Up, Up and Away...

Up...that's where I'm spending my nights.  I've moved upstairs.  I haven't moved to the master bedroom yet...I'm using the guest room.  My use of  language here is interesting.  Notice how I didn't call it MY bedroom?  I'm referring to it as the MASTER.  Glenn has been working subtly, and apparently effectively, to get his own room for the duration.  I'm a guest in my own upstairs!  I'll will eventually sneak into the MASTER and reclaim it as "my bedroom", but for now it's best for both of us if I have my own bed.  I was thrilled to find out at my doctor's appointment that I could sleep without the walking boot.  However, what I didn't realize was the challenge I would have finding a way to keep my sensitive foot from being abused by blankets and sheets.  It's toughening up, so look out Nurse Glenn, I'll be back!

Believe it or not, there are things that I miss about sleeping on the hide-a-bed. 

• I don't have to make the bed in the morning...I get up and Nurse Glenn folds up the evidence (thus the name).
• I have a TV in my bedroom.  Never thought I'd want one, but it is kind of nice to  keep up with the entertainment industry via late night TV.
• The hide-a-bed's low enough that Farley can easily get up on it and spend the night with me.  The guest bed is so high that the aging tubby (or do I mean tabby?) can't jump up on it.  He enters the room, puts his paws up on the side of the bed and stares at it, like he can make it lower down to a Farley level.  The first night he fussed, then walked around and found a chair close enough that he could get on the chair and then leap (really too athletic a word, but I can't think of a word that describes his slo-mo lumbering) to the bed.
• And the thing I miss most about sleeping in the family room?   Just hanging out in bed, waiting for Nurse Glenn to fix coffee and deliver it to me IN BED. 

Coffee in bed is probably a fair trade for a little mobility!

Went to the Doctor and the Doctor Said...

Today was another doctor's appointment.  I had a follow-up with the butcher (I mean surgeon) today.  Doctor's appointments are big outings for Nurse Glenn and me.  Everybody up and dressed to leave the house on someone else's schedule.  Normally we putt around and get ready whenever the spirit moves us. 

I used the walker to get into the office waiting room, but being a show-off, I walked (and I use the term loosely) to the examining room.  When I got up on the table, the nurse starts her questioning.  "How are you?"  OK, I guess.   "Does the foot look good?"  (You haven't seen it, but it looks like it's fell into a meat grinder...after 4 weeks, it's still a lovely mauve color....which she could see, so why did she ask?)  "Is the pain less than before the surgery?"  At that question, I knew I was dealing with a fool!  Four weeks ago, I was meeting friends to walk for an hour; I did lunges in a strength training class and walked to church.  Now, I use a walker if going for more than 10 feet.  So I tell her no, it hurts now and didn't hurt much before.  "But doesn't it feel better?"  A fool, but a persistent fool!  No, I say.  It hurts, especially at night.  I think I actually heard her huff, like the stupid patient doesn't know what the polite answer is!   BTW, this is the same nurse who took out my stitiches--see previous blog.

Dr. K comes in and removes all of the protective foot covering and has me stand in my bare feet.  I haven't put weight on my foot without the walking boot so I was worried; not too  painful.   Dr. K said, "well nothing broke!"  He must be related to the nurse.  End results:  everything is healing according to schedule.  Wear the boot for 4 more weeks, but no need to wear it at night.  And the pain is normal (which is dr. talk for ignore the goofy nurse!)

On the way to the doctor, Glenn was saying how this 6 weeks has not been hard at all for him.  "Well, Glenn it's only been four weeks since my surgery."  Oh no, that's not right he says, it's beeen 6 weeks.  All I can say is he may not think it's hard, but time passes at 1 1/2 times it normal measure.  Poor Glenn.

Prison Break!

The prison walls had a chink in them today and the prisoner sneaked through. This morning I got in the car -- in the driver's seat of my little Cube --and left the house by myself.  Waved goodbye to Glenn and zipped out of the driveway.  I was only going two blocks to church, but it was like a great road trip to me.  I was wearing my Frankenstein walking boot and had my walker in the back seat, but in my mind I was in Easy Rider headed to New Orleans on a motorcycle with Peter Fonda.  

