Have I ever asked you why that first "d" is in Wednesday? I mean, nobody, except maybe me and Kristine, one of the therapists here, pronounces it. So why is it there?
Don't you think that as a society we ought to petition Funk & Wagnalls, Websters and the rest of the Dictionary Dudes to adios it?
It would be doing the English speaking world a favor should there ever be a "d" shortage. I mean, like we could prevent a "d" shortage should the threat of one ever come about, huh?
Anywho, as it stands right now I should be expelled from the rehab next Wednesday, if not before...although the "not before" is outa my hands.
T'will be nice to get home, be home, and do home things like sleep in my own bed.
I know I have been down this path a coupla times before, but I believe this trip home is gonna stick.
I had that splendid check-up at the University of Colorado Hospital on Monday, I have been an exemplary and patient patient here to the Fort Collins Health Care Center, a.k.a. rehab, have a new found respect for diet and exercise which I've decided to keep up with when I leave here...note that I didn't say, "intend to keep up with" because the road to hell is paved with good intentions and I really don't wanna go that route.
I'm feelin' pretty good and am awaitin' my Friend Doug to come and take me to one of those A & A meetin's where, if just all by myself I can respectfully celebrate its 76th year of existence.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Bad day...Good day
This not so good picture is my, "I've had a not so good day".
I went to Denver to the nUniversity Hospital for my monthly checkup which went almost extremely well.
The almost is divided up into two things...or maybe more, but I don't remember any more than two at present.
#1 I got a great check up in Denver, even if I didn't see Dr. Myint in person. The Physician Assistant, who gave me her name and I knew her from my stays in the hospital down there butn Chemo Brain is kicking in and I can't remember her name, went over my blood work and most of it was excellent. The Myeloma markers...whatever they are, but it doesn't matter...arre right where they hoped they would be and they are surprised that they are still "in check" because I haven't had any chemo for a while. They would like to get me back on chemo, but they can't/won't because my platelet level isn't where it should be. Normal platelet level is 140 and today mine was 60, It's bounced around a bunceh. A couple of weeks ago it was 85. When I was in the hospital a couple of months ago it was toying with being in the twenties!
I asked her what I could do or eat to bring my platelet level up and she told me something in laymen terms that I could understand(!). Platelets are made by bone marrow and because I've had so much going on since Thanksgiving, or so, my body had a decision to make...fight what was going on, Organizing Pneumonia, C-diff, head healing from falling down, fevers, and so my bone marrow, still reeling from the transplant, could have worked on "building" platelets but it chose to fight whatever was going on, or a combination thereof.
So, that's why the emphasis on getting me healthy.
#2 I was gone this afternoon when it came time to decide what I wanted for dinner. Times before when I did that, whatever was served to me (I choose to eat in my broom...to eat in the dininng roommis just too depressing) was palatable +. The food here has been exceptional as compared to airplanem or typical hospital food.
Anywho, tonight they brought the bowl of tomato soup, potato chips and four 1/2 slices of bread that is in the bad picture above.
I called Jimmy John's across the street and had them deliver a Tuna Sub Sandwich.
The good part of the day was the excellent check up, less the platelets and that I got to drive myself to and from Denver!
I'll get to adios here when the C-diff is gone. One of the nurses here told me about an over the counter that would help in making the C-diff go away, I'm taking the prescribed meds to make it go awy, and I'm just wishing it to go away.
I think I'll be home soon!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
167.8
When I was diagnosed March before last I weighed 238...gulp (I mean that figuratively, like when you get surprised or something.)
Since somewhere in the 70s I've struggled with my weight.
They weigh m,e every day here at the rehad...Fort Collins Health Care Centre...and this morning I clocked in @ 167.8!
Think I couldd/should go on Late night TV and spew Cancer and its complications as a weight loss program and get paid for it?
