Mar 30, 2007

Today Gary wanted to go to an earlier talk (9:30), so in order to make that he had to get up a half hour earlier (6:30) and I had to help him a tiny bit with his morning routine. I drove him over rather than him driving himself, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, to save time. With practice he’ll be able to make the transfer to the driver’s seat faster, but now he’s still at the stage where thought is required – in what position to put the driver’s seat (and keep straight which of those controls does what – move the seat forward and backward, up and down, spin it), is he in the position he wants to be for the transfer, are his legs properly arranged under the steering wheel after he makes the transfer, etc. If I drive, all he has to do is transfer into the passenger seat using the transfer board, which we’ve now done hundreds of times (though not that often in a van!), and then I wheel his chair up the ramp and lock it down. The second reason I drove him is the confidence factor in the transfer back and forth from the driver’s seat. Gary is not quite confident of doing it on his own. For now, better that I be there rather than getting a call from him of the “I’ve fallen on the floor and I can’t get up” variety, particularly when I don’t have a car to get to him. But he is getting more and more confident of that transfer, and soon, maybe even by the end of this trip, he will be confident enough to drive himself back and forth from the math dept. at home. Though the LETA bus service is greatly appreciated by the both of us, it will be nice when he isn’t dependent on them for his transportation.

So, anyway, I took him there and sent him off with a goodbye kiss. I spent most of the day on my story, with a nice nap there in the middle ;-). I spent a short time trying to find a massage therapist who would do outcalls, but couldn’t locate one.

It started raining in the afternoon, and it was coming down hard when I left the hotel to get Gary about 5:30. The first thing I did in coming out of the hotel was my impression of an uncoordinated ice skater – the pavement was so slick I almost fell, only saving myself by grabbing onto a post (causing my audience, three elderly people waiting under the arch of the building, to gasp). I’m sure that body wrenching did wonders for my back/knee problems. Maybe it snapped things back into place ;-)

I brought Gary’s rain parka for him, and we decided he’d get less wet if he wheeled into the van and then transferred to the driver’s seat. Peter Nyikos wanted to take pictures of the hand controls, saying the pics of them on my blog were too small to make out any detail – which I had figured might be the case, but I only have my camera phone and that’s as good as I could knew how to get them. Peter had his camera at his motel, across from ours, and since this seemed a good time to take the pictures, Peter became Gary’s first passenger other than me. We told him to fasten his seat belt ;-). After Peter took his pictures, we bid him goodbye, and Gary drove to a drive-in chicken place for his dinner. (Last night it was Steak and Shake, so we are really hitting the culinary highlights of Rolla.) There was the traditional conference banquet this evening, but Gary decided to skip it. He has to start his evening routine so early that he wouldn’t be able to be at the banquet very long.

Speaking of meals, that reminds me that yesterday I asked him how he had handled lunch. He said he’d wheeled with a group of people to a Paneera’s fairly close by. He assured me that though they had pushed him up a steep ramp and during part of the journey when the sidewalks were so bad he had to go into the street, other than that he wheeled himself.

I asked him how today had gone, and he said very well. There was a lunch meeting of the Steering Committee, and as he was on it, he’d gone to that. This was supposed to be the end of the three-year term he was currently on, and he wasn’t the only one for whom that was the case. All such people were asked to stay on. Gary’s position was “Summer Conference Link,” which he didn’t think he should stay on as, because the summer conferences for the next couple years are in foreign places that do not seem like they would be very accessible, so he was doubtful he’d go to them. Wayne Lewis, who is the head of the Steering Committee, still wanted Gary to stay on in some capacity, but Gary pointed out that he’d been on the committee in one capacity or another since its inception. This didn’t deter Wayne, who then suggested Gary be given emeritus status on the committee (one other person has that status, Mary Ellen Rudin). The others agreed this would be a good thing, so that’s what happened. Gary said that at least this way he gets a free lunch (and they all laughed).

Murat Tuncali gave Gary a little box this morning and told him it was a present (!) for him and me. Gary waited until we were together at the motel in the evening, and then we opened it. It is a beautiful “Shaman Small Pot.” I believe it was created by an artist local to where Murat lives (Nipissing, Ontario).

Though the conference isn’t over – the talks in General Topology go on until about noon and then there are problem sessions that go into the late afternoon tomorrow – we are leaving tomorrow as soon as Gary is ready (ten-ish) so that we can get back home Sunday evening.

My massage therapist better have me scheduled for this coming week (are you reading this, Connie?) ;-).

