August 23, 2006

Oops, correction to yesterday: Hubbard Glacier was the topic of package number seven.

Today Gary had another therapy session, and again we all started off with the various kinds of wrist curls. For some reason Gary’s left wrist has started bothering him, so he had to skip the regular curls on that hand. Naturally nobody but me could keep track of the repetitions, and the therapist asked Gary if she could borrow me to count repetitions for all her clients. I think not!

After the curls, she had him do what she called wheelchair pushups and which the Shepherd person had called scapula extensions. She said she could tell he was stronger at them already! He did thirty of them, then held that position while doing a weight shift.

Next he went to the cable machine, and she had him do some cross-cable work: while sitting sideways to the machine, he pulled the cable down and across his body with the arm nearest the machine for thirty reps (targeting the shoulder flexors), then pulled the cable down and out with his far arm, twisting his neck and head with each rep (targeting shoulder extensors). Ten reps with the weaker, left shoulder; fifteen with the right.

Next came punches using the cable machine – he added another plate on that exercise to what he could do with his right arm on Monday, and in fact even a second plate, though he had to cut the reps from thirty down to twelve for that set.

Lastly came seated rows, thirty reps.

After the session, I stopped at Paneera’s to get Gary a sandwich, and then I took him to the university. After we did the transfer out of the car, he toodled off by himself. Yes, I really let him out of my sight unaccompanied (well, okay, I surreptitiously backed up the car in order to see that he made it safely inside the building). I was dismayed, however, to learn as he got out of the car that he’d forgotten to bring his cell phone (so I smacked him with the chicken fat ;-)). True, he didn’t plan to go anywhere but the math building, but still . . . .

We had a little discussion about the cell phone before bedtime, too, similar to one we had a previous night. Gary doesn’t see the need for him to have the phone by his bed at night since he has the walkie-talkie link to me, and tonight he pointed out that the reason he’d forgotten to bring the cell phone to the math dept. was because it was on the bedtable, not in his fanny pack. I, however, want him to have the phone at bedside in case there was an emergency and something happened to the walkie-talkie so he couldn't reach me, or in case something happened to me – then he’d be stuck in bed, unable to help. He said he could get out of the bed in an emergency by using the transfer board, and I said that he’d also have to take down the bed rails, which he’s never done, and by the time he did all this and made it to the phone it could be too late for me. He said what were the odds of that, and I replied with what had been the odds that he’d be in a bad car accident. He still wasn’t convinced, but he accepted my solution of keeping the cell phone in his fanny pack but putting the fanny pack on his wheelchair, which we keep next to the bed.

When I picked Gary up at the math dept., he told me that the day had gone well. He gave the seminar in Topology, and he’d really enjoyed it – said he hadn’t been nervous at all. He’d thought he was going to have to use transparencies on an overhead projector, but it turned out he could reach high enough to use the board. The only “mishap” occurred when he dropped the chalk. Someone got up to retrieve it for him, but Gary said that he could get it himself, that he’s had plenty of practice in picking up things he’s dropped ;-). Actually, at first picking up things from the floor wasn’t easy for him to do, but he says now it is – unless what he’s dropped is heavy, of course, or if he drops it on the footplate of the wheelchair; since he’s not allowed to bend forward, he can’t retrieve such an item. But anything of reasonable weight that he can wheel up to sideways, he can get off the floor.

Meanwhile, while he was at the office, I went home and held an intelligent conversation with the electrician who was working in the garage. “Are you having sheet rock put in the garage?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I replied. “Where is the electrical pipe buried?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I replied. I called Joe, twice, for the answers, finally turning the phone over to the electrician so the two of them could converse.

I also called the hotel in Birmingham where I’d stayed and asked them what kind of mattress they use. Turns out it is custom-made for them, and available to the public. I haven’t checked on the price yet, but that may be a possibility – I had thought the mattress very comfortable.

I also did things like my exercise program, and a little organizing, and a little revising of my mystery story. Very little. I may have to have my critique group kick me in the butt so I can quit procrastinating on that. Part of me feels I’ve earned a little goof-off time (“Things have been a little intense these past four months,” she understates), the other part thinks I’d do better to get back into it.

Gary opened Alaska package number eight tonight: Anchorage. There the family went on what nephew David called the easiest hike in Alaska – and which Norma said she thought was the toughest hike she’d ever been on. She said she wished she had eaten an energy bar beforehand. I guess that is why today’s package contained an Alaskan chocolate bar ;-). She also sent along a Alaska Bald Eagle bookmark, which Gary gave to me – hope you guys don’t mind ;-)

Well, that’s it for today, except to answer someone’s question as to what a ground squirrel is: a small striped semiterrestrial eastern American squirrel with cheek pouches, according to a dictionary. I haven’t heard the little critter today, so I’m hoping it went out the window.