I could sell bottles of Cancer pills for $29.95 for a months supply and for only 3 EZ Payments of $9.8333333333333333333333333 but if they call in the next 17 seconds we'd knock off one payment and double the shipping and handling of $7.95!
I could use Photoshop to make me look even heavier than I was and to look like I've muscleized (I wish). I could rent a Hummer and a really cool boat to flash around in the background.
Oh,yeah...I'd need a dozen or so bikini clad chicks to be swarming around, most of them on their feet.
Don't know what song to be playing in the background.
Any ideas?
And somehow ignore what the cancer journey entails and that even if you go into so-called remission, depending on the type of cancer you have it may always have cells lurking in your body. And that the complications are sometimes way more troublesome than the cancer is/was.
Which is what I'm dealing with now and what has caused the weight loss.
Loosing the weight that I have is certainly by circumstance and not by virtue.
I love my PTs and my OTs and they kick my ass sometimes during therapy, but what has caused my current weight dive, 174 last week to the 167.8 of today is the C-diff has returned.
So, it is adding more time to my stay here at the Rehab Hilton.
I'll get outa here and home someday.
The first time I contracted C-diff I was in the hospital and it took a good monyh or so to adios and those who came to visit me, including Drs. and nurses had to put on paper hazmat suits. The second time was in my second rehab and they made people gown up if they wanted to, but nobody did and here they just want to emphasize serious hand-washing.
So, how long is it (the above two colored c-diff words are links) gonna extend my stay here?
Dunno.
Ain't gonna ask.
Now, the paradox if you will.
Yesterday I went to my Pulminologist who had reviewed both my most recent chest x-ray and catscan and declared that the chest x-ray was the best since I first saw him about three years ago and the catscan showed no abnormalities in my lungs, other than the mystery mass which has been biopsied non-malignant!
I didn't know all this was included in the Adventure I wanted this to be!
Since somewhere in the 70s I've struggled with my weight.
They weigh m,e every day here at the rehad...Fort Collins Health Care Centre...and this morning I clocked in @ 167.8!
Think I couldd/should go on Late night TV and spew Cancer and its complications as a weight loss program and get paid for it?
I could sell bottles of Cancer pills for $29.95 for a months supply and for only 3 EZ Payments of $9.8333333333333333333333333 but if they call in the next 17 seconds we'd knock off one payment and double the shipping and handling of $7.95!
I could use Photoshop to make me look even heavier than I was and to look like I've muscleized (I wish). I could rent a Hummer and a really cool boat to flash around in the background.
Oh,yeah...I'd need a dozen or so bikini clad chicks to be swarming around, most of them on their feet.
Don't know what song to be playing in the background.
Any ideas?
And somehow ignore what the cancer journey entails and that even if you go into so-called remission, depending on the type of cancer you have it may always have cells lurking in your body. And that the complications are sometimes way more troublesome than the cancer is/was.
Which is what I'm dealing with now and what has caused the weight loss.
Loosing the weight that I have is certainly by circumstance and not by virtue.
I love my PTs and my OTs and they kick my ass sometimes during therapy, but what has caused my current weight dive, 174 last week to the 167.8 of today is the C-diff has returned.
So, it is adding more time to my stay here at the Rehab Hilton.
I'll get outa here and home someday.
The first time I contracted C-diff I was in the hospital and it took a good monyh or so to adios and those who came to visit me, including Drs. and nurses had to put on paper hazmat suits. The second time was in my second rehab and they made people gown up if they wanted to, but nobody did and here they just want to emphasize serious hand-washing.
So, how long is it (the above two colored c-diff words are links) gonna extend my stay here?
Dunno.
Ain't gonna ask.
Now, the paradox if you will.
Yesterday I went to my Pulminologist who had reviewed both my most recent chest x-ray and catscan and declared that the chest x-ray was the best since I first saw him about three years ago and the catscan showed no abnormalities in my lungs, other than the mystery mass which has been biopsied non-malignant!
I didn't know all this was included in the Adventure I wanted this to be!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Down in the dumps?
