Aug 27, 2007

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, no car fairy appeared to me and told me which car would be perfect for me, so I went ahead and got a Honda Civic. I had test driven the Hondas a week ago, and two weeks before that. This time the dealer brought for me to test drive a red Civic with two thin gold stripes running along its sides. I raised an eyebrow. I test drove an Accord after the Civic, then settled on the Civic as having the more comfortable seat for me. It was kind of funny how no matter which car I was in, the dealer made it sound like that one was the best choice for me. After settling on the Civic came the choice of color. The dealer said they had the red one, a beige one, and a white one. White would show dirt too easily. As I went to look at the beige one, another dealer said they had a dark blue one on the other side of the lot. The beige one didn’t thrill me, and blue is my favorite color, so I thought I’d get that one. Gary suggested I go sit in it. The seat didn’t feel as comfortable. Being suspicious, I felt like to get that one I was going to have to test drive it and make sure I could get the seat where I wanted it. I was reluctant to do so, however, being pooped from the test driving I had already done. Gary asked me why I didn’t want the red one. I said because I don't think of myself as a "red" person and, besides, I’d heard that cops keep a special eye out for red cars. He asked me just what it was I was going to be doing in it that would draw the attention of cops. He then said I’d look cute in a red car with stripes. That settled it, I got the red one.

At least I probably won’t forget what color my car is, as I’ve tended to do in the past.

But wouldn’t you know it, within an hour already something needed to be fixed. After buying the car, we went to Kroger, me in the Civic, Gary in the Sienna, and upon coming out I couldn’t get the trunk of the car to pop open (tho it works with the key). Took it back to Honda today because it was too late to do so Saturday, and I had to schedule an appointment for Thursday to have them look at it.

Anyway, anniversary gift solved, it was on to my birthday presents. Gary gave me gift certificates to amazon.com and half.com so I can indulge myself with books. He also got me flowers and said there is something else which he will give me tonight. He tried to put in the doohickey that would enable him to turn on the overhead light in his bedroom while using a key chain remote control (so he can do this himself while in bed in the morning without relying on me) but he ended up doing something so that now his overhead light doesn’t work at all. :-( He called an electrician about a week ago, and the guy said he wouldn’t even be able to call to schedule something with us until this week.

Tigger cost us over $350 last week. I thought he’d been looking too bony lately, so I took him into the vet, and he’d lost 1 ½ lbs. The vet did all sorts of tests, including thyroid, and turned up that Tigger has a raging urinary tract infection. So he’s on antibiotics for three weeks. Thank God for the person who invented pill pockets, as so far Tigger had been gobbling down his pills when they are hidden inside the little salmon pockets. In the past, however, there has come a point where he loses his sense of taste from the antibiotics. Then it will be exciting seeing how Gary and I manage in getting the pills shoved down him – this wasn’t an easy task when Gary was fully able-bodied! It always took the two of us, one holding onto the cat for dear life, the other prying that little cat jaw open (I did the holding). I’m not sure if the UTI accounts for Tigger's loss of weight. If not, maybe it’s time for a change of diet. I’m sure if he got fresh fish and chicken and steak, as he’s indicated he’d like, he’d put the weight right back on.

Speaking of UTIs, Gary hasn’t leaked in three weeks now. He took a more powerful antibiotic – given to him by his Shepherd doctor – to knock out the infection he had, and since then he has been on a daily antibiotic PLUS he decided to use a new catheter each time instead of cleaning out the old one and re-using it for a month. At five catheters per day, this gets expensive, but oh well. While he was in the hospital he never had a UTI and this is what they did then. When people go home, tho, they usually just do the “clean technique,” re-using the catheters, but maybe that isn’t good enough for Gary.

He is teaching a full load – has an undergraduate linear algebra course and a graduate topology class. He says things are going fine. At the student rec center they’ve gotten another new exercise machine in, to replace the cable pulley machine, so he is looking forward to that. Or at least his trainer is. Evidently it has finer gradations of weight than obtainable on the pulley machine.

My computer made me very nervous last week. Monday it simply wouldn’t start up. Gary didn’t think it was on warranty, and it was too bad we didn’t realize we could go online to check that out, because I ended spending $40 for a local computer repair guy to look at it, tell me it was probably the mother board which would probably cost me $300, and then he went online and told me we had gotten the extended warranty and I still had 99 days left on it! So I shipped it off to Dell on Tuesday, and they had it fixed and returned to me by Friday! Seems to be fine, fingers crossed.

Aug 19, 2007

Yesterday Gary and I went to check out Toyotas: RAV 4, Camry, Corolla. Previous week it was the Honda Accord and Honda Civic. By the time I get into the next car I’ve forgotten what the previous car was like, unless it caused me obvious discomfort, like the Prius. I did decide I’d rather go for a car than a SUV (RAV). I hate car shopping. I think I’ll just flip a coin.