Mar 29, 2007

Well, my knee started hurting badly after I got into bed, so I had a rough night. Always seems to be something, doesn’t it? ;-)

Gary was ready to go to the conference talks about ten-ish, so I drove him over. I wanted to make sure he was going to be able to get around without my help, so I went in with him to see what the layout of the rooms were (plus to figure out where his talk is, as I will go to that). We didn’t get too far into the building before people came up to greet Gary. Since I didn’t write down the names immediately, I have forgotten most of who came up – sorry! I remember Dennis Burke, Frank Tall, Peter Nyikos, Alan Dow, and Mirko. The first talk Gary was going to was at the opposite end of the hall, and he’d only wheel a few feet before someone else would come up and say how glad they were he made it and that they’d heard rumors he might come but no one was sure. He’d tell them it had been a goal of his to come, and that he himself hadn’t been sure he’d make it – that he’d only learned to drive the van in the past couple weeks and he hadn’t been sure he’d be comfortable driving all this way. I know that he is thrilled to be here.

We figured out that he would have to enter the room he is giving his talk in by going down a ramp to another hallway and entering at the front of the room, since if he enters in the back he would have to go down a series of steps. He also decided to listen to the first talk from the front of the room it was in.

Everything seemed under control, so I left him there to come back to the motel and work on my story (and rest). His talk was at 3:50, so I went back for that. After Gary had finished, Justin Moore, who was chairing the session, said he felt like he should say something special, but he didn’t know what to say. He said he had thought of saying, “Welcome back,” but then, Gary had never really been gone. Gary cracked, “Yeah, I was at last year’s conference.” Then Gary added it was great to be here, and everyone gave him a nice round of applause. I went up to him afterwards to see what his plans for the rest of the afternoon were, and I asked him if he had been having fun. He said, yeah, and with a smile added that about a zillion people had come up to him during the day and said they were glad to see him. And he said it was important to him to be here and to have everyone know that he was still involved in the thick of math.

Mar 27, 2007

We survived the first leg of our journey ;-). First time I’ve ever been the one waiting for Gary to be ready to leave. We left the house at about 10:30 am, and we arrived in Clarksville, TN about 5:30 pm. Gary did most of the driving, but for some reason wanted me to be the one to drive through the heavier traffic of Birmingham and Nashville. I’m not sure that was safer ;-).

While I drove we listened to “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed,” Alan Alda’s autobiography on CD, which Norma had given us while Gary was in the hospital. While Gary drove I worked on my novel.

We took separate rooms at the Holiday Inn, where Gary had made us reservations – we didn’t end up all that close together. The desk person probably wondered just what the heck I was doing, since I spent at least half an hour unpacking stuff from the van to bring in for the two of us. Then I get to pack it all up again tomorrow morning, then unpack everything the tomorrow night. Hope my body holds up!

Gary arranged all his accouterments for the morning bowel and bladder programs on a low table in the room, and I put it next to his bed after tucking him in for the night. In checking his skin, it seemed to me that the right side of his flap showed signs of increased redness after the drive, so he is going to have to do more frequent weight shifts during this trip.

So far, so good!

Mar 28, 2007

Made it! We arrived in Rolla about 5:30. Only thing eventful to happen during the trip was a stupid trailer truck with a load of cars nearly ran me off the road while we were going through St. Louis. I laid on the horn, but he kept coming into my lane (the far right lane), so I ended up on the shoulder of the road.

I did more driving today so we could save a little time – Gary needed to increase his weight shifts to every 20 min. instead of every 30 because of the increased redness on his flap, and of course he can’t lift himself up off the seat when he is driving, so whenever he drove we’d have to pull off the road every 20 min. Not that I’m complaining – it was better for my back to make those frequent stops, so I could get out and stretch.

At the hotel we got adjoining rooms, and they even have a connecting door, so that is nice. After I unpacked the car, I got my zucchini cooking and then meditated. Gary ordered a pizza to be delivered – seemed the easiest thing to do. About 8pm we went across the street to the motel where registration and a welcoming party for the conference was being held. We asked at the desk where the party was, and were told it was upstairs – and that there was no elevator. I joked to Gary that this was an opportunity to practice bumping up the stairs.

The guy at the desk called upstairs and some math people came down to register Gary. Meanwhile, Alan Dow showed up, and so did Darji, so we talked with them for a short time. The organizers and Darji and Alan offered to carry Gary up so he could join the party, but we had only intended to stay a short time – just long enough to register – as we were both pooped; if we had gone upstairs, I think Gary would have felt obligated to spend some time there. So he declined the offer.