I woke up this morning around 5:30 cuz my ribs were just killin' me. I've had broken ribs and that's what they feel like. All of the crud symptoms are gone except the nagging cough, and it is beyond it's "productive (hacking up "luggies") but it is still deep and it hurts ...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
But there was something else bugging me.
As I lay there flat on my back, the only position where there is no rib pain, and pondered, things started to fall into place in my fontal lobe...
What's better, "A bottle in front of me", or "a frontal loboltomy?"
Well, now it is two days after the waking up incident and I feel a little better...emphasis on "little".
I've talked to some friends about it and that has helped some, but it doesn't negate the fact that I've been dealing with the cancer and now the complications.
This is really gonna sound like whining, and it is, but I'm really tired and frustrated with not having a say in my life. I'm not talking about my caregivers and the people who have worked pretty damn hard to keep me alive.
I'm angry with the Multiple Myeloma, the Organized Pnuemonia, having a compromized immune system and all that goes with that.
Those are the things that prevent me from having a say in what's going on in my life. Since March 17 of last year I've been uprooted from my home and my job, spent more time in hospitals and now rehab that I have at either RE/MAX Advanced or in my own bed.
That's like over a year!
That's a long time.
My wishes for making all his an Adventure and not wanting it to go to waste are still there.
An adventure it has been and I'm not tooooo sre what not wanting it to go to waste means.
Just had my lunch and then went to brosh my teeth and I missed Aunt Bea explaining how she put a dent in the car she ain' bought yet...
Anywo, that's a long time.
Well. last night my Friend Griff stopped by. And what a surprise as he lives on the Olympic Pennisula in Washington.
He didn't stay long, but his words of wisdom, as usual, made not only a huge amount of sense but made me feel good as they do when I choose to ask and then listen.
The one point he drove home was that there is nothing I can do to change what has happened in the past and some...or many...of the things that are going to happen in the future. There are things that are entirely out of my control and there's one of two ways that I can react abut what has happened and what will happen. I can either be really pissed off and let the Dark Side rule how I think and act and caue me to become uncommunicable and depressed on both the inside and out. It'll also afect those who care for me and who want the best for me including geting well.
Or.......................
I can accept the fact that there is absolutely nothing I can do to change the past or many things, but not all, in the future. To remember that people who say, "I gusss it's just meant to be" or "Everything happens for a reason" are just using cliches to try and soften te unexplainable and that I should suggest to them they read, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushnner."
He went on to tell me cliches are good for explaining physical laws, like gravity but have no bearing when it comes to the spiritual and that we are not human beings having spiritual experiences now and then but rather we are spiritual beings frequently enduring human experiences.
And in a brief minute or to he made me realize the obvious...that, yes it's been over a year but there is a light at the end of the tunnel where once there was none.
...and now it's 3 days since that wake up thing...
It's Sunday and I slept in and I have no clue how that happened. I don't remember them coming in at 6:00am to wake me up and give me meds and take my vitals. I don't remember them bringing my breakfast and setting it on my tray. But "worst" of all, I don't remember Bruce and Bonnie being here to take me to church...it's not their job to wake me up, I just don't remember them being here...and for not being ready I owe them a huge apology.
Soooooo, it's Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, no scheduled therapy although I'll probably do some laps around the facility, but it's such a pain in the derriere to lug around the portable oxygen. I can hardly wait for the cough and crud to go away so my lungs will get back to normal and I won't have to tote the oxygen around and I can get back on track for gettin' outa here.
Matt's comin' up for "lupper".
If "brunch" is the term for a meal that is twixt the traditional times of breakfast and lunch, what is the apolitical correct term for a meal that happens twixt lunch and supper?
But there was something else bugging me.
As I lay there flat on my back, the only position where there is no rib pain, and pondered, things started to fall into place in my fontal lobe...
What's better, "A bottle in front of me", or "a frontal loboltomy?"