When I got to the church parking lot, I thought about breezing right on by and going someplace REALLY exciting.  If not New Orleans, maybe at least to Target or even Trader Joe's. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to man the welcome desk, so I went to church.  I used my walker to get to the last pew where I plopped down and stubbornly refused to stand for anything.   Somehow, my reputation as a rebel was sullied by the fact I was had my foot propped up on the walker most of the time.  Gives you a waiver on normal church behavior. 

When I got back, Glenn was gone.  He used the break from taking care of me to go to the hardware store.  Another Easy Rider with a lack of imagination! 

The Burriers brought dinner tonight so we had food AND entertainment (and I got good advice).  Nurse Glenn was making aside comments on how he has to do everything for me.  Even though it is true, I felt insulted, so I snippily reminded him that I had made dinner twice this week.  Thank goodnes, Katy stopped me before I got too far down that path....don't mess with the caregiver while you still need him.  Great advice.  I need him to unfold my bed, fill my electric ice bucket, haul me to the doctor tomorrow and do a hundred little things everyday. 

Until I'm able to jail break for real and make it across country, I'd better continue to appreciate Nurse Glenn, loudly and often.

Thursday - A Day to be THANKFUL

Driving around the neighborhood today (THANKFUL to Katy for giving me a lunchtime outing) and sitting in the family room makes me THANKFUL that our trees are still standing.  I was amazed at how may limbs and large trees were taken down in yesterday's 1/2 hour wind and rain storm.  I can hear the wood chipper running at the house 2 doors away eliminating the remnants of one of their big trees.  We saw several trees completely wiped out--luckily only one appeared to have created a roof skylight the hard way.  But at least one yard in every block had branches down.  Glenn spent all morning sawing and cleaning up our yard.  I'm THANKFUL that I'm unable to haul out trash tonight, since in addition to recycle and garbage cans, there are 6 bags of storm debris.  Nurse Glenn did ask me if he took my wheelie out did I think I'd be able to manage taking the garbage to the street . 

Also, I'm THANKFUL for those of you who took time to fill me in on the Kardashian story.  So now I understand--no one in my circle really understands how they became famous or why they're famous..it's a mystery! 

I'm THANKFUL that I tried one more time on extending my wheelie rental.  I just got the OK to keep it until October 1.  I've been walking more but realized that it doesn't hurt when I walk, but too many steps and I pay for it at night. 

And most of all, I'm THANKFUL that I've had the ukulele to entertain me.    And I'm THANKFUL I have a camera with video because I spent two hours trying to make my Logitech camera work to take a video that I could post!  Glenn said today was his first "semi-normal" day.  What do you mean? I say.  Well. I worked outside on the yard, did my own thing and didn't spend all of my time taking care of you.  Think he's ready for me to be independent?

What Am I Missing?

NOSEY QUESTION #3:  Are you sad that you're missing the Country Living Fair this weekend?  Sharon and I went to that last year.  It's sponsored by Country Living magazine and Ohio Village (at the Ohio Historical Museum) is covered with antiques, crafts, artwork and food. Very interesting and quite fun. That event is not the only thing I'm regretting missing:

• Farmer's Market.  This is probably the last weekend for really good tomatoes
• Worthington Market Day is Saturday
• Columbus Jazz Orchestra's first event of the season this weekend
• Wine Tasting at House Wine

Of course I shouldn't complain.  Tonight I'm going to my second book club of the week.  Sunday night was my first.  I've become very picky about whose house I will agree to go visit--they have to be virtually handicap accessible.  (If I didn't live here, I'd never consider dropping in!)

I've found that since I don't go out very often, I've become more easily amused.  Rather than flipping the pages of Time magazine and stopping to read just a few choice articles, I'm fascinated by everything--even the full page interview with Ben Affleck (did you know he directed "Town" and is married to Jennifer Garner?)  I now read more carefully and listen more closely.  I even pay attention to TV. And because of paying attention, I now need to know:  WHO ARE THE KARDASHIANS?  I watched Jay Leno when they were on and never could figure out what qualifed them to be on his show.  All I could tell was that they were famous for something, one of them is related to Bruce Jenner somehow, and they're started a QVC show.  Can someone fill me in on this?