Back at the hotel we ran into Judy Kennedy, and a little later while getting something for Gary I ran into Frank Tall. So, I am running into all sorts of people I haven’t seen in years.

Well, have to help Gary arrange his things (tonight we are using the motel's ironing board as a bedside table!), and then we are going to hit the hay!

Mar 19, 2007

Gary’s mom continues to progress. She has been walking with the aid of a walker and a therapist close by for quite some time now. She is in a rehab/nursing home facility, where she can stay for thirty days. She gets rehab M-F.

Mar 20, 2007

Something weird is going on with the car title. The dealership that modified the car claim they haven’t gotten the title from the dealership they bought the car from, and the latter claimed they sent it to them. And we can’t get license tags for the car until the title is tracked down. Sheesh!

Gary got a brochure from Shepherd about this year’s Adventure Skills Workshop in mid-May, a Friday late morning to Sunday early afternoon. Gary wants to go. Cost is $150 for participants, which they make sure to spell out are the disabled applicants, and $140 for other family members. This is to cover meals, lodging, a T-shirt, and for the participants, instruction. I guess this means I pretty much only get a lousy T-shirt out of it ;-), since it doesn’t sound like I get to do the activities, unless I go swimming on my own (it’s at Lake Martin, a good-sized lake). I’m not even sure if I’d lodge there, because there are only a limited number of private rooms for couples, and I told Gary my love stops at being housed in a group cabin (which made him laugh).

The activities are: water skiing, zip line, jet skiing, riflery/skeet, scuba diving, climbing wall, all-terrain vehicles, swimming, canoeing/kayaking, water polo, rugby (!), tubing, fishing, golf, archery.


Mar 21, 2007

Gary had his driving lesson today. For the first half hour, the state guy readjusted the hand controls of our car. Now the acceleration/brake bar has been rotated upward so it is closer to the turn signal, and Gary can easily reach the turn signal without removing his hand from bar. The guy also moved the entire apparatus upward, more in line with the steering wheel, so now there is more knee clearance, and he also tightened it so it wasn’t as wobbly (why the people who adapted the van, who supposedly have been doing this for ten years, didn’t know to do this, we don’t know).

But for the actual driver’s lesson, Gary got in the state guy’s van, which has dual controls in case the guy needed to override Gary on something. Because of insurance requirements, I wasn’t allowed to ride along. Rats! (Or maybe they wouldn’t let me come along because they were afraid I’d do too much screaming ;-).) Gary was going to go home in that van, so I left to go home myself. Gary came home about an hour later. He said they’d driven along 280 (in fact, they passed the place where he had his accident), then to the interstate, then to College Street, then the math department, then they took the back way home. Gary “passed,” and the guy is filling out the papers necessary for Gary’s new license – all they have to do is add the restriction that he must drive with hand controls. The guy does want Gary to drive with a torso-chest restraint, however, and is having one ordered for him (the guy kept calling it something that sounded like “grandma,” which I thought was a little weird, but then he pronounced it “gran-mar,” named after the manufacturer or something) . It will fit over the driver’s seat and will be essentially be two velcro straps that wrap around Gary’s chest. This is so that when he makes his turns, especially sharp ones, he won’t lose his balance sideways (since he doesn’t have those abdominal muscles). The guy noted that Gary was occasionally in need of that extra support.

The guy’s assistant is going to drive around with Gary tomorrow morning, just so Gary can get more practice in. Gary still hopes for us to leave next Weds. to begin the journey to Rolla, Mo. for the math conference. Gary will probably be fine for the trip – me, we’ll probably have to tie to the roof of the van. I am so bummed out! About two weeks ago, I started feeling a little pain in my right knee. I have been doing a lot of kneeling, because that is the most comfortable position for my back/leg problem (and yes I have one of those chairs that has the kneeling pads on them, but it still puts too much pressure on my butt (sciatic nerve), so I just kneel on the floor on a rolled up exercise mat). But I have also been doing lunges in my exercise program since last August, since they were recommended by my trainers (and my current chiropractor read through my program and thought it was a very good one for my back/leg problem and general strength conditioning) and I recently had been trying to walk a little faster during part of my daily walk (though Michel and Mimi occasionally meet up with me and blaze by me), and actually it seemed to be the latter that affected the knee. Anyway, one night about two weeks ago I was scheduled to do my exercise program. I was feeling tired and wanted to put it off until the next day, but then I went ahead and did it. Big mistake. Big knee pain the next day. So I cut out the leg exercises and the fast walking, then cut out arm exercises too because they still put added weight on the leg. And then last Sunday when I was doing an easy walk, the pain got really bad. And I was still ten minutes away from my car. So since then I have been doing no exercising except for an exercise Gary did for his knee when he had problems. But since that walk the knee hurts really bad to bend it, say 90 degrees. So I can’t kneel anymore. And I can’t sit on my stability ball for long, because that bends the knee to much (and that was my second favorite position to be in). And I can’t sit on a regular chair – haven’t been able to do that for quite some time. And I can’t lie supine because that affects my back/leg, as, again, has also been going on for quite some time. So I stand up for a while while working on my novel, and then I have to lie face down to recover (standing also makes my knees and back of my legs sore after a while). I even went on the web to see if I could find something that I could lay prone on and still work on my laptop, but I really didn’t know how to search for such (I tried “proning table” and “proning bed”). And now, for some reason, my entire right side feels wrenched. GRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Mar 18, 2007