Well, now it is two days after the waking up incident and I feel a little better...emphasis on "little".
I've talked to some friends about it and that has helped some, but it doesn't negate the fact that I've been dealing with the cancer and now the complications.
This is really gonna sound like whining, and it is, but I'm really tired and frustrated with not having a say in my life. I'm not talking about my caregivers and the people who have worked pretty damn hard to keep me alive.
I'm angry with the Multiple Myeloma, the Organized Pnuemonia, having a compromized immune system and all that goes with that.
Those are the things that prevent me from having a say in what's going on in my life. Since March 17 of last year I've been uprooted from my home and my job, spent more time in hospitals and now rehab that I have at either RE/MAX Advanced or in my own bed.
That's like over a year!
That's a long time.
My wishes for making all his an Adventure and not wanting it to go to waste are still there.
An adventure it has been and I'm not tooooo sre what not wanting it to go to waste means.
Just had my lunch and then went to brosh my teeth and I missed Aunt Bea explaining how she put a dent in the car she ain' bought yet...
Anywo, that's a long time.
Well. last night my Friend Griff stopped by. And what a surprise as he lives on the Olympic Pennisula in Washington.
He didn't stay long, but his words of wisdom, as usual, made not only a huge amount of sense but made me feel good as they do when I choose to ask and then listen.
The one point he drove home was that there is nothing I can do to change what has happened in the past and some...or many...of the things that are going to happen in the future. There are things that are entirely out of my control and there's one of two ways that I can react abut what has happened and what will happen. I can either be really pissed off and let the Dark Side rule how I think and act and caue me to become uncommunicable and depressed on both the inside and out. It'll also afect those who care for me and who want the best for me including geting well.
Or.......................
I can accept the fact that there is absolutely nothing I can do to change the past or many things, but not all, in the future. To remember that people who say, "I gusss it's just meant to be" or "Everything happens for a reason" are just using cliches to try and soften te unexplainable and that I should suggest to them they read, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushnner."
He went on to tell me cliches are good for explaining physical laws, like gravity but have no bearing when it comes to the spiritual and that we are not human beings having spiritual experiences now and then but rather we are spiritual beings frequently enduring human experiences.
And in a brief minute or to he made me realize the obvious...that, yes it's been over a year but there is a light at the end of the tunnel where once there was none.
...and now it's 3 days since that wake up thing...
It's Sunday and I slept in and I have no clue how that happened. I don't remember them coming in at 6:00am to wake me up and give me meds and take my vitals. I don't remember them bringing my breakfast and setting it on my tray. But "worst" of all, I don't remember Bruce and Bonnie being here to take me to church...it's not their job to wake me up, I just don't remember them being here...and for not being ready I owe them a huge apology.
Soooooo, it's Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, no scheduled therapy although I'll probably do some laps around the facility, but it's such a pain in the derriere to lug around the portable oxygen. I can hardly wait for the cough and crud to go away so my lungs will get back to normal and I won't have to tote the oxygen around and I can get back on track for gettin' outa here.
Matt's comin' up for "lupper".
If "brunch" is the term for a meal that is twixt the traditional times of breakfast and lunch, what is the apolitical correct term for a meal that happens twixt lunch and supper?
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
How come nobody will listen to me?
Today the Occupational Therapy department did a Safety evaluation of my house which is part of the discharge process. While there the gal that did it checked my oxygen saturation level and freaked because it was 81%.
For normal people, 90% is the benchmark, for people like me who have COPD, a.k.a. emphysema, we hang out in the mid 80%s.
Last Saturday I began to feel shitty and wound up staying in bed all day Sunday and developed a nagging cough.
Monday my Dr. said I was just coming down with the “crud” that’s going around and put me back on 1.5 liters (not much) of oxygen o help with my breathing.
Well, this afternoon everybody except me panicked at the 81% after I got back from the evaluation and said that I needed to go to the hospital and get checked out.
I cried, “Bullshit” and thought I had made my point.