My attention to detail may soon start to flag.  I am now able to get down the outside steps standing up (holding onto the railing).  I walked up a few steps last night, but mainly to show off.  This is good timing... My knee walker goes back on Thursday and I can't extend my rental!  Nurse Glenn will have to stay by my side to fill in on "knee walker" duties. 

Info Please

Have you noticed that the blog entries are slowing down?  HEL-L-L--O--O.  Is anyone out there?  I still have one faithful household which sent me a list of big (and small) nosey questions that they would like to see answered. 

  First let me address the reduced blogging.  I have a full list of excuses:  #1.  I remain a very boring topic.  #2.  My Nurse is training me to be self-reliant and thus, he's become a smaller target for my humor!  #3.  I'm up and around much more now that I have the walking boot on.  Less time on the sofa means less time to blog. 

And #4.  Next to me, the most interesting item has been the endless hole in the yard, which is now filled in and wraps the story.  It took a front digger and hand digging to bring this to closure.  Note the top of the guy's head who is standing  in the hole.  It about 5 feet deep at this point.  Once uncovered, we was that the broken "pipe" was two feet in diameter.  A visit from the city engineer (again), gravel, bags of cement (unmixed, remaining in the bag), dirt, grass seed and lots of water may keep us from falling into middle earth.  (Oh yes, and a bagful of money.) 

NOSEY QUESTION #1:  Are you still sleeping on the couch? 

Yes, every night between 10:30 and 11,  Nurse Glenn says "Ready for me to make up your bed?"  then he unfolds the hide-a-bed, gets the pillows and the extra blankets, and sets me up with all of the things I need to get through the night like reading material, itty bitty book light, TV remotes, phone, water and walker.  Why am I not sleeping in the bedroom?  I have to wear the walking boot to bed and I find that I wake up and fuss with it multiple times each night.  It's held together with industrial strength Velcro.  Imagine being sound asleep and then hearing that giant Velcro being ripped apart. It even wakes up Farley--I want my nurse to be well-rested and in a good mood when he has to face fixing my breakfast and bringing me the paper!

NOSEY Q #2:  Find anything good in the couch cushions?  Nope, just some pennies. 

Feel free to submit your own nosey questions if you want to extend the blog or improve the content!

Anniversary of 3s

It's been three weeks today since I had my surgery and it's been 33 years today since Glenn and I got married. As far as the little annivesray goes, I'm walking a few steps on the abused foot, but not putting full weight on it.  It seems to not appreciate action--and tells me so by swelling, so I listen and use the knee wheeler after a few steps.  

How about that other anniversary?  In 1977, we talked about getting old together, but it was just some cloud-infused, lovey-dovey talk then.  I remember talking about how we would rock on the porch together when we were grey.  Now, it's a reality.  About one hour ago, he said "Want to go sit on the porch?"  Of course, the grey part isn't reality...if you discount Glenn's beard and ignore that one of my big adventures today was using Lady Clariol.

I'm not sure what our spouse standards were when we found each other.  Now, I would say that I'm glad I married someone who makes me laugh, remembers to ask me if I need anything when I can't move around,  irons an even crease in my jeans (ironing jeans??!!!) and loves me when I haven't worn makeup in three weeks.

I wish you all the same happiness.

 

The Shower

Today was D-Day for the shower.  At my doctor's appointment on Monday at 9:30, he wrapped my foot, told me to leave it wrapped for 48 hours, and then I could get it wet.  So, at 9:30 this morning, I called to Nurse Glenn, "let's hit the showers!"  I loaded up all of the items that I had packed two weeks ago to bring to my downstairs bathroom and headed up. 

It's getting easier to get around since I can take a step or two in my walking boot, and I've become very quick at scooting up the stairs in a seated position so there were no major events in making it to the bathroom.  Hop into the shower...and I do mean hop.  Ah, yes, full force spray.  Feels so good!  The only down side was that I took a really good look at my foot while I was washing it.  Wow, it looks like it's been through surgery or something equally grueling. 