Gary has his push from the Student Activities building to the math department building down to thirteen minutes and twenty secs. Look out Peachtree Road Race ;-).

I had had the thought that there was an area behind a local shopping mall where there were businesses that would be closed on the weekends and that therefore Gary could get the feel of driving along the roads there without fear of a lot of traffic but it being a step up from a parking lot. Gary thought that was a good idea so I took him out there on Saturday. When Gary got behind the wheel, I tried not to be too much of a “passenger seat driver,” but I did let out an anxiety-filled, “Don’t cut across the parking lot!” when he decided to go into the mall parking lot and do just that. He thought it was a way to avoid cars, but it made me nervous. I also kept my thoughts to myself that his driving was rather jerky. Okay, *one* time I told him. He commented that that must mean his driving was like someone else’s he knew. I gave him a dirty look.

We discovered a little “design problem.” In order for Gary to use the blinkers, he has to take his hand off either from the wheel or from the accelerator/brake! It seems to me they should have designed an adaption so that all he would have to do is stretch out some fingers from the knob that he has his right hand on to steer (located on the wheel). Maybe his driving instructor, who is coming next Wednesday, will have some tips about that. Of course, Gary pointed out there would be a similar problem if he ever wanted to scratch his nose while driving!

Another “problem” with the design set-up Gary noticed is that he has to keep his right arm elevated in order to keep his hand on the driving knob, which is tiring to do. I wondered about the arm rest on his seat, and he found he could adjust it to angle that helped some, but not entirely.

On Sunday, Gary started directly in the driver’s seat while at our house. He successfully backed down our steep driveway, then drove some of the neighborhood streets. When we turned onto Owen Drive, I saw a guy up ahead who was a little into the street. “Watch out for that guy,” I told Gary. “That guy better watch out,” Gary replied. It was then that I saw the guy’s white cane. “Well, he’s going to have a hard time doing that,” I told Gary. “He’s blind!” Gary commented that this was not a good combination, a blind guy in the street and a paraplegic driver trainee. Fortunately ;-), we missed the guy.

I commented to Gary a couple times about forgetting his turn signals and that “that turn you just made was awfully wide.” Then on another street I told him to watch out for the cat that was in the road. Gary laughed and said he didn’t think he could hit a cat if he tried. I tried to keep my mouth closed as much as possible, but I was not very relaxed, even though Gary was doing fine. I would not make a good student driver instructor! (Gary assured me I wasn’t making him crazy with my comments :-))

We went on Shug Jordan parkway for some highway driving, then Gary turned off it and drove to the math department and practiced parking. Then we went back home. Gary had spent about forty-five minutes driving, and said he felt much more comfortable today. He confessed that after yesterday’s experience he had felt discouraged about making the trip to the math conference, that he didn’t think he’d be comfortable driving there. But he said today his old driving instincts had kicked in and he felt much more confident out on the road.

Mar 11, 2007

“I’m driving!” Gary said as he released the tension on the hand control and the van went forward under its own power.

We spent an reassuringly uneventful half hour or so with Gary going up and down the empty part of a parking lot at the university. He practiced parking as well (the hard part is the van is so big it’s hard to see if you’re between the lines). Then Gary said he was ready for the freeway. I gave him a look. “You’re joking, right?” I asked. He was.

After he was finished, I too tried driving using the hand controls. Everything works easily enough. It’s just a matter to remember to push for braking and pull for accelerating (I tended to want to pull for braking – whoa, horsey! I guess ;-) ). I think I’ll stick to the usual foot pedals, though.

