Movin' more...

Well, for those of you following along I am sorry for the large gap between posts. First let me assure you that all is well and I am progressing nicely. I have had three PT/OT sessions now since I have been out of the hospital and I am doing well. I have a lot of deep tissue tightness in my back and neck but the OT guy is working on that for me. I am thinking of going for a massage, but I am just not sure about it, being a massage virgin and all. It just sounds real relaxing. I have progressed rather well over the last couple weeks. As I get around the house I often do so without any aids, well that is if you don’t count the walls and furniture. I still have a lot of tightness in my leg muscles and I really feel it in the early morning and late evening. A good hot shower in the morning and sleep at night help out with the pain. My left shoulder and hand have been bothering me a bit the last several days. I just never seem to know what is going to bother me from one day to the next. I am trying to work as much as possible during the week and that is going rather well. We have several projects going on and the more I can play along the better for everyone. I am still not driving and that makes it much more difficult to get around, I have to rely on my loving wife and that puts a lot on her, but she has been awesome about getting me everywhere I need to be. I hope to be driving again soon; I will post it once I am back on the road. I got new glasses a couple days ago. It took me at least 45 minutes to pick out my new frames. I have been picking a standard metal frame from the Air Force for the last 12 years that all the choices had me going in circles. So, I now have my new nifty specs in both a regular and sun glass. I will get a pic soon and post it for all to see. I want to try and get a good shot because I want to make it my profile shot on all my sites that have a profile pic.

Well, I am sure there are a ton of things I could add in here but if I don’t finish this soon it may never get posted. I have been working on it for an hour now and this is all I have. I must say the Food Network has some good stuff on tonight. I love watching people cook food; wish I was able to make some of these things they make and show. I could really use some of it right about now. I lost about 20 lbs. in the hospital and could stand to bring it all back, 150 lbs. for a 6’1” guy is not the recommended weight. Well, I better be going for now. I will try to get back sooner the next time around. Until then… God bless!

Power of Prayer

Well, I have wanted to write for the last couple days and just have not really had the time or energy. However, today something happen that has made me want to find the time to make an entry even if it doesn’t turn out to be a very long one. On Sunday the sermon at church was on prayer and believing that God hears what it is we have to say, even if He does not answer us right away, or even ever. That lead me to think about all the people that I have heard from that said they are praying for me and they told friends and family about me and that their churches, or study groups, were also praying for me. I don’t think I can even come close to realizing how big the group of people praying for me is, but today I received a package in the mail and it gave me a bit of an idea. I received a package from a good friend of my Grandmother’s and she belongs to a group called The Busy Workers. One of the things that The Busy Workers do is knits prayer shawls. You may be asking yourself, “What is a prayer shawl?” Well, each person in the group knits on the shawl and as they do so they say a prayer for the person who is going to receive it. I can’t begin to explain how the receiving of that package made me feel and after looking at my progress over the last week I can testify to the power of each one of those prayers. Actually, it did not take until this week to realize the true power of prayer; I realized it at the beginning of this whole process when people first started praying for me. I do realize that about 80% of people recover completely from GBS and I feel that I have a good change of being in that group, and not just because of the speed of which we caught the disease, but because of all the prayer warriors out there on my behalf. I surprised so many therapists in the hospital with my progress and since I have been out of the hospital I have not seen a therapist and this evening I started walking around the house with a cane. God is good! And all His people said… Amen!

Home for a week

I have been home for just over a week now and things are going well. I have either been busy doing things or just to exhausted to post out here. During the week I have been busy working, mostly during the day. However, if I don’t get enough time in during the day I spend an hour or so in the evenings to make up for any lost time. I am trying to get a full days work in so I am no longer being hit with sick time. My evenings have been spent mostly relaxing on the couch not doing much of anything. That seems to be about all I have the energy to do by the time evening hits. Seeing as though I am trying to do as much as I can during the day and early evening I guess that is understandable. I have been trying to help out in the kitchen as much as possible, but with my lack of balance and minimal strength in my hands there is not a lot that I can do, and I really only last about 15 to 20 minutes puttering around whether in the kitchen or anywhere else in the house. I don’t start physical therapy until the 18th so that is my motivation for doing all I can around the house. I don’t want to just sit around and become a lump and lose everything I gained back in the hospital.

