Well, what a weekend! Monica was here with Lachlan on Saturday and Sunday, and Sensei ML brought both her boys, Mav and Nash on Sunday afternoon. It’s really great to hear kids’ giggles and laughs in this place. I can’t believe how good Lachlan is for a 9 month old. He didn’t cry once the whole time he was here. I guess I have to stop thinking of Monica as my little 15 year old training buddy as she is now this incredible mother.
Thanks to everybody who came to visit last weekend and this week. It was great to see you all. Grandpa Bob was here on Wednesday and did his normal wonderful job of looking after me. And Linda’s here on Thursday and she is typing this blog.
As far as therapy is going, I now do PT for an hour plus in the morning. They get me sitting up a lot and stretching out my back and moving and stretching my legs. In OT, they’re working my arms, my right arm in particular; and I am now curling 5 lbs. They are working really hard on my left arm and they tell me my left hand is moving more every day. It’s where my right arm was about 5-6 weeks ago.
I had lots of fun with my left leg. My foot got ran into a wall three times going for a shower, and then on Saturday we were all sitting in the lounge and an elderly gentleman, a stroke patient I believe, got out of his chair and ran right into my foot. Not only did it hurt, but I was also concerned that he may fall but he managed to stay upright. So needless to say, the old knee is still there. All the weights are going up on my right arm but today it’s a bit sore. I am also in the fitness program now and at 3 o’clock every afternoon I go to a fitness class and get to sit on the bike for 20 minutes, well the Motomed as they call it, but I get to pedal for 20 minutes. I was so good today I got an extra 5 minutes on the Motomed.
An interesting week started out on Monday with my flu shot in the morning. Hard OT and hard PT and then on Tuesday morning I left for Toronto at 8 am on a stretcher in one of those medi-vans to see my surgeon. So there was the driver, a paramedic, a nurse and Darcy and me on a stretcher. Thank God for Ativan. I had an appointment for an x-ray at 11 am and to see the surgeon at 12:30 pm. When we arrived, x-ray said they had no appointment for me and that they didn’t make appointments. Darcy visited the surgeon’s office and they said someone had called but we didn’t know what number they called and they certainly didn’t let Parkwood know. So I eventually did get my x-ray and did see the surgeon at around 1 o’clockish and the good news is that I can take my neck brace off. After the visit with the surgeon it was back in the van with some Ativan for the ride home. Thankfully, we missed the Toronto rush hour and we were back here about 4:15 pm in time for dinner and a shower at night.
Medication is very interesting. I am on a time release Hydromorphine and I had been getting 6 mg in the morning at 8 am and 9 mg at 8 pm, and I am allowed what they call a “break-through” every 2 hrs as needed which is 2 mg. I have been trying to wean myself off the break-through and only take them as necessary like after a very hard OT workout when everything seems to be hurting. I spoke to the doctor on Monday about my pain and they reduced my time release from 6 to 3 mg and from 9 to 3 mg. Last night at about 2 in the morning I had this very strange feeling with my whole body tingling and I was sweating and just generally feeling miserable. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. It could have been the combination of the trip to Toronto, the flu shot or a withdrawal from the Hydromorphine. I asked for 2 more mg of break-through and my sleeping pills kicked in and I managed to sleep through until 8 in the morning. We’ll see what happens tonight.
As mentioned previously in other blogs, I have bowel care every night which means I get to sit on a commode and I think my worst fear has happened, I think I am a bit constipated. I met with the dietician. It seems I need to drink 2.6 litres of fluid a day which I haven’t been doing, which I have started today. I think the ride to Toronto I probably drank less than a litre the whole day. So the dietician says I need to eat soluble fibre, which is oat fibre, and not wheat bran which is an insoluble fibre. So I am going to be looking for foods with lots of soluble fibre. It seems all the stool softeners and other meds they are giving me aren’t working. So I am going to try and go as naturally as possible. Oh yes, I get 30 ml of Milk of Magnesia every morning. It seems that all the pain pills and medication and the fact that I am not moving around slows my bowels down. I will see what happens tonight at about 8 pm. Maybe I should just get them to squeeze my head – perhaps that would help.
I will be losing my roommate next Tuesday, so perhaps they will move me to the window side of the room and I will have a beautiful view of London. I have learned a lot from my roommate about the issues of preparing a place to go. Darcy has been doing a great job in getting the right people to the house and we know what we have to do to make it accessible for me when I arrive home. We are looking at worst case scenario and that I will be in a wheelchair. Better to be prepared than not.
Talk at ya later..
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