August 11, 2006

Well, I didn’t sleep as badly as I’d feared I might; I would have slept better but a certain person who shall remain unnamed ;-) accidently set the cell phone alarm for 12am instead of 2am and then had to wake me up to get him back into a prone position after he’d gotten himself out of it, thinking it was time to do an IC. Given the way my body felt at the time, I briefly wondered if you could die from being woken up at the wrong part of the sleep cycle (which amused this certain person when I told him this later, though of course he was sympathetic as well as sorry he couldn’t avoid waking me). But fortunately I soon settled back down and it didn’t take too long for me to fall back to sleep, and I made it until a little after six before waking again. I got up at 6:30 because we were doing our morning routine a half hour earlier than usual in order to be checked out of the apartment by 9. The Kuperbergs arrived about 7:30, bearing gifts (Gary got some high-quality weight-training gloves; I got a book of poems by Maya Angelou); then they helped me pack up and finish the cleaning up – Wlodek did the vacuuming and carried out boxes to the cars; Krystina carried out boxes and also took the boxes I had previously put in my car amd put them into the two of theirs so I could just have Gary’s immediate medical supplies in my car plus plenty of room to load his wheelchair; then they and I folded towels and sheets freshly washed and dried (well, nearly dried). We actually finished with ten minutes to spare (I felt like I was running on warp drive), only, I forgot to notify the housing guy that the first thing I did in the morning was turn on what in my not-quite-awake state I thought was the kitchen light and which turned out to be the garbage disposal, managing to get a spoon stuck down it, but I’m sure he found that out quick enough (oops!).

Then, since Gary still had a morning of therapy, the Kuperbergs and I took our cars to Shepherd – Gary had left just before us in the Shepherd bus. First on Gary’s schedule was “group standing.” He and another woman were cranked up in standing frames, another guy was brought toward vertical on the tilt table, and another woman who after her C-level injury has regained some ability to use her legs stood with the aid of a walker. Then the four of them played poker for about forty-five minutes (and I’ve forgotten the name of the game already – Texas something; I guess it’s supposed to be very popular now, shown on TV). Unfortunately I missed Gary’s big win at the end because I ran off to the apothecary for some supplies. He thought that if the chips had been counted up at the end, he would have won the most money overall; a vast change in fortune, as up to this point he had lost nearly all of his poker money.

After this came a group push. Gary and two other patients went out to the parking garage and pushed up the ramps – Gary was the only one who made it to the top, going up all six ramps of the three levels. After that the group returned to the Shepherd building then went through the tunnel to Piedmont Hospital and pushed around there (carpeted and tiled surfaces). The challenge for this part of the push was to go up a long rather steeply inclined hallway; it became more of a challenge than it was supposed to be when the new back of Gary’s chair popped out of its brackets, due to a design flaw which became apparent when Gary leaned way forward in his chair against his chest belt in order to get up the ramp, which put pressure on the back of the chair. Wlodek helped me pop the back into place, but it kept popping out again every time Gary leaned forward to make it up the slope. Time was running out, so the patients got out of having to push up the incline backwards, but they were still supposed to push up (forwards) the even steeper dreaded Blue Carpet. Again, the back of Gary’s chair kept popping out, and so the therapist had me just push Gary back to the third floor gym so no mishap would happen (I had been staying behind his chair the whole time, and when he would stop for a rest and thus stop leaning forward, Wlodek and/or I would pop the back of the chair in again).

The last thing on Gary’s schedule was a group weight training session, and Gary transferred out of his chair onto the mat to do the exercises (me acting as his back support again) so Wlodek could work on the chair – I had called our supplier and left a message to tell him of the problem, but we didn’t know if he was going to be able to get back to us before it was time to leave, and Wlodek had an idea of how the chair could be fixed. Wlodek had the correct idea – the clips on the chair frame that secured the back in place were upside down, but fixing it made the back of the chair too low, endangering Gary’s flap. An OT took the chair off to seating clinic, hoping to get it fixed there.