The hardest part may be to learn to back out of our steep driveway (Gary didn’t try that). I went very slowly but did the last part somewhat blindly since I couldn’t see the driveway out the back window.

Mar 9, 2007

This morning they already had Gary’s mom walking some! After ten days of rehab in the hospital, she will go into a rehab nursing home for thirty days. They say she should be ready to go home after that. Bob is traveling to be with her for the next week.

Gary has gotten several emails from people cautioning him about driving in a parking lot this weekend. He wants to assure you, it will be an empty lot. He knows he doesn’t have any insurance on the car yet, and no valid license. He will not drive out on street.

And he has learned that there is a prison that houses paraplegic criminals, so don’t worry, if they throw him in jail there are facilities for him.

I am going to try to try to put up pictures of the van on the blog. If you are getting this message by email, go to http://drpeg2003.blogspot.com/ to see the pictures. I can’t get the text to center, I am afraid!



van ramp



van rear



van front



driver's seat with transfer base. The controls for the seat are on the right side of the seat. You can also see part of a seat belt sticking out from the floor; the belt is used to lock the wheelchair in place after Gary transfers out of it.



wheel. The handcontrols are to the lower left of the wheel. There is a black knob there which controls both braking and accelerating. On the wheel itself you can note a knob that Gary will use for ease in one-handed driving (he keeps one hand on that knob for steering and the other hand on the handcontrols).



view into front seats.



view into back seats

Mar 8, 2007

Gary talked to his mom this morning. The doctor already had her on her feet (with help). She will stay where she is for a few days, then go into what she called “the swing shift,” which Gary gathered was a ward where she will undergo rehab. This will be for about ten days, after which she will go home. I understand the others in the family are trying to make arrangements so she won’t be alone when she goes home.

The car guy called this morning and said he still planned to bring the car about 3. There was some discussion of the placement of the wheel, and Gary pointed out that the state vocational guy who is going to teach him to drive will certainly know if the wheel is positioned correctly. Subtle threat there :-) from Gary, Gary’s meaning being that although we’ve already paid for this, if it’s not done right, perhaps the state will no longer do business with this guy.

Gary called me in the afternoon and said the car guy called and claimed the car was ready but they wouldn’t be able to deliver it today. I said, surprise, surprise.

But then the guy did surprise me – he called back in the late afternoon and said they would bring it today after all. He also said he managed to get the seat lowered about five inches – much better than the half inch he was saying yesterday! Wonder if that was on account of Gary’s threat ;-)?

So, we’ve got the van! They delivered it about 6pm, and Gary and I got in and checked it out. The seating works perfectly for Gary. Me, I’m going to still be hitting those hand controls with my knee some, because, being small, I have to get up so close to the wheel in order to reach the floor pedals comfortably. They didn’t manage to fix the outside mirrors to work electronically, so we’ll have to take it into the local Toyota dealer for that. The seat belt contraption to lock the wheelchair in place seems to work fine.

Gary can hardly wait until tomorrow so he can call the state guy and see “when he can get his butt here and teach me to drive,” in Gary’s words. And Gary is all set to find some parking lot this weekend to practice with me. The guy who brought the van (who was the one we have been dealing with all along for the modifications) didn’t seem all that encouraging that Gary should try to drive even in a parking lot without instruction from the state guy, since Gary needs to learn to have a light touch on the hand controls. Gary was not dissuaded, however. Wish us luck this weekend!

Mar 7, 2007

Today was a day of very contrasting emotions. Gary’s mom fell and broke her hip this morning. She had surgery in the late afternoon. So far all we know is the doctor expects her to be able to bear weight on it soon.

On the other side of the emotional spectrum, I took Gary to Montgomery so some things on the mini-van could be customized to him. First came paperwork, and then we waited around until the guy had finished installing something or another (I had figured we were going down too early when the guy had told us to delay an hour in coming, but Gary was so eager to get down there I knew he wouldn’t listen to me if I told him we should go down there even later than the guy said). The guy said it would take him five minutes to finish the installation. His secretary warned us that meant fifteen minutes. I think it was more like a half hour, maybe more (I had brought my story to work on, so didn’t pay attention to how much time had passed). Finally, though, it was time for us to get into the van and check it out. The guy showed us how the controls worked on the transfer base for the driver’s seat. One for moving the seat forward and backward, one for moving it up and down, and one for rotating it from facing to the front to facing to the side (I think it goes 360 degrees, but we only needed it about 90 degrees). It’s going to take me awhile to get that straight, if today’s attempts are any indication ;-).