The very best part was I'm mobile enough to get to my stash of bath time products.  Not to sound too much like Andy Rooney, but...have you ever really looked at what you use to get ready to face the day?  For me it's special bath soap & facial cleanser; shampoo & conditioner; root lifter and hairspray and then we get to the creams...now I may have a few extra, being cream-addicted, there's spray lotion and body cream, eye cream, lip cream, face lotion and hand cream.  Today I pulled out my extra special wintertime balm to treat the skin that was under the dressing.  Then there's the makeup--not even going to enumerate the products.  I ask you, in my very best Andy Rooney voice, "do we really need all of this?"  I answer--"Yes, and I'm always willing to take suggestions on new items."  However, the products do take some time to apply, so I may be hearing Andy Rooney queries in my head, but in my ear I'm hearing Nurse Glenn call from downstairs, "are you ready to come down yet? " Ten minutes later 'Now should I come and help you down?" Finally, he just shows up, peeks in and marvels at all of the jars and bottles I've spread over the bathroom counter.  he just doesn't get it,

48 Hours

Not the TV show, but the time I have to wait to get in the shower.  I went to the doctor this morning.  The big heavy wrapping came off and the stitches came out. I was the first patient for the new staff nurse.  She got to remove my stitches....lucky for her; unlucky for me.  "I've only every removed head stitches...and that's much easier than this! "  OK, no medical experience here, but I could have given her a few hints:

1. Don't stand in the light and cast a shadow on my foot.  Adjust the light, or step to the other side.
2.  Hold the snipping scissors in your right hand and the lifter in your left hand.  You're not successful cutting with your left hand.
3. Try to stop your hands from shaking.
4. Don't be so concerned about hurting me; just GET IT OVER WITH!

They rebandaged my foot (much less volume than before); put a snuggie on it; gave me scar cream; provided instructions on massaging my toes to get them to point the way they should (spooky); gave me shower instructions; and put me in a walking boot.  The "walking" part is a dream at this point.  Doc says I can walk "to tolerance" which today means only about one step.  However, it feels like progress.  The boot is very cool--it can be pumped up to apply pressure.  Sort of an Air Jordan apparatus. Think I'll be able to dunk now that I have this? 

Nurse Glenn insists that this recuperation hasn't been hard at all for him.  But when we got home from the doctor and I'm scooting up the stairs, his first question was "you don't need that chair to get on your feet in the house, do you?"  Sounds to me like someone who wants to retire!

43 hours and counting!!

Is This All There Is?

The postings have tapered off because the routine is setting in.  I wake up first, wheel my way to the kitchen and make one-handed coffee.  Controlling the knee wheeler with one hand, I take the coffee basket to the sink while manuveuring the wheeler backwards, park sideways, put on the brakes, rinse the grounds, back up and redirect the wheeler and return the basket to the coffee pot.  You get the idea.  After about 10 minutes, I'm brewing the coffee.  All this time, Farley is pacing and looking mournfully at me.  How can I not drop everything and feed him?  20 pounds of cat gets really hungry after a long night.  After about 15 minutes of pacing, he starts to cat-whine.  "Please, Gari, I feel faint!"  With no response from me, he finally goes to the steps and looks up.  "Is that nice Glenn coming down and saving me the trip?"  I can almost hear Farley sigh and then he gathers his energy and heads upstairs to stand in the doorway and stare at Glenn until he spooks him into getting out of bed to feed him. 

And so the day goes.  Nurse Glenn only says to me about twice a day now "I'm taking a break outside."  Which means, "hope you have everything you need, cause I DON'T HEAR YOU!"  We've become a good nurse and a good patient, respectively.

When things are this quiet, little things bring big excitement.  Like a hole in the yard.  Thursday we decided to go out for a little drive.  When we got home, there were 4 people from the city in our yard.  Glenn  had called the Engineering Department about the hole.  Apparently, football and unexplained holes hold equal fascination for men.  I took this photo from the car; if you look behind the mailbox, you'll see 5 guys peering into the center of the earth.  I've decided that's what the hole is:  a start on getting to earth's core.  None of the 4 guys from the city knew what the hole was.  They suggested it might be an old cistern or an original drain that routed rain water to the ravine across the street.  These ideas are less exciting than the ones I got from you readers:  a hole that Glenn is preparing to dump me in or a direct route to Wonderland where I could meet the Mad Hatter!  What the city people were very clear about was it's not Worthington's problem and don't mess it up and create more problems that you'll be responsible for!