The morning finished with a graduation ceremony – not quite the to-do that the inpatient one had been, but it was nice. Gary got another certificate of graduation and Super Student certificate for attending the classes he was supposed to (which turned out to be none since he’d had them all as an inpatient). He also got a certificate for “Most compliant with skin precautions.” He didn’t get to roll out the door with the other two graduates because he didn’t have his chair. Moments later his chair was returned to him, but it hadn’t been fixed: evidently the seating clinic had been very busy and the OT hadn’t been able to get any help. So we were left to make do until the supplier got back to us (Gary didn’t think he would run into any steep ramps in the meantime, and if he did, he wouldn’t go up them without someone’s help – plus Wlodek planned to tie the clips on firmer with string).

After this, Gary went off to do his IC. I went to get my lunch from the car, and then I joined the Kuperbergs, who were sitting in the Shepherd garden – my graffiti sign is still up!

Gary rejoined us, and next the Kuperbergs got to experience hospital cafeteria lunch (the cooks must have known they were coming, the food seeming better than usual ;-)). Towards the end of the meal, our supplier called, and he came down to the cafeteria to work on Gary’s chair. He did essentially the same thing Wlodek had done, except I think the difference was he moved the chest belt to a different place (I forget the details now). So now the clips are facing the correct way (and Wlodek assures us there is no way that back is going to pop out because of the clips), and though the back is lower, it is not by much – I’ll just have to keep my eye on Gary’s flap to make sure it doesn’t cause any problems with that. (This is the loaner chair we are talking about, so hopefully we won’t run into such problems when Gary gets his own chair). Our supplier gave us the card of the guy in or area who would actually be the one to come out and work on Gary’s equipment should it need servicing.

Then it was time to leave.

I helped Gary transfer into my car, Wlodek helped me break the wheelchair down, and then we formed our caravan back to home. The first part of the drive through all the Atlanta traffic I found nerve-wracking (and it wasn’t even rush-hour), but the entire drive went pretty quickly, even though I stopped about every half-hour to try to give my back some relief (my leg symptoms were still set off by the drive, though). As we got to the highway turnoff for home, it felt somewhat unreal – hard to believe it’d been four months since we’d traveled these streets. When I turned into our subdivision, I went very slow – it was time for Gary to do another weight shift (he’s had to go back to doing them every twenty minutes because of the latest concerns about his flap), and we thought it might be nice for him to have that over rather than delay his getting out of the car (since we’d heard there was going to be a little welcoming committee for our arrival).

The first thing we noticed coming up the drive was the new structure of the garage going up. It looks very big! As we pulled to a stop, we were met by Janet Rogers, Donna Bennett, and Piotr Minc, complete with umbrellas as it was raining a bit (the Kuperbergs were there too, of course). After Gary and I got him transferred out of the car, we entered our house – or so we assume ;-), the changes making it seem not quite ours. The first thing that caught our eye – well, the first thing after the beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table which no one admitted to bringing – was the futon frame built by John Hinrichsen, the idea being to lift our futon couch up so that Gary can make a relatively easy transfer onto it. Next I noticed the wood floors in the back rooms and then the “new” hallway bathroom, which looks great, the only familiar thing about it the tub!

Then we viewed the pièce de resistance, the master bathroom. What an incredible job, and it seems just perfect! Later in the evening I discovered another new feature that I really like – the new blinds. These should actually keep the sunlight out, unlike the ones we had ;-).

I’m afraid the other people got stuck with bringing the boxes in, because I was too busy oohing and ahhing over the house ;-). The others also did a bit of rearranging of the furniture in the master bedroom so Gary’s medical supplies would be more accessible to him throughout the night. Janet and Donna gave us the basic idea of where our stuff might be found, but they warned we’d probably have to do some hunting for a while – since everything had had to be taken out of the three bedrooms for the flooring to be laid and painting to be done and so forth, things did not necessarily end up where they’d first been; we were also warned that all our books had been put back in shelves in various rooms but with no idea of how they’d originally been arranged.