My birthday is coming up. Gary asked me what I wanted. I told him he could get installed whatever technology is needed so he can flip on the overhead light in his bedroom himself when he is in bed, so that it what he is doing (this way, he doesn’t have to get me out of bed to turn his light on, which is why it is *my* birthday present) . Jo Heath gave us a doohickey that screws onto a lamp so you can turn the lamp on and off with a touch of the hand on the lamp, but, at least with the lamps we have, that doesn’t make the room bright enough for him to do his skin checks.

Aug 11, 2007

Gary had a math visitor all week, Kenichi Tamano, of Japan. Kenichi has been coming for a visit at least the past three years, and they made some progress in a problem they’ve been working on. They also went out to eat lots, and Gary discovered facts about the accessibility of local restaurants. They first tried a fairly new sushi restaurant. After parking (near the old post office, for those who know where that is), Gary first had to negotiate a long uphill – Kenichi pushed his chair for him. Then it turned out at the restaurant there was a huge step one had to get up in order to get into the restaurant proper. Gary was told he could get in at the back, but that would mean going back down that long hill, over a block, and around to the back. A young strong guy volunteered to help him up the step in the front, and he, Kenichi, and Narendra Govil, who had gone with them for lunch, ended up picking up the wheelchair with Gary in it to get up the step. The young guy warned he might not be there when Gary was finished with lunch, and he wasn’t, so Gary went out the back of the restaurant – after they cleared stuff away from the back door (evidently it isn’t used much). At least that way was closer to where they parked!

When Gary and Kenichi tried the Chinese place nearby the sushi place, they went to the back first. There they discovered a step down, which they weren’t comfortable in negotiating themselves. So they went in the back entrance of the nearby pizza place. More problems. To get to most of the seating area, they would have to get up a step, plus the tables were too high – they’d come to Gary’s chin if he were seated at them. There were three table he could’ve gotten to at the front, but they were full and so Gary and Kenichi would’ve had to wait. They ended up ordering a pizza to go.

Another day they tried another Chinese restaurant. The problem there was more minor – the buffet table had only a tiny ledge so Gary couldn’t set his plate on it to serve himself. Kenichi had to get Gary’s food for him.

I went out to eat with them Thursday night (at Outback), and we had no accessibility problems. We found out Kenichi has visited only four places in the U.S.: New York, Washington, San Francisco, and Auburn. Well, he’s hit all the hot spots. He gave me a beautiful Japanese paper lantern at the end of the meal. He left Friday.

Gary has also recently gotten some other research results, so I think he is happy about that.

On Friday, he met an exercise goal: 1.5 miles in five minutes on the hand cycle. His trainer said next they will increase the duration to 6 minutes. They also got a new exercise machine in, one that simulates rope climbing (so, Gary doesn’t go anywhere, but the rope moves). Gary said he could tell it’s exercising different muscles – he’s sore!

We test-drove a Prius last Saturday, and although I liked the concept of it, I could not get comfortable in the seat, and indeed it set off my leg symptoms. Gary thinks maybe a power seat would be better for me. Today he plans to haul me off to look at some Hondas.

Aug 2, 2007

We had a nice anniversary. We gave each other cards and flower arrangements. Gary gave me a car (well, virtually) and I gave him chocolates and a gift certificate for shirts and made him a pizza and bought him a pint of Dove Chocolate and Brownie ice cream, which he says is now his favorite ice cream, so I think we had a fair exchange.

Blackjack also gave him a present – since the accident, Blackjack has not been venturing into Gary’s room, but this afternoon he plopped himself down on Gary’s hospital bed and has pretty much been there since! Wonder if he’ll continue this behavior. Weird cat!

Aug 1, 2007

Gary drove by himself to Atlanta and back (!), for his check-up with the doctor. We joked that it was all right for him to go without my help, because for the first time they wouldn’t need to check his butt (flap) and so he doesn’t need to get up on one of those examination tables. It still amazes us that Shepherd, geared toward spinal cord and brain injuries, has examination tables that are so difficult for the patients to get on by themselves (high and narrow), particularly the newly injured. But of course the staff has sufficient training to aid in the transfers!

Gary talked to the doctor about his never-ending urinary tract infections, and they did a “KUB” while he was there – that’s a radiograph of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra – to see if they could determine any reason for the infections. He is also going to finally have the urodynamics study done in about three weeks. Because of the radiograph, the day went much longer for Gary –he left about 9:30 and didn’t get home until after 7:30. His trip there took the usual two-and-a-half hours, but the trip home took four: two-and-a-half for the time moving on the road; a half-hour to eat (he would need a third hand to eat in the car); fifteen extra minutes to account for rush-hour traffic; and a half-hour of crawling along because of an accident. So he was one pooped puppy by the time he got home, but I think he was pretty proud of himself for doing it himself. I know I’m proud of him.

I checked his flap after he got in bed (and so did he), and it looks pretty good -- a bit redder than usual but nothing like what it looked like after one day of our journey to Mo. last spring. Since he was in that car seat for six hours today, we thought this was pretty good! I told him he had finally developed a tough butt.

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. He says I can pick out a new car. He then said I am the only person he knows who would not be excited by this (too much trouble deciding what to get
;-)).