Need Some Cheese With That Whine?

I think we may have hit a milestone on Tuesday.  I was complaining about my foot tingling which happens when it swells.   Glenn was in another room and his only response was "it's not attractive to whine."   A more tuned-in person would have recognized caregiver stress, but not me.   I went ahead and asked him to hook up my electric ice pack and I heard "I'm in the middle of something and I'm not going to jump up right away like I've been doing forever."  Oops!  But, almost immediately, he came around the corner to hook up my ice.  Venting must feel so-o-o-o good, but responsibility is a much stronger driver!

Someone was coming in to clean on Wednesday so it seemed like a good day for Glenn to go to the cabin.  A little distance is a good thing if you have someone asking you to satisfy every one of their little desires.  (Parenthood, anyone?) 

Like most of you that I've heard from, I've been thinking about that mystery hole in the yard.  Here are some of the possibilities that I've come up with:

• Rhinoceros pit (it's too big to be a groundhog den and a rhino is the only other animal I know that gets underground). 
• Sink hole.  Remember the one on Broad Street that ate the Mercedes?
• Infestation of prairie dogs.
• Small children with shovels.  We've seen this activity  before!!

I welcome your suggestions as to possible causes!

Holey Sunday

Not HOLY Sunday--I'm moving around, but am a long way from heading out for church services.  I mean HOLEY Sunday.  The Burriers came to visit Sunday and brought dinner.  Once more I was the queen, sitting on my throne, waving to people passing by and trying to be a part of the kitchen action.  It's hard to participate while sitting on the sofa sideways.  So I was thrilled when Caroline wanted to know where she could find one of those "scraper things" to get the batter out of the bowl.  Finally, I could offer something:  "not that drawer, the next one."  I AM helpful. 

      OK, a new crew to give me lots of attention; however, I didn't realize how nervous I make some people.  Grant comes in and starts toward me.  "Grab him" Katy says.  I pull my walker over to get up from the sofa and Katy starts toward me.  She follows me like I'm a baby who just started to walk!  After dinner we head out to the patio.  The crowd roars with appreciation as I get out the door, scoot down the steps and make it to a chair.  I continue to be the queen on the throne. 

     Then something changes drastically.  Katy and Jamie notice a hole in the front yard.  All mobile people go to look at it.  Must be groundhogs digging a den.  Looks deep.  Let's fill it with water.  Suddenly Grandpa and the girls are feeding the hose down the hole 

     Uh oh, the hose goes down 7 feet This is not a groundhog den; this is a groundhog apartment complex.

 Suddenly watering hose and watering cans were much more interesting than Grandma. 

  

Friday: Is the Bloom off the Rose?

How are the roses holding up?  Well, the bloom is definitely off the literal roses. 

How about that figurative rose:  being in a new role, that of patient.   Life as a patient takes a strange toll...you start thinking about yourself all of the time...then you start to think that you might be the center of the universe.   That slides into thinking that certain others (i.e., your nurse) should think about you all of the time, too.  Uh oh, bad news!  Nurse Glenn helped me to the patio to enjoy the nice day.  He got me all set up, verified that I had my phone and went in the house to prepare a meal.  I realized that I needed a pillow to prop up my foot, so I called him and placed my request.  Hmmm...what's this?  He didn't immediately appear.  Wait, wait, wait.  Still no Glenn, then I checked the time.  It's been 4 minutes since I called him.  Egad:  not the delay, but egad, who is this person who checks the time delay on delivery of a kindness?  You've just turned the corner from appreciative to demanding.  Time to U-turn on the attitude!

It's easy to think that it's all about you.  People show up and the first thing they say is "how are you?"   And usually bring some fabulous homemade food.  Thank goodness, almost immediately they get distracted from me and focus on my mobility toys.  I'm trying to decide on my favorite:   crutches, walkers, knee walker and wheel chair.  The most popular with visitors has been my Knee Walker.  Adults use it as a chair.  The younger crowd tries it out.  Here's Amanda, who faked (maybe) a blonde moment and looked for the motor.  Sarah knew the trick when she tried it out but she liked the wheel chair best because it manuevered like a kayak!  Who knew?  

