Apr 2, 2007
Thanks Judy, Ronnie, and Dimitrina for sending words of en-courage-ment on Sunday.
Yesterday (Sunday) in the car I alternated between sitting on one of Gary’s cushions, for the sake of my left leg and butt cheek, and not sitting on it, for the sake of my right knee. Gary still drove some, but when he was not driving he tried to spend as much time as he could on his side and off his flap. We made it home about 4:30 and after unloading the car and getting my dinner I waited for the hours to go by in all their minutes so I could go to sleep. Gary spent most of the time after we arrived in bed and off his flap. He commented that provided he hadn’t permanently damaged his butt nor I my knee, the trip was worth it. I told him I’d have to get back to him on that. JUST JOKING. Or at least, half-joking. I know it was extremely important for him to go to this math conference. And as he says, he doesn’t know the next one he’ll be able to get to. Conferences coming up are in inaccessible foreign places. And the next spring conference is in Milwaukee, and he says (thank God) that that is too far to drive to (in fact he says that if it’s not a special conference, as this one was for him, driving two days to a conference isn’t worth it – we’ll see if he changes his tune should the opportunity arise again). He’s not too keen on flying to the one in Milwaukee, because of all the stuff we have to cart around, and it would be “we,” because at the least I’d have to rent a car to get him around – unless he wants to rely on public transportation or the conference shuttle, which he does not. Maybe with his greater experience the next time he won’t need me for the other stuff I helped him with this time (the night before last I even had to catch him and heave him back on the bed when he landed too close to the edge of the bed during his transfer – that was the first time in a long time he would’ve ended up on the floor if I hadn’t been there; I commented to him, “Well, that was exciting.”).
But his family needn’t worry about the summer visit to Nebraska. The new plan is for us to fly, and we will ship our supplies there ahead of time or possibly prevail upon Norma et al to bring stuff for us.
During Sunday’s drive, having finished Alan Alda’s book-on-CD (which we really enjoyed though it was not comical as we at first expected it to be), we started “Marley and Me, Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog.” And from the tales John Grogan tells, this dog really does seem to be the worst, the antithesis of Joe and Dolores’s dogs. So now when I start moaning about something, Gary says, “Cheer up. It could be worse. We could have Marley as a pet.”
Speaking of obnoxious pet behavior, Tigger twice peed in places he shouldn’t today (Monday) – once on Gary’s bed, once in my bathtub. I don’t know if he was excited to see us, or expressing his anger at us leaving him, or if he was mad because at the time I wasn’t giving him attention, thinking it more important to help give Gary his bath (silly me), but I hope his behavior doesn’t continue. I know such behavior can be a sign of a medical problem as well, so I hope it’s not that.
He is such a jealous cat. He always pounces on Blackjack whenever he thinks Blackjack is getting some attention, and always kicks Blackjack out of wherever he has decided to take a nap so HE can take a nap there. You’d think that Blackjack, who at 17 lbs outweighs Tigger by 3 lbs, would throw his weight around, but Tigger has him cowed. And ever since we returned from Shepherd last summer, Tigger is jealous whenever I go into Gary’s bedroom to do something for him (wash his back, get his clothes out, get him settled into a prone for the night). Tigger always comes in and meows and wraps himself around my legs until I give him attention. I guess he’s trying to prove to Gary that there can be only one alpha male, and he, Tigger, is it.
And again on pets, while we were driving Sunday, Gary called out, “There’s a cat!” I had no idea where to look, but then I noticed cat eyes calmly staring at us from the SUV passing by. I thought that was unusual, a calm cat in a car. Our cats go nuts just going the few blocks to the vet in our car.
We also passed by a van with a cat/dog carrier strapped on the back bumper. Seeing that it was pouring rain at the moment, I told Gary that I hoped there wasn’t an animal in there.
We discovered Gary’s reflexes are good. A car started pulling into our lane while he was driving and his immediate reaction was to push in on the hand brake – no inclination to try to slam on the brake with his foot. He said in a way that aroused pathos in me that he thought this was because he is totally used to his feet not working.
His flap was still an angry red Monday morning. I wanted him to stay in bed and off his butt the day and possibly longer until it looked improved. He said he had to go in to prepare for class the following day (Tuesday), and he’d also been thinking of doing his weight training. I told him I didn’t think he should be messing with this. He said it should be all right to sit on it because the redness was on the flap, not the sitting bones. I told him I still thought it’d be better for him to have nothing covering/touching the area or putting pressure on the area, that if he had flap surgery again they were going to have to cut skin and muscle from his hamstring to pull over his butt (which is what they’d do). I guess that was enough to convince him to stay off his butt as much as possible. He did go in to prepare for classes for about an hour (I dropped him off, then unfortunately had to go grocery shopping, and then picked him up), but most of the rest of the day he stayed in bed and off the flap. It didn’t look any improved at bedtime, so he promised me he’d call Shepherd on Tuesday.