In the meantime Bert stopped by for a visit when all of a sudden there are 3 paramedics and a gurney trying to load me up and take me to the hospital…which is one block away!
Well, a verbal war broke out. No way was I going to endorse a $3,000 1 block ride in an ambulance but I thought the whole thing a waste of time.
I wound up refusing the opportunity to go lights and siren for one block but agreed to go to the hospital to get checked out.
Bert drove me over, stayed for a bit…it’s about 4:00… and I wound up having a catscan, blood work and tests (for the third day in a row at the hospital) and with all the waiting involved it was pushing 9:00 before the med-brains at the hospital decided there was nothing the matter with me except the vestiges of the crud.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, by the time the rehab got a wheelchair over to the hospital, better than an ambulance, because they wouldn’t let me walk it was 10:00ish before I got “home”.
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.
For normal people, 90% is the benchmark, for people like me who have COPD, a.k.a. emphysema, we hang out in the mid 80%s.
Last Saturday I began to feel shitty and wound up staying in bed all day Sunday and developed a nagging cough.
Monday my Dr. said I was just coming down with the “crud” that’s going around and put me back on 1.5 liters (not much) of oxygen o help with my breathing.
Well, this afternoon everybody except me panicked at the 81% after I got back from the evaluation and said that I needed to go to the hospital and get checked out.
I cried, “Bullshit” and thought I had made my point.
In the meantime Bert stopped by for a visit when all of a sudden there are 3 paramedics and a gurney trying to load me up and take me to the hospital…which is one block away!
Well, a verbal war broke out. No way was I going to endorse a $3,000 1 block ride in an ambulance but I thought the whole thing a waste of time.
I wound up refusing the opportunity to go lights and siren for one block but agreed to go to the hospital to get checked out.
Bert drove me over, stayed for a bit…it’s about 4:00… and I wound up having a catscan, blood work and tests (for the third day in a row at the hospital) and with all the waiting involved it was pushing 9:00 before the med-brains at the hospital decided there was nothing the matter with me except the vestiges of the crud.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, by the time the rehab got a wheelchair over to the hospital, better than an ambulance, because they wouldn’t let me walk it was 10:00ish before I got “home”.
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Compromised immune system...
Last Friday I began to feel like maybe I was catching something and Saturday morning I knew I had.
Headache, low grade fever (100ish), achy joints ...not achy breaky heart..., nagging cough and no energy.
I had planned on walking both Saturday and Sunday for exercise, but all the exercise I got was gettin' up and goin' to the "powder room".
Today, Monday, came and I found myself being wheelchaired over to the hospital...like one block away. That terrified me because it seems like everytime I go there, be it for x-rays or whatever I get captured and wind up inpatient for a month or so.
Wellst, I had a chest x-ray and blood work...and then they wouldn't let me go until everything had been reviewed by some Doctors.
It was determined that I probably just had acquired the crud that's going around.
But I was sweatin' it waiting for those Docs to look over the x-rays and the blood work.
And speaking of blood work, implanted in my upper left chest is something that's been called a Hickman, but I refer to it as a Tri-fecta because it has three lines sticking out which have been variously usedd for chemo, blood draws, transfusions, and administration of a lot of other "stuff". Then implanted in my upper right chest is a Super Port which is used for much of the same things as the Tri-fecta but not nearly as often. I've had both of them for over a year, yet sometimes, like today, "they" decide "they" need to poke me with needles for blood draws.
Today they had to poke around both arms to draw blood and like a good trooper I just grinned and beared it.
They, different than "they", just came in and took my vitals...blood pressure 85/56 (Wow, for a guy with hugh blood pressure that's really low!), Oxygen saturation 91% (It's only been recently that I have cosistentl been over the 90% mark which is the benchmark, I've got COPD on top of everything else and for years my Oxygen saturation hung around the mid-80s, pulse 60 and respirations 16.
