next she stood in front of him some distance away and tossed the ball toward him – straight at him or to a side -- and he was to hit it back. The first thing that happened was she hit him in the head with it. She told me not to put that in my notes. Of course, I did ;-). He was having trouble with this exercise too, so she had me be the one to toss the ball to him (or maybe that was to prevent me from keeping a record of every time she bonked him;-)) while she lent a little assistance with his balance. We made a great pair, him and me, he wobbling around hitting the ball with an intense look of concentration on his face, me running around chasing after the ball like some klutz. I don’t think we’re ready for beach volleyball yet.
He and I did a transfer of him back into his chair so she could finished up the session by practicing wheelies with him. We talked about transfers again, me bringing up how the nurse hadn’t liked me doing it from the rear because his chair might somehow slip. The PT said there wasn’t any danger of that (assuming the brakes were on!), that the way Gary was doing his transfers, he wasn’t pushing away at the chair, but pushing down with both hands (one on the chair, the other on the surface he was transferring from). She also said that when he got more advanced, and stronger, he would actually be using one hand to pull the chair, as if to move it toward him (though it wouldn’t actually move, because of the brakes) – which would help guide his butt – and using the other arm to provide all his lift. (She also told us that his doctor doesn’t even have brakes on his chair (we wondered about that – how could he keep his balance if he wanted to have both hands in the air while on an uneven surface?).) Gary could see how the pulling at the chair would be useful for aiming his butt. With the way he transfers now, he always has the uncertainty of where his butt is going to land – he can’t feel where it is, he’s not supposed to look at it because that puts his head in exactly the wrong angle for making sure his butt goes to where it’s supposed to go, so he just has to do the technique as taught and hope his butt lands in the right place. “A leap of faith,” I told him, and he laughed at that, saying that was truly what it was.
(Well, with a little help from physics ;-))
After this session, Gary did an IC, then had lunch. The PT had forgotten to reinflate his cushion, so we went back to the gym to find a pump. Another PT found it for us, and we went through the procedure ourselves – first transferring him to the mat, inflating the cushion, transferring him back to the chair, testing the cushion. Another PT walked by and commented, “Boy, give Peg a task and she does it.” “Yes, she does,” Gary said proudly. I puffed up – I like getting strokes ;-)
The cushion seemed fine, and Gary was glad of that, so he wouldn’t have to transfer in and out of the chair again (the cushion can’t be inflated with him sitting on it).
The rest of the day was ours. We did his routine stuff, I worked on the blog, we talked to Joe about the house, and Gary made phone calls concerning it. Since Joe is leaving soon, we have to arrange for others to “cover” for him (he is not replaceable). The main things are to have someone who will let the workers into the house and someone who knows what the tasks are and to check that they are getting done. Sue Rodger has agreed to let workers into the house; Jo Heath has taken over the job of foreman ;-). They have our unbounded appreciation.
I only paid half-attention to the conversations because I was trying to use the time to catch up on the blog, but naturally ;-) I did manage to overhear Gary tell someone, “Peg has devoted herself to helping me with my rehab these past few months, and that’s been so great.” Ahhh, more strokes, and from the person who means the most to me – I love hearing him say things like this. Did I mention this as being a primary reason for why I sometimes overextend myself on the caregiving? I certainly should have, but I don’t think I put it quite this way.
Jumping ahead a day, I had a chance to again look at some of the emails I received this week. Janet Rogers is doing her usual bang-up job of keeping us pictorially informed of the progress on our house (she also mentioned that the kitties are getting used to her now, both of them deigning to let her pet them a little). Work on the bathrooms and the master bedroom continues. Work on the floors is supposed to start this coming week. Janet sent pictures of her and Jo Heath and Donna Bennett painting the master bedroom, which I intend to post. She told us Bob Heath had been at the house, mostly doing some sanding. Jack Rogers set up a wireless network so that Joe can take advantage of our high-speed internet connection. (The modem had been taken out of the master bedroom for the remodeling, so he’d been unable to use an ethernet cord. He’d apparently just been using a dial-up connection, which at least at our house is soooo sloooow.)
Now a jump to a new topic, since I’ve caught pretty well caught up on the accounting of the therapy-related events of this week and so have a little time to write about other things (I’m writing this on Sunday, and so far the day has pretty much consisted of me writing the blog; Gary watching Wimbledon; routine stuff; and a trip out to the car to put in it a load of things from Gary’s room that he won’t be needing/using for the rest of his stay here. Soon we will take a little excursion to the pharmacy up the block to buy a few needed items – and so Gary can get a little exercise. Wouldn’t want him to get lazy, after all ;-)).
