Sep 16, 2007
On Wednesday the 13th, Gary made his first independent trip (not counting the trial run overnight stay at the motel ten minutes from our house), a success! He left for Atlanta and stayed overnight in order to make an early morning appointment Thursday at Shepherd for his urodynamics test. He stayed at Holiday Inn Express, and they were very nice to him. One of the employees not only carried his bag in for him, but on seeing that there wasn’t a place for him to park that would allow the ramp of the Sienna to come down, told Gary he could park in a no-parking spot, and that it would be no problem because it was the inn that had put up the sign and he would pass along the word that it was okay for Gary to park there. The employee then got Gary changed to an accessible room close to this new parking spot. He also refused to take a tip, even after Gary insisted.
Gary said the room was reasonable. He wouldn’t have been able to take a shower had he wanted to, since there was only a tub and no roll-in shower. (Tub transfers – there’s something we’ve completely forgot about!). He wanted to use the coffee table to put the bowel and bladder supplies on that he would need during the night, so had to drag it from the living room area to the bedroom area (he was in a suite), but was able to do this by himself. The bed was a couple inches lower than his chair, so the transfer into it was easy, and to transfer out he had the coffee table near enough “Just in case” he lost his balance and needed to grab something, so he was confident of that as well. He had no problems. For dinner he had stopped in at Fresh Market and got take-out to bring back to the hotel.
He had to get up at 5 in order to make his 8 am appointment. They hoyered him onto the table and took his pants down for him, saving him some work. The test found that the bladder isn’t as elastic as it should be, but that the pressure in it is fine (if too high it could cause urine to be forced back into the kidney and cause kidney disease). They also found there was some spasming in the bladder when it got close being 500 cc full, that 500 the number they always want you to regulate your ICs and fluid intake etc. so you stay under it.
Since Gary hasn’t leaked in over a month, his doctor told him to continue with what he’s been doing: the daily antibiotic and the Vesicare (for bladder spasming). Gary said he’ll also continue using a new catheter for each IC – they aren’t terribly expensive, under a dollar each (so about $5 a day), and he figures the peace of mind is worth it – he is now convinced he had a urinary tract infection for over a year, ever since leaving Shepherd, except for a few brief intermissions when he was on an antibiotic, up until the time he started on the daily antibiotic (first knocking out the existing UTI with a stronger antibiotic).
His Shepherd doctor told him that unless there was any special problem, he didn’t need to see him again for a year. He told Gary that as far as tests went, he should have a kidney ultrasound every year, and the urodynamics every 3-5 years. Hopefully the local doc will agree to doing the kidney ultrasound; the local doc wanted to do a KUB every year, but the Shepherd doc said the results of that were unreliable unless one is “cleaned out” beforehand, and being “cleaned out” is a real drag for paras and quads (diarrhea isn’t fun for any of us, but you can imagine how worse it’d be for someone who doesn’t know an episode is coming on and would have to go through a rigamarole to get pants down and onto a toilet or into bed and use underpads).
After the exam, his doc was the chattiest he’s ever been. He asked how the university was treating Gary, and Gary told him about how Phil had changed offices with him so he wouldn’t be dependent on the elevator and how the university had had a sidewalk put in so he could reach the handicapped parking spots without endangering life and limb. The doc, whose injury is similar to Gary’s (he’s a T2), said his university hadn’t been nearly as accommodating. Of course, he had been a student. His achievement was quite phenomenal, actually. He only missed one semester of work due to his injury, and when he returned, he took a double load. He told Gary that every morning he had to wheel up a big hill to get to his 8 am chemistry class, and that often it was raining! And of course as a student he would’ve had to have wheeled all around campus for his classes, not just be in one building all the time like Gary is. Given how much time “maintenance” takes, for the doc to have been able to handle a double load seems almost inconceivable.
The doc finished their appointment by asking Gary what the square root of pi is. Gary told him to plug it into his calculator.
Gary then went to visit the Bridge Program Coordinator. She was pleased to see him and said he is one of their success stories. That was probably to soap him into being a peer supporter for his area (JUST kidding about the soaping part). She did succeed in that goal. She also tried to convince him to go on a snow ski trip, but fortunately ;-) she failed in that. Gary gave her the excuse that the dates fell while he was in school, but it’d be a long trip and he’s not fond of being out in the cold (and I’m even less so, and I’m sure at this point I’d need to go with him).
Gary also ran into his favorite PT, the one who made him feel like he could do anything. She gave him a big hug and showed him pictures of her new baby.
Gary said the traffic on the way home was again terrible, slowing to a crawl at times, but at least it wasn’t as bad as last time.
To sum up, a successful independent foray!