During this last week at home I have become much more aware of things around the house that are not very “handicap friendly”. I guess I will start with the outside of the house. We have a slopped driveway that is a bit of a challenge to get up in a wheelchair. I learned today that turning around backwards and pushing with me feet and legs is the easiest way to get up with the least amount of effort. When I am using my walker it is not too bad, I just have to take it a bit slower and I do on a flat surface. About the only other thing I can think of on the outside of he house is getting from the outside to inside. We don’t have a ramp, so Tricia has to do a wheelie and the lift the backend of the chair to get me in the house. We have only had to do this twice seeing as though I use my walker at least 90 percent of the time. As far as inside the house there are a few things that I have really noticed to be a bit of a bother. One of the things I deal with almost every time I get up and move around is the difference in floor surfaces. We go from carpet to linoleum and back again. Since I use my walker so much of the time, and I have wheels on the front of the walker, the small bump to get up on the carpet can cause big issues if I am not paying attention. Another placed I find it a bit more difficult is at the bathroom sink. With the cabinet under the sink I cannot roll my wheelchair right up to the sink, I find it much easier to roll up sideways and lean over the side of the chair when I brush my teeth, or do anything else. I don’t stand when I brush because the sink is so low when I stand that I would fall over when I brush my teeth because of my lack of balance. Finally for this post, and really the only other big item I can think of, is the shower. As you can see in the picture at the top of this post, I don’t have a lot of room in the shower. First all, getting into the shower I must be very careful not to fall when I am stepping in, one because of the step up and second because there is not a lot of room for my size 13 feet. Then getting out I have all the same issues only now things are wet and that adds a whole new set of challenges. So far we have had no issues and all has gone well.

Tricia is rather worried that I am going to hurt myself doing all the things I am doing around the house, but I keep reminding her that I can’t just sit around and I have to do my best to do things for myself. I also remind her that I am not going to do anything that is going to hurt me and that I will ask for help when I need it, and I thank her for being concerned for me and wanting to take care of me. I am very lucky to have the family that I have. The kids have been very good at helping me when I ask, and at times even when I don’t ask. Then there is my awesome wife. She has been through so much in the last couple months, not to mention the past year that she is due for a good long nap. If it where up to her I think it would be a several day, if not week or even month long nap, and I can completely understand. She has just been awesome…I love you baby!

Home...

Well, I am home!!! I spoke the anesthesiologist yesterday and just did not feel comfortable having my gallbladder removed at this time. I am going to wait till I am stronger and in better health before having any kind of surgery. So, after making that decision I was hoping I would be able to go home, but it was around 7 p.m. before all this was done and the nurses did not think the doctor would be in to write all the scripts that I would need to go home. So I figured I would be spending one more night at the hospital and come home today. It was at about a quarter after seven and out of nowhere the doctor appeared. It was like magic. We discussed what the surgeon and anesthesiologist said and then we discussed all the meds I needed to keep me going at home. Earlier in the afternoon my wheelchair, walker and 3-in-1 chair were all delivered to my room so all that was left to do was the nurse needed to complete all the discharge paperwork. At about 8 p.m. we headed out. Unfortunately Tricia had brought the truck because she was coming to pick up all my equipment that was delivered and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get in the truck since it is a bit higher than the car. But I was able get out of my wheelchair and step up and pull myself right in. Luckily the truck has handles all over the place that I could use it was a piece of cake, what progress in 3 and a half weeks.

Once we got home we put me in the wheelchair and rolled me up to the house. When we opened the door Chip came running out and had to take a second to realize what was going on. He had to figure out the wheelchair and who was in it. It was only seconds before he was up in my lap. Tricia wheeled me into the house and then I took control of the chair. It is a bit different rollin’ on the carpet but I was able to get around without a problem. I did find that the interior doors in our house are about a quarter inch wider than my wheelchair and walker, so I have to be real careful when going into any of the bedrooms. Oh, the door to our “toilet room” is to narrow for anything to fit through. So I use the doorknob and wall for support. Showering is not too bad. I took a nice hot shower this morning, and while things where a little tight it was still a nice shower in my own house. I plan on posting a picture on here later of my shower situation. One thing that made it easier is the new hand held shower head that my lovely wife installed all on her own before I came home from the hospital. It was such a great shower and I will be glad to be able to take shower whenever I want, well as long as I have someone around to make sure I don’t fall.

Sleeping last night what great! I was in my own bed and lying next to my wife with my dog at my feet. I slept great and Tricia even set an alarm to make sure I get the meds that I need at 6 a.m., because if anybody knows me they know I would not be awake at 6 a.m. on my own. We finally got up and moving around 10 a.m. and that is when I got my shower and ate breakfast. After Tricia was done getting ready for the day we headed out and I got a hair cut. It was not bad. I took the walker since the place we go is in a strip mall and parking is only a few steps from the door. After my hair cut we stopped by Walgreens to get a Diet Dew! After we got home I took a seat on the couch, just to make sure I didn’t overdo it. Tricia went to the store to get some things we need for the house and the kids went out to play. I had to promise not to get up or do anything stupid. So, here I sit typing away…

Home?

This is going to be a quick update; I just want to let everyone know what is going on. I will either be going home tomorrow or I will be admitted to another part of the hospital to have my gallbladder removed. I had an MRI done last week and they saw some issues in reference to the gallbladder but they did not feel it needed to come out at the moment. Then I had some pretty bad stomach pains on Tuesday and Wednesday but felt fine today. After talking to a doctor tonight he thinks I should talk to a surgeon and see what they think. So, in the morning I will be talking to a surgeon and if he thinks we are good to go I will be talking to an anesthesiologist to make sure we are safe to move forward. We want to make sure that nothing is going to cause a relapse or a huge setback. So, that is where we stand. I will provide an update when I can…