I’ve gotten several emails referring to the pictures of Gary I put up on the blog. The most common reaction was that he looked terrific, which of course, he does :-). Mark Meschke, a childhood friend, wrote (and I hope he doesn’t mind if I quote him), “ I went upstairs and looked at my trusty 1965 Columbus Discoverer Yearbook and Gary hasn't changed much at all. No added weight? no gray hair? still that sly smile! you've done very well. I'd probably recognize you if I met you on the street.” (Well, we wouldn’t say NO gray hair ;-))
Another person said Gary looked great, the same as always, and that as a result of some of the things I’d written she had thought he might look wasting away. (For a while there, he did).
My older sister’s response was evocative (she saw him the first week after the accident when he was in intensive care): “The picture of him shows how his upper body has really developed, but for me it is healing as the last time I saw him, in critical care, he was so utterly helpless and fragile, as hanging between life and death. I think that image of him lying there with your scaredness ( and mine, I might add) is the one that was still deep in me. The picture especially the one including his wheel chair, to me is Resurrection, not without the wounds, but including them and makes Resurrection seem more real and possible because of the included wounds.”
To finish, a few pictures:
Jo Heath and Janet Rogers toiling away in the master bedroom.
Donna Bennett caught in an artistic pose as she paints the window in the master bedroom.
Mail call: thanks to Ron Becher.
I worked on the blog in the morning, trying to catch up. I got to Gary’s shortly before his 11:30 therapy session. I asked him if a nurse had transferred him into the chair. He said he didn’t trust her to do it, so had her hoyer him into it.
The session turned out to be one with his regular PT. He joked that he thought she should take the day off. Perhaps in retaliation, she started him off with doing dips on the mat, where he was to use pushup blocks to give him elevation and then hold the extended position for a second. He did twenty-five, then rested, then continued. I thought he was going to have to take another rest after the next fifteen, but he made it to twenty-five. Barely ;-)
Next she had him get in the “model pose” – lying on one side pushed up on one elbow. She wanted him to hold a weight in the other hand, lift it straight out in front of him, then bring it toward his head while keeping his arm at the same height, then bring it toward his feet – a balance as well as a strength exercise. She set an eight-pound weight in front of him. “Now, lift it straight out in front,” she said. He made to pick up the weight. “Yeah, right,” he said, failing to get it off the mat. We all started laughing at the way he’d said that. She went off and came back with a selection of weights, and handed the tiniest one to him. He looked at the one-pound weight. “And it would be pink,” he joked. He did a couple repetitions of the exercise, then said he could do it with the two-pound weight. He probably was highly motivated not to be using a pink weight ;-)
He did his twenty-five repetitions and collapsed onto his back on the mat, moaning. But when he did the exercise on his other side, he found he could do them with a three-pound weight, and though they weren’t easy, they weren’t such a struggle – he said he hadn’t been sure he was even going to be able to complete the exercise on the other side. We thought maybe the difference was a balance issue – it might have been easier for him to balance when propped up on his left, nonarthritic shoulder.
She asked him what he wanted to do next while she worked with another patient, and he said the hand cycle. She set it up. Since she wants him to build endurance, she lowered the resistance so he could do it for more than a few minutes without needing a rest.
Next came a balance exercise, with him sitting on the edge of the mat. I forget the name of the ball she used with him – a typical exercise ball, sort of like a beach ball (not a heavy medicine ball). First, she wanted him to pick up the ball with both hands and lightly touch it to the mat to both sides of his legs. He couldn’t do it, not having the balance for it. So instead, she had him roll it one-handed over his legs. This he could do. Next he was to do a Harlem globetrotter, rolling the ball behind him on the mat, hands always in contact with it. He tried awhile, but he couldn’t do it – shoulder flexibility got in the way with this, in addition to balance. Next she stood in front of him some distance away and tossed the ball toward him – straight at him or to a side -- and he was to hit it back. The first thing that happened was she hit him in the head with it. She told me not to put that in my notes. Of course, I did ;-). He was having trouble with this exercise too, so she had me be the one to toss the ball to him (or maybe that was to prevent me from keeping a record of every time she bonked him;-)) while she lent a little assistance with his balance. We made a great pair, him and me, he wobbling around hitting the ball with an intense look of concentration on his face, me running around chasing after the ball like some klutz. I don’t think we’re ready for beach volleyball yet.