Janet pointed out that Tigger was walking by the window of the master bedroom, so I went out the family room door to see if he would remember me. He did, coming right away at my call, and so did Blackjack. I got to pet them both awhile, but they were a bit skittish because they could hear the other people. Gary tried to get them to come to him, but as expected they were afraid of the chair.

A short time later, the Kuperbergs said it was time for them to go, and Gary got overwhelmed when he made to thank them; Krystyna gave him the hug he needed. Soon after the others left, but not before Janet took a picture of Gary and me, which is up on the blog. (Speaking of pictures, the Kuperbergs took some at Shepherd, and you can see them at http://topo.math.auburn.edu/pub/Gary/ )

Not very long after the others had left, Michel Smith turned up (having been delayed by a dean’s meeting), complete with cheesecake (!) made by his daughter Sarah – since our refrigerator had been stocked with other items for our arrival, we didn’t have to worry about Gary’s meal for the night. While Michel was there, Gary made the discovery that he couldn’t get into one of his closets, so Michel took off its doors.

After Michel left, I set about trying do a little unpacking (as little as possible), getting Gary’s supplies for the night ready and so forth. Fatigue really set in for both of us, and after dinner Gary said he was ready to be put to bed. I told him I wished someone would put me to bed, too. We went through most of our routine but skipped Gary’s bath, even though Tigger decided to try to help with that by giving Gary some licks. After everyone had left, Tigger had stayed glued to me, constantly talking at me, demanding to be petted. I had picked him up and took him to Gary for some petting, and since after that I was around Gary a lot, Tigger finally got a little more used to the chair, coming up to Gary for petting at one point. But he mostly steers clear of the chair, and Blackjack doesn’t come around it at all, though I bet it will be only a short while before they are used to it. Anyway, where I was going with this is that once Gary got into bed and I was helping him stretch, Tigger hopped up on the bed and demanded some petting from Gary as well as me. In fact, Tigger got quite comfortable on the bed and wanted to stay there, but I finally took him out when I was going to bed and put him behind the cat barrier, which I had to reinforce with a cinder block (I’m not absolutely sure about Tigger, but Blackjack is a strong cat, and I’m sure he would have just reached a paw under the door and pulled it toward himself with enough force that the sliding latch would have come undone and the door opened; he has done that kind of thing before). Tigger raised a ruckus from behind the barrier so I went out and petted him for a while to reassure him we weren’t going anywhere.

Jack Rogers had gotten our walkie-talkies ready for use, and we had tested them out before going to bed, so I slept in the small bedroom with the door closed and my air purifier on so I wouldn’t be woken by the light going on in Gary’s room at 2 and 6am nor hear him moving about in the hospital bed. I wasn’t awakened by either of those things, but I still woke up several times during the night – hopefully I’ll break that habit.

At 7am, I helped Gary get into a side-lying position, then left his room. A few minutes later we had our first test of the walkie-talkies when he called me. We held the following conversation:

“Sorry, pookie, I need another pillow.”

“Tough.”

“Hey, it’s not supposed to work that way.”

Oh.

After I got him his pillow, Gary went back to sleep and I worked on the blog. The cats hung around me all morning, talking and wanting petting (when Gary heard Blackjack carrying on, he said, “I remember that sound. Unfortunately.”). When Gary called me again on the walkie-talkie, wanting to start the morning routine and get up, Tigger hopped on the bed, and we discovered a new goal for Day Program when Gary returns: how to get padded and positioned in the bed and do stretching and getting dressed while lying on the bed, with the added complication of a cat on the bed – maybe we can bring our cats to illustrate the problem.

We had made a list of things to do in the very near future but we are not accomplishing much (or, so far, anything ;-)) today. Between the routine stuff (including the stuff that had to be done due to “medical supply failure”) and being still so tired, neither of us seem inclined to make any headway on that list (and obviously, I’d rather blog ;-)).

Okay, maybe I’ll now go and see if Gary wants to do any of those things on the list. But first, thanks to Judy Roitman and Stan Lombardo for the beautiful flowers!

I’m back. We went grocery shopping, taking about an hour and a half to do so. I think that’s enough for today. ;-)