 

 No one has wanted to try out the crutches or walkers.  The wheeled items are most popular...visions of wheelies dance in their heads.   If I get good enough to pop a wheelie on the Knee Wheeler, I'll be sure to post the video!

Thursday: OSU vs. Marshall and Gari vs. Bathtub

Many of you have been asking (or you shy ones have hinted around looking for information) about showering.  I've been taking sponge baths, then shampooing my hair at the sink. So I've been looking forward to moving on to the next level:  a bath.  The doctor told me early on that I couldn't shower.  I squeaked out: "What?  That's a deal-breaker."  But he told me that I could take a bath and hang my leg over the side.  Yeh, sure, doesn't sound doable.  "All of my other patients do it."  Well, that was throwing down the guantlet.  I've seen some of his other patients.  I'm clearly more agile than that 85 year old guy with liver spots and that 400 lb. woman.  Yessir, I can do this. 
   Well, the first barrier is that the bathtub is on the second floor.  Crutches, walker, knee wheeler, wheel chair?  Nope, not helpful in climbing stairs.  Baby scooting, sitting down.  Sit down, hold your left leg up, hands on step above, push up, lift your rump up, then slide it back, sit down on next step.  Repeat ...15 more times!  Thanks Shelli Sanzo, trainer, for making me do all those bicep/tricep exercises.  
   At the turn of the stairs, it's time to call on Nurse Glenn who has been hovering in front of me, trying not to look nervous while he clearly was planning the best way to stop my slide to the bottom of the steps!  As I get to the landing I say "Go around me to the top and figure out how to get me from a sitting position to a one-legged standing position."  Chair, newel post, walker, helping hand, hold your mouth just right and suddenly he has me standing on the second floor.   
  On to the bathtub.  Hang one leg over the edge...hmmm...sounds easy, but how to get into that seated position?  First, I call for no-slip sox, since I'll only have one foot down.  Not to be found, so I put on my old Keens. Need a walker and a chair.  Got it.  Wash cloth and towel.  Got it. One foot in the tub, the other one hanging in mid-air off the floor.  Ease down into the water.  I'm now in the tub, wearing a shoe with the wrapped leg hanging over the side. (Take that 85 year old guy!)  Ooops.  Forgot soap and shampoo.  Oh well, the grandkids were the last in, so I have access to gingerbread foam soap and fairy berry shampoo.  At this point, I don't care if I do smell like Christmas dinner...wash on.  Getting out of the tub is another engineering feat, but hurray, it's done and the process didn't take more than an hour. 
  Now that the bath is over I look around the second floor carefully.  For a couple of days I said that I would like to go upstairs and Glenn kept saying "not a good idea".  Then he finally told me that upstairs has become his lair. Lair?  Nothing looks different. His lair, what does that mean? Oh, yes, nothing looks different.  It hasn't been invaded by medical stuff, ice holders, pillows and drinking cups. It's neat...definitely lair material.

Wednesday Travel Test

It's shiny red with an undertone of sparkles, black leather seat, front wheel drive--pretty and sleek.  Sounds like you'd find it at a car show.  No, it's right here in the family room.  It's a Knee Wheeler...the latest in my search for the perfect one legged get-around. 

  I've tried the traditional walker:  sturdy but slow going.  The physical therapist wouldn't even TALK to me about crutches..."nope, they're for young people" quickly putting me in my proper place which must be at the front door of a nursing home!  You heard about my wheel chair adventure on Tuesday.  So today it was time to get the Knee Wheeler into action.  You drive it like a scooter.  Knee up on the benk, tap the right foot on the floor and glide.  It's cute, it's fast, but it has it's disadvantages such as a  wide turning radius.  No three-point turns here.  When I get into a tight space, I have to wiggle back and forth like I'm stuck on an icy spot in a car. 

 Sometimes I try to lift it and turn it around one-handed, but mostly I do my favorite move "Oh Glenn, I need you!"   It's magic--make that call and he appears!  Unfortunately, he's beginning to immerse himself into his role as a care taker. Note that he now is walking around wearing a stethescope and carrying a thermometer.  If any of you come for a visit, beware!  He may take a health history before letting you in.