He and I did a transfer of him back into his chair so she could finished up the session by practicing wheelies with him. We talked about transfers again, me bringing up how the nurse hadn’t liked me doing it from the rear because his chair might somehow slip. The PT said there wasn’t any danger of that (assuming the brakes were on!), that the way Gary was doing his transfers, he wasn’t pushing away at the chair, but pushing down with both hands (one on the chair, the other on the surface he was transferring from). She also said that when he got more advanced, and stronger, he would actually be using one hand to pull the chair, as if to move it toward him (though it wouldn’t actually move, because of the brakes) – which would help guide his butt – and using the other arm to provide all his lift. (She also told us that his doctor doesn’t even have brakes on his chair (we wondered about that – how could he keep his balance if he wanted to have both hands in the air while on an uneven surface?).) Gary could see how the pulling at the chair would be useful for aiming his butt. With the way he transfers now, he always has the uncertainty of where his butt is going to land – he can’t feel where it is, he’s not supposed to look at it because that puts his head in exactly the wrong angle for making sure his butt goes to where it’s supposed to go, so he just has to do the technique as taught and hope his butt lands in the right place. “A leap of faith,” I told him, and he laughed at that, saying that was truly what it was.
(Well, with a little help from physics ;-))
After this session, Gary did an IC, then had lunch. The PT had forgotten to reinflate his cushion, so we went back to the gym to find a pump. Another PT found it for us, and we went through the procedure ourselves – first transferring him to the mat, inflating the cushion, transferring him back to the chair, testing the cushion. Another PT walked by and commented, “Boy, give Peg a task and she does it.” “Yes, she does,” Gary said proudly. I puffed up – I like getting strokes ;-)
The cushion seemed fine, and Gary was glad of that, so he wouldn’t have to transfer in and out of the chair again (the cushion can’t be inflated with him sitting on it).
The rest of the day was ours. We did his routine stuff, I worked on the blog, we talked to Joe about the house, and Gary made phone calls concerning it. Since Joe is leaving soon, we have to arrange for others to “cover” for him (he is not replaceable). The main things are to have someone who will let the workers into the house and someone who knows what the tasks are and to check that they are getting done. Sue Rodger has agreed to let workers into the house; Jo Heath has taken over the job of foreman ;-). They have our unbounded appreciation.
I only paid half-attention to the conversations because I was trying to use the time to catch up on the blog, but naturally ;-) I did manage to overhear Gary tell someone, “Peg has devoted herself to helping me with my rehab these past few months, and that’s been so great.” Ahhh, more strokes, and from the person who means the most to me – I love hearing him say things like this. Did I mention this as being a primary reason for why I sometimes overextend myself on the caregiving? I certainly should have, but I don’t think I put it quite this way.
Jumping ahead a day, I had a chance to again look at some of the emails I received this week. Janet Rogers is doing her usual bang-up job of keeping us pictorially informed of the progress on our house (she also mentioned that the kitties are getting used to her now, both of them deigning to let her pet them a little). Work on the bathrooms and the master bedroom continues. Work on the floors is supposed to start this coming week. Janet sent pictures of her and Jo Heath and Donna Bennett painting the master bedroom, which I intend to post. She told us Bob Heath had been at the house, mostly doing some sanding. Jack Rogers set up a wireless network so that Joe can take advantage of our high-speed internet connection. (The modem had been taken out of the master bedroom for the remodeling, so he’d been unable to use an ethernet cord. He’d apparently just been using a dial-up connection, which at least at our house is soooo sloooow.)
Now a jump to a new topic, since I’ve caught pretty well caught up on the accounting of the therapy-related events of this week and so have a little time to write about other things (I’m writing this on Sunday, and so far the day has pretty much consisted of me writing the blog; Gary watching Wimbledon; routine stuff; and a trip out to the car to put in it a load of things from Gary’s room that he won’t be needing/using for the rest of his stay here. Soon we will take a little excursion to the pharmacy up the block to buy a few needed items – and so Gary can get a little exercise. Wouldn’t want him to get lazy, after all ;-)).
I’ve gotten several emails referring to the pictures of Gary I put up on the blog. The most common reaction was that he looked terrific, which of course, he does :-). Mark Meschke, a childhood friend, wrote (and I hope he doesn’t mind if I quote him), “ I went upstairs and looked at my trusty 1965 Columbus Discoverer Yearbook and Gary hasn't changed much at all. No added weight? no gray hair? still that sly smile! you've done very well. I'd probably recognize you if I met you on the street.” (Well, we wouldn’t say NO gray hair ;-))
Another person said Gary looked great, the same as always, and that as a result of some of the things I’d written she had thought he might look wasting away. (For a while there, he did).
My older sister’s response was evocative (she saw him the first week after the accident when he was in intensive care): “The picture of him shows how his upper body has really developed, but for me it is healing as the last time I saw him, in critical care, he was so utterly helpless and fragile, as hanging between life and death. I think that image of him lying there with your scaredness ( and mine, I might add) is the one that was still deep in me. The picture especially the one including his wheel chair, to me is Resurrection, not without the wounds, but including them and makes Resurrection seem more real and possible because of the included wounds.”
To finish, a few pictures:
Jo Heath and Janet Rogers toiling away in the master bedroom.
Donna Bennett caught in an artistic pose as she paints the window in the master bedroom.
posted by Peg Daniels at 9:11 AM
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