Which he did, but the bridge nurse is out for the week. Fortunately the flap looked better this morning (Tuesday) – bright pink instead of dark red. And it is not as scaly so maybe the antifungal cream, which I again started to put on it Sunday, is helping.
Last comment for Monday: Gary’s mom is now walking on her own with a walker and should be able to go home next week! Bob will stay with her for a while.
Apr 3, 2007
Gary received an Easter email today (from Marilyn) and asked me today if this Sunday was Easter. I said it was. He said hopefully this Good Friday will be better than the last one (last year’s Good Friday was the day of his accident), that that day hadn’t exactly been a good one. I told him it hadn’t exactly been a good one for Jesus, either. Gary said it was unfortunate he himself hadn’t risen three days later, that it took him more than a month, and at that he didn’t rise very far. I told him from that we could conclude he wasn’t Jesus.
His flap looked significantly better this morning, and I felt in significantly better humor (and not just because of the flap, but on account of having caught up on some rest). But I still didn’t think Gary should be up as much as he normally is, and he agreed and cut the afternoon short by a couple hours to get back in bed and off his flap. He got up for dinner but then got back into the bed.
When he called his mom, I heard him tell her I am making sure he is taking care of his flap, that I take good care of him. That was a better light on it than I had been thinking – I thought he might think I was being overcautious and tyrannical in making him stay in bed. (“Peg,” he whined, “can I get out of jail?” “No!” I replied. “You’ve been a bad boy.” Just kidding. Well, not kidding that that was a conversation we had, but I did put down the hospital bed rails so he could get out.)
I made an appointment to see an orthopedist next Monday about my knee. I had my massage appointment today, thank God, and Connie unscrewed my right leg from the 360 degree twist it had somehow got in, plus she pulled my knee out of my thigh, where it had somehow got lodged. The knee still hurts like the devil, but at least she doesn’t think I’ve torn anything.
Thanks Judy, Ronnie, and Dimitrina for sending words of en-courage-ment on Sunday.
Yesterday (Sunday) in the car I alternated between sitting on one of Gary’s cushions, for the sake of my left leg and butt cheek, and not sitting on it, for the sake of my right knee. Gary still drove some, but when he was not driving he tried to spend as much time as he could on his side and off his flap. We made it home about 4:30 and after unloading the car and getting my dinner I waited for the hours to go by in all their minutes so I could go to sleep. Gary spent most of the time after we arrived in bed and off his flap. He commented that provided he hadn’t permanently damaged his butt nor I my knee, the trip was worth it. I told him I’d have to get back to him on that. JUST JOKING. Or at least, half-joking. I know it was extremely important for him to go to this math conference. And as he says, he doesn’t know the next one he’ll be able to get to. Conferences coming up are in inaccessible foreign places. And the next spring conference is in Milwaukee, and he says (thank God) that that is too far to drive to (in fact he says that if it’s not a special conference, as this one was for him, driving two days to a conference isn’t worth it – we’ll see if he changes his tune should the opportunity arise again). He’s not too keen on flying to the one in Milwaukee, because of all the stuff we have to cart around, and it would be “we,” because at the least I’d have to rent a car to get him around – unless he wants to rely on public transportation or the conference shuttle, which he does not. Maybe with his greater experience the next time he won’t need me for the other stuff I helped him with this time (the night before last I even had to catch him and heave him back on the bed when he landed too close to the edge of the bed during his transfer – that was the first time in a long time he would’ve ended up on the floor if I hadn’t been there; I commented to him, “Well, that was exciting.”).
But his family needn’t worry about the summer visit to Nebraska. The new plan is for us to fly, and we will ship our supplies there ahead of time or possibly prevail upon Norma et al to bring stuff for us.
During Sunday’s drive, having finished Alan Alda’s book-on-CD (which we really enjoyed though it was not comical as we at first expected it to be), we started “Marley and Me, Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog.” And from the tales John Grogan tells, this dog really does seem to be the worst, the antithesis of Joe and Dolores’s dogs. So now when I start moaning about something, Gary says, “Cheer up. It could be worse. We could have Marley as a pet.”
