Another night of vitals being taken. I had a better night's sleep, however. This day, the mosquito (the lab tech) came to draw blood at 4 AM!! He was very nice, but 4 AM? REALLY??? I know that he was only doing his job, and I don't even remember the poke, though he warned me. I guess if you are going to wake people up like that, you do your best to be good at what you do.
One, two, three, ZIP... the catheter was removed. That was at 7 AM. I had until 1 PM to be successful in the bathroom. I didn't want to find out what would happen if I wasn't successful. I was really pushing the fluids, so within an hour, I was ready to try. Piece of cake! Done with that test!
I had all of the early morning visits from Amanda, Dr. McEvoy with another courtesy visit (He really said that, yesterday, and today he asked again if there was ANYthing I needed...at all. That's nice to know that some doctors are just nice like that. No charge, just care.) and Dr. McMath.
Dr. McMath's visits are the ones I look forward to because he sees all of the reports, puts it all together and then lets me know how I'm doing. So far, so GREAT! Well, he didn't say it that way, but he really has been encouraging.
Then, there was breakfast and Mitch with Occupational Therapy. He talked me through putting on my right shoe (nothing changed with the left), and then coached me as I DID IT MYSELF! With the aid of the reacher and the long shoe horn, I was successful. Tying the shoe will have to be left up to Mark, or some other kind person, for awhile, anyway. Robert Church showed me that I WILL be able to do this by myself someday. Mitch left and I finished breakfast. The omelette was sort of cold, but does that really matter when I put my shoe on BY MYSELF?? :)
"Tammy from Physical Therapy" arrived. I remember Tammy because I had her 3 times in a row for therapy...AND for some of the things that she helped me do, or did for me. She helped me put on my "unmentionables" and my sweatpants! I had to do most of the work, but she helped when I couldn't quite get it finished. Thank you, Tammy! We went through the torture routine. I still was unable to "swing" my leg back in by myself, but I was able to get it out. The Hardest exercise was the last one...each time. Attempting to lift that right leg that is filled with 1 ton of lead bee-bees was no simple or fun task. Tammy was encouraging, though, when she said words to the effect, "Not bad, Cindy. You got your heal off the bed!" I just laughed! Then we went for a walk. It's getting easier, and I'm going farther. I don't trust that new prosthesis, yet. It's a matter of time and practice...and faith. Tammy took me to a stairwell and taught me how to "do the stairs." That all came back pretty easily, after all, I've been here before. Then, we went into a small sun room and we practiced getting in and out of "the van." "The van" was a chair that had a seat about the height of a van seat. So she talked me through everything I would need to know about that and I practiced a couple of times. Then, she took me back to my room.
Respiratory Therapy came to watch me breathe in the spirometer. I think that's what it's called. The exercise is a VERY CONTROLLED breathing in as you fill your lungs to 2500 mL. Sounds easy enough. It's not. Ten times every hour I'm awake. Thankfully, they didn't wake me from naps or from the night time "sleep" to get those exercises done.
This day, Mark brought his lunch and we ate together. I could get used to eating lunch with this guy! I showed off my sweatpants to Mark. I was really impressed with myself, can you tell?
Mark returned to work and at some point (I'm sorry I can't remember when), Sharon and Robert Church came to visit. It is nice to have personal friends who have gone through this before and can share the triumphs. They were both encouraging and our visit ended way too soon.
I waited all afternoon, and all night, actually, for Respiratory Therapy to return. I was told that they would come eventually, even if it was the middle of the night. And we have to PAY for this treatment? Well, RT never came, but I did keep working on my breathing. This whole adventure has been too long coming, and WAY too expensive (with or without insurance) to blow it by getting pneumonia!
At some point, "Tammy from Physical Therapy" came back. She took me through the torture routine again, with no more success than this morning. Then, she said, "Let's go for a walk." I usually went to the door and turned right. I don't know why. Tammy said, "You can go either direction you want to, but if you turn left, there's something I want to show you." I said, "I like surprises," and I turned left. There are 4 short halls that connect the two long halls where all of the patients' rooms are, and a plethora of other rooms. As we would come to one of these short halls, Tammy would say, keep going, keep going. We came to the end of the hall and she walked me into another sun room, but this was about twice the size of the one we used earlier. She sat me down in a rocking chair and said, I want you just to enjoy the sunshine for a little while. I have to go work with another patient, but I'll be back. Enjoy!" O, the Lord is good! His mercies are everlasting! The room was so bright, I could have used sunglasses, honest! The sun felt so good!! I tried to read the newspaper, but I mostly just sat with a huge grin on my face, squinting out at Findlay! When Tammy came back, maybe 20 minutes later, she asked how that was and I told her it was wonderful - Thank you for the treat! She said, "I just think sunshine is good for the soul," and she had a big smile on her face, too. :) She took me back to my room and said, "I'll see you once more in the morning." Yay!!
Later, I had dinner and no evening visitors, so I started this blog.
I really hope you are enjoying my adventure. I am long-winded. I'm just so thankful, it's hard to hold it in, so I decided to share it with you.
Thanks for reading.
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