So, other than an upside down spike in BP, I'm doing ok vitals wise.
I'm still thinkin' I'll be outa here within the next couple of weeks, and the only thing that cocerns me is that de to the drugs and steroids I've been made a temporary diabetic and get my blood sugar level checked about 5 times a day followed by an insulin shot.
I haven't asked about that, i.e. what I'm gonna do about that when I leave here because that might be construed as my beginning to request leaving when I've committed to staying until I'm told by some powers who know more than I do what's best for me.
I titled this post "Compromised immune system" because that's what I have. Will I always be compromised?
Dunno.
Wonderin' though if I oughta by stock in "Wellbourne" and use one every time I go out and am around people.
Does that stuff work?
Headache, low grade fever (100ish), achy joints ...not achy breaky heart..., nagging cough and no energy.
I had planned on walking both Saturday and Sunday for exercise, but all the exercise I got was gettin' up and goin' to the "powder room".
Today, Monday, came and I found myself being wheelchaired over to the hospital...like one block away. That terrified me because it seems like everytime I go there, be it for x-rays or whatever I get captured and wind up inpatient for a month or so.
Wellst, I had a chest x-ray and blood work...and then they wouldn't let me go until everything had been reviewed by some Doctors.
It was determined that I probably just had acquired the crud that's going around.
But I was sweatin' it waiting for those Docs to look over the x-rays and the blood work.
And speaking of blood work, implanted in my upper left chest is something that's been called a Hickman, but I refer to it as a Tri-fecta because it has three lines sticking out which have been variously usedd for chemo, blood draws, transfusions, and administration of a lot of other "stuff". Then implanted in my upper right chest is a Super Port which is used for much of the same things as the Tri-fecta but not nearly as often. I've had both of them for over a year, yet sometimes, like today, "they" decide "they" need to poke me with needles for blood draws.
Today they had to poke around both arms to draw blood and like a good trooper I just grinned and beared it.
They, different than "they", just came in and took my vitals...blood pressure 85/56 (Wow, for a guy with hugh blood pressure that's really low!), Oxygen saturation 91% (It's only been recently that I have cosistentl been over the 90% mark which is the benchmark, I've got COPD on top of everything else and for years my Oxygen saturation hung around the mid-80s, pulse 60 and respirations 16.
So, other than an upside down spike in BP, I'm doing ok vitals wise.
I'm still thinkin' I'll be outa here within the next couple of weeks, and the only thing that cocerns me is that de to the drugs and steroids I've been made a temporary diabetic and get my blood sugar level checked about 5 times a day followed by an insulin shot.
I haven't asked about that, i.e. what I'm gonna do about that when I leave here because that might be construed as my beginning to request leaving when I've committed to staying until I'm told by some powers who know more than I do what's best for me.
I titled this post "Compromised immune system" because that's what I have. Will I always be compromised?
Dunno.
Wonderin' though if I oughta by stock in "Wellbourne" and use one every time I go out and am around people.
Does that stuff work?
Friday, May 20, 2011
Home Safety Evaluation...
Howdy,
I hate motorcycle, car and computer problems equally.
I've had computer issues for a few days that required I surrender my computer to my local computer guru Max for computer regeneration.
Last issue I had, my brother in Portland was able to access my computer remotely and he made te issue it was having all more better.
Anywho, that's why I've been cyber-MIA for a few days.
So, what's new you ask?
Well, a Home Safety Evaluation by the Rehab Occupatioal Therapy dept. has been sheduled for next Wednesday.
That's where they come over to the house and see how safe it is...
The last Rehab I was in did the same thing so I know what needs to be done, like a grab bar in the shower, a taller toilet and not so many scatter rugs.
nywho, the Home Safety Evaluation is being referred to as the first step in Discharge Planning.
I am not saying a word, but my hopes are I'm outa here in a week or 10 days.
I'm doing well in both Occupational and Physical Therapy and it has showed itelf in my strength and stamina.