On Wednesday the 13th, Gary made his first independent trip (not counting the trial run overnight stay at the motel ten minutes from our house), a success! He left for Atlanta and stayed overnight in order to make an early morning appointment Thursday at Shepherd for his urodynamics test. He stayed at Holiday Inn Express, and they were very nice to him. One of the employees not only carried his bag in for him, but on seeing that there wasn’t a place for him to park that would allow the ramp of the Sienna to come down, told Gary he could park in a no-parking spot, and that it would be no problem because it was the inn that had put up the sign and he would pass along the word that it was okay for Gary to park there. The employee then got Gary changed to an accessible room close to this new parking spot. He also refused to take a tip, even after Gary insisted.
Gary said the room was reasonable. He wouldn’t have been able to take a shower had he wanted to, since there was only a tub and no roll-in shower. (Tub transfers – there’s something we’ve completely forgot about!). He wanted to use the coffee table to put the bowel and bladder supplies on that he would need during the night, so had to drag it from the living room area to the bedroom area (he was in a suite), but was able to do this by himself. The bed was a couple inches lower than his chair, so the transfer into it was easy, and to transfer out he had the coffee table near enough “Just in case” he lost his balance and needed to grab something, so he was confident of that as well. He had no problems. For dinner he had stopped in at Fresh Market and got take-out to bring back to the hotel.
He had to get up at 5 in order to make his 8 am appointment. They hoyered him onto the table and took his pants down for him, saving him some work. The test found that the bladder isn’t as elastic as it should be, but that the pressure in it is fine (if too high it could cause urine to be forced back into the kidney and cause kidney disease). They also found there was some spasming in the bladder when it got close being 500 cc full, that 500 the number they always want you to regulate your ICs and fluid intake etc. so you stay under it.
Since Gary hasn’t leaked in over a month, his doctor told him to continue with what he’s been doing: the daily antibiotic and the Vesicare (for bladder spasming). Gary said he’ll also continue using a new catheter for each IC – they aren’t terribly expensive, under a dollar each (so about $5 a day), and he figures the peace of mind is worth it – he is now convinced he had a urinary tract infection for over a year, ever since leaving Shepherd, except for a few brief intermissions when he was on an antibiotic, up until the time he started on the daily antibiotic (first knocking out the existing UTI with a stronger antibiotic).
His Shepherd doctor told him that unless there was any special problem, he didn’t need to see him again for a year. He told Gary that as far as tests went, he should have a kidney ultrasound every year, and the urodynamics every 3-5 years. Hopefully the local doc will agree to doing the kidney ultrasound; the local doc wanted to do a KUB every year, but the Shepherd doc said the results of that were unreliable unless one is “cleaned out” beforehand, and being “cleaned out” is a real drag for paras and quads (diarrhea isn’t fun for any of us, but you can imagine how worse it’d be for someone who doesn’t know an episode is coming on and would have to go through a rigamarole to get pants down and onto a toilet or into bed and use underpads).
After the exam, his doc was the chattiest he’s ever been. He asked how the university was treating Gary, and Gary told him about how Phil had changed offices with him so he wouldn’t be dependent on the elevator and how the university had had a sidewalk put in so he could reach the handicapped parking spots without endangering life and limb. The doc, whose injury is similar to Gary’s (he’s a T2), said his university hadn’t been nearly as accommodating. Of course, he had been a student. His achievement was quite phenomenal, actually. He only missed one semester of work due to his injury, and when he returned, he took a double load. He told Gary that every morning he had to wheel up a big hill to get to his 8 am chemistry class, and that often it was raining! And of course as a student he would’ve had to have wheeled all around campus for his classes, not just be in one building all the time like Gary is. Given how much time “maintenance” takes, for the doc to have been able to handle a double load seems almost inconceivable.
The doc finished their appointment by asking Gary what the square root of pi is. Gary told him to plug it into his calculator.
Gary then went to visit the Bridge Program Coordinator. She was pleased to see him and said he is one of their success stories. That was probably to soap him into being a peer supporter for his area (JUST kidding about the soaping part). She did succeed in that goal. She also tried to convince him to go on a snow ski trip, but fortunately ;-) she failed in that. Gary gave her the excuse that the dates fell while he was in school, but it’d be a long trip and he’s not fond of being out in the cold (and I’m even less so, and I’m sure at this point I’d need to go with him).
Gary also ran into his favorite PT, the one who made him feel like he could do anything. She gave him a big hug and showed him pictures of her new baby.
Gary said the traffic on the way home was again terrible, slowing to a crawl at times, but at least it wasn’t as bad as last time.
To sum up, a successful independent foray!
posted by Peg Daniels at 9:00 AM
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