Gary rolled up the ramp, and I helped him transfer into the driver’s seat from his wheelchair. Actually he didn’t need my help – he says it is an easy transfer. But we both experienced something strange when we sat behind the wheel as if we were driving. The wheel seemed too low. When Gary would turn it, it would rub against his knees (not that he could feel it, but he shouldn’t have something rubbing against his legs all the time). For me, when I would use the gas and brake pedals (I took it out for a short drive), my right knee kept hitting Gary’s hand controls – I am sure I am going to have bruises there tomorrow. (Gary was sitting on his special cushion, which he will have to sit on for drives of an hour or more, while I was just sitting on the bare seat, which accounts for why the wheel placement affected us differently.) We thought this was very strange, because we are both small people. If some tall person tried to drive this van, his knees would be up around his ears. We never figured out why this should be, but I guess we’re going to have to live with it to some extent – Gary already paid for the car, and we were never given an option of who to deal with in getting the car (the disadvantage of getting help from the state I guess, but $23,000 is nothing to sneeze at). The guy said he thought he should be able to lower the seat a little and move the hand controls so we don’t have this problem when we take possession of the car. We’ll see.

Another thing that didn’t quite work out as expected was the lockdown of the wheelchair after Gary transfer out of it and into the driver’s seat – it needs to be locked down so it doesn’t go flying around the van in case of abrupt braking. But, the guy thinks he’s figured out a way, involving bolting down a seat belt into the floor of the van. Gary would then put the belt through the spokes of his chair.

The last thing that needed fixing, at least as far as we discovered, was that the outside mirrors didn’t adjust.

The guy showed us all the controls for various things (lights, wipers, ramp), not that I’m going to remember :-). He also showed us how to take out the front passenger seat and how to manually lock Gary’s wheelchair in position there in case Gary wants to ride like that. To do that uses four separate locking mechanisms – for the front right and left and back right and left of the wheelchair. Given the effort it took this guy to take out the passenger seat, we are not planning on having Gary travel this way, particularly since I would be the one trying to remove the seat! He can just transfer into that seat from outside the van, similar to what he has been doing. That’s a safer way for him to travel anyway.

We had left for Montgomery at one, gotten there around two, and weren’t out of there until five – so we got home around six. I was pooped!

The guy claims we will have the van tomorrow (they will deliver it to us), but since we have learned that five minutes means thirty, that “you will have it this week” means we will be close to having it after two weeks, we figure that we should be getting it sometime next week ;-). Actually, the guy had claimed if we brought someone with us today they would do any last-minute work on it today and we could drive it right home. I’m glad we didn’t get someone else to go with us – either they would have come for nothing, or we’d probably still be there now at 10 pm.

Gary is very excited. If we do get the van this week, he wants to find a parking lot this weekend where he can practice. He asked me if I was comfortable driving it, and I said not terribly and that he could do most of the driving. He then asked me if I’d do some of the driving to Rolla for the math conference, so looks like I’m going to get sucked into that ;-). He’s really got his hopes up to go to the conference, so I hope they come through and get the van to us so Gary can practice and have his new license in time to drive there.

Feb 28, 2007

The drug the urologist put Gary on for the leaking problem has had no effect. Gary is almost out of the prescription. He is going to call the doctor and as if he should be tested for a UTI, again. He talked to a bridge program nurse at Shepherd, and she told him in a few rare cases some people with spinal cord injuries constantly have a low-level UTI and constantly stay on a low-dose of antibiotics. I am not happy at the thought of Gary staying on an antibiotic all the time, but neither am I happy with the prospect of him constantly having an infection.

Mar 5, 2007

Gary already achieved his push goal. He went the entire way from the student activities center to the math building with no rest. He timed himself: fourteen minutes and forty seconds from door to door. He remarked that for the first time no one even offered to push him. I told him it was obviously because he didn’t look like he needed help. Quite a change from his first push, when he couldn’t even make it down the hall at Shepherd without resting.

He continues to gain in strength at his workouts on campus.

We have recently watched a couple movies we very much enjoyed: “Something New,” about an interracial relationship; “Shattered Glass,” a true story about the fraudulent journalist Steven Glass who fabricated parts or all of more than half of his articles published in "The New Republic." We are currently watching “Babel,” and are about halfway through it. I came across this same director’s first movie, “Amores Perros,” at least a year ago. That one I found compelling from the start, even though it is a dark tale about some rather unsavory characters. So far all I can say about this one is it is interesting.