There is an internal route within the facility that constitutes a 400 foot "lap". Initially, with my walker...after I was strong enough to stand and use it... I was able to do one lap.
Last Monday I was given permission to lean my walker up against the wall and walk on my own.
I had a goal of first walking 14 laps with the walker...which would be appx. a mile...and then 14 laps without the walker.
Well, once they told ne I didn't need my walker I abandoned the 14 lap thing using the walker (I was up to 8 or 9 I think).
I told myself I'd start with one lap walkerless but I/it felt so good that I did three!
Yesterday I did 10 laps, with no break and today I did 14 laps, but with two breaks.
I'm doing my "marathon" lapping after I get up in the morning and before breakfast and therapy, which runs from 9:00-12:00.then I'll put in a few laps on my own in the afternoon.
And BTW, I'm off the oxygen since Friday (the 13th).
So it feels good to be returning to normal, whatever that is!
I'm still off chemo, primarily because my platelet level is still low. 140 (remember I don't understand the Medical communities numbering system) is normal and I'm hovering around 75-80...which is a damn site better than when I got down to 18 when I was in the hospital!
I went to see the the lung biopsy Doc a couple of days ago, and the mass that is in my right lung is still there, but the good news is that it is not malignant. They don't know what it is, or why its there, but it's part of the whole Organizing Pnuemonia gig. They don't seem terribly concerned about it, so neither am I.
I go to see my pulmonary Doc in a week or so and I'll learn more about it then.
My nose is running and I'm out of tissues, so we'll talk at you later.
I hate motorcycle, car and computer problems equally.
I've had computer issues for a few days that required I surrender my computer to my local computer guru Max for computer regeneration.
Last issue I had, my brother in Portland was able to access my computer remotely and he made te issue it was having all more better.
Anywho, that's why I've been cyber-MIA for a few days.
So, what's new you ask?
Well, a Home Safety Evaluation by the Rehab Occupatioal Therapy dept. has been sheduled for next Wednesday.
That's where they come over to the house and see how safe it is...
The last Rehab I was in did the same thing so I know what needs to be done, like a grab bar in the shower, a taller toilet and not so many scatter rugs.
nywho, the Home Safety Evaluation is being referred to as the first step in Discharge Planning.
I am not saying a word, but my hopes are I'm outa here in a week or 10 days.
I'm doing well in both Occupational and Physical Therapy and it has showed itelf in my strength and stamina.
There is an internal route within the facility that constitutes a 400 foot "lap". Initially, with my walker...after I was strong enough to stand and use it... I was able to do one lap.
Last Monday I was given permission to lean my walker up against the wall and walk on my own.
I had a goal of first walking 14 laps with the walker...which would be appx. a mile...and then 14 laps without the walker.
Well, once they told ne I didn't need my walker I abandoned the 14 lap thing using the walker (I was up to 8 or 9 I think).
I told myself I'd start with one lap walkerless but I/it felt so good that I did three!
Yesterday I did 10 laps, with no break and today I did 14 laps, but with two breaks.
I'm doing my "marathon" lapping after I get up in the morning and before breakfast and therapy, which runs from 9:00-12:00.then I'll put in a few laps on my own in the afternoon.
And BTW, I'm off the oxygen since Friday (the 13th).
So it feels good to be returning to normal, whatever that is!
I'm still off chemo, primarily because my platelet level is still low. 140 (remember I don't understand the Medical communities numbering system) is normal and I'm hovering around 75-80...which is a damn site better than when I got down to 18 when I was in the hospital!
I went to see the the lung biopsy Doc a couple of days ago, and the mass that is in my right lung is still there, but the good news is that it is not malignant. They don't know what it is, or why its there, but it's part of the whole Organizing Pnuemonia gig. They don't seem terribly concerned about it, so neither am I.
I go to see my pulmonary Doc in a week or so and I'll learn more about it then.
My nose is running and I'm out of tissues, so we'll talk at you later.
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