Speaking of obnoxious pet behavior, Tigger twice peed in places he shouldn’t today (Monday) – once on Gary’s bed, once in my bathtub. I don’t know if he was excited to see us, or expressing his anger at us leaving him, or if he was mad because at the time I wasn’t giving him attention, thinking it more important to help give Gary his bath (silly me), but I hope his behavior doesn’t continue. I know such behavior can be a sign of a medical problem as well, so I hope it’s not that.
He is such a jealous cat. He always pounces on Blackjack whenever he thinks Blackjack is getting some attention, and always kicks Blackjack out of wherever he has decided to take a nap so HE can take a nap there. You’d think that Blackjack, who at 17 lbs outweighs Tigger by 3 lbs, would throw his weight around, but Tigger has him cowed. And ever since we returned from Shepherd last summer, Tigger is jealous whenever I go into Gary’s bedroom to do something for him (wash his back, get his clothes out, get him settled into a prone for the night). Tigger always comes in and meows and wraps himself around my legs until I give him attention. I guess he’s trying to prove to Gary that there can be only one alpha male, and he, Tigger, is it.
And again on pets, while we were driving Sunday, Gary called out, “There’s a cat!” I had no idea where to look, but then I noticed cat eyes calmly staring at us from the SUV passing by. I thought that was unusual, a calm cat in a car. Our cats go nuts just going the few blocks to the vet in our car.
We also passed by a van with a cat/dog carrier strapped on the back bumper. Seeing that it was pouring rain at the moment, I told Gary that I hoped there wasn’t an animal in there.
We discovered Gary’s reflexes are good. A car started pulling into our lane while he was driving and his immediate reaction was to push in on the hand brake – no inclination to try to slam on the brake with his foot. He said in a way that aroused pathos in me that he thought this was because he is totally used to his feet not working.
His flap was still an angry red Monday morning. I wanted him to stay in bed and off his butt the day and possibly longer until it looked improved. He said he had to go in to prepare for class the following day (Tuesday), and he’d also been thinking of doing his weight training. I told him I didn’t think he should be messing with this. He said it should be all right to sit on it because the redness was on the flap, not the sitting bones. I told him I still thought it’d be better for him to have nothing covering/touching the area or putting pressure on the area, that if he had flap surgery again they were going to have to cut skin and muscle from his hamstring to pull over his butt (which is what they’d do). I guess that was enough to convince him to stay off his butt as much as possible. He did go in to prepare for classes for about an hour (I dropped him off, then unfortunately had to go grocery shopping, and then picked him up), but most of the rest of the day he stayed in bed and off the flap. It didn’t look any improved at bedtime, so he promised me he’d call Shepherd on Tuesday.
Which he did, but the bridge nurse is out for the week. Fortunately the flap looked better this morning (Tuesday) – bright pink instead of dark red. And it is not as scaly so maybe the antifungal cream, which I again started to put on it Sunday, is helping.
Last comment for Monday: Gary’s mom is now walking on her own with a walker and should be able to go home next week! Bob will stay with her for a while.
Apr 3, 2007
Gary received an Easter email today (from Marilyn) and asked me today if this Sunday was Easter. I said it was. He said hopefully this Good Friday will be better than the last one (last year’s Good Friday was the day of his accident), that that day hadn’t exactly been a good one. I told him it hadn’t exactly been a good one for Jesus, either. Gary said it was unfortunate he himself hadn’t risen three days later, that it took him more than a month, and at that he didn’t rise very far. I told him from that we could conclude he wasn’t Jesus.
His flap looked significantly better this morning, and I felt in significantly better humor (and not just because of the flap, but on account of having caught up on some rest). But I still didn’t think Gary should be up as much as he normally is, and he agreed and cut the afternoon short by a couple hours to get back in bed and off his flap. He got up for dinner but then got back into the bed.
When he called his mom, I heard him tell her I am making sure he is taking care of his flap, that I take good care of him. That was a better light on it than I had been thinking – I thought he might think I was being overcautious and tyrannical in making him stay in bed. (“Peg,” he whined, “can I get out of jail?” “No!” I replied. “You’ve been a bad boy.” Just kidding. Well, not kidding that that was a conversation we had, but I did put down the hospital bed rails so he could get out.)
I made an appointment to see an orthopedist next Monday about my knee. I had my massage appointment today, thank God, and Connie unscrewed my right leg from the 360 degree twist it had somehow got in, plus she pulled my knee out of my thigh, where it had somehow got lodged. The knee still hurts like the devil, but at least she doesn’t think I’ve torn anything.
posted by Peg Daniels at 7:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home