Random facts about Week 1 - Home Again!
How many times can you go to Walgreen's in one week? We're up to 5 times, I believe and we still had to go to a medical supply store and Pflugerville Pharmacy. We've also been to HEB 3X and Walmart. It takes a lot of supplies to "move" back into a house after a month in the hospital.
We have been blessed by 7 dinners, plus 2 to be put in the freezer for later. Our lawn was mown and edged. Amy came and washed our cars. One lovely surprise was when our friends who own Welcome Home Cleaning Services sent out a crew to do a thorough housecleaning for us. Thank-you so much, Frank and Maria.
Gary had his first outpatient PT on Wed. As usual, he "exceeded expectation". After the evaluation the therapist said that, based on his review of Gary's medical record, he didn't expect Gary to be anywhere near this level already. Of course the therapist mentioned the fact that Gary was "in such great shape before the surgery" several times, as being the main reason that he is progressing so quickly. I think that we all need to be learning something from this, but I have yet to start working out with the Bowflex. Gary, on the other hand, has rowed 3X this week for 15 min. He's doing 3 sets of 15 curls and dumbbell presses with 8 lb. weights and 3 sets of 15 on his deltoids with 5 lb. weights. He also does all of his other regular PT exercises, speech therapy and is playing the piano regularly to improve his dexterity. He mentioned slow walking on the treadmill and I threw a fit.
There haven't been any episodes of fainting, which was my one huge fear. Gary does have some dizzy spells in the morning if he stands up, so he stays in his wheelchair. Don't think for a minute that keeps him from getting things accomplished though. By the 2nd day home, he had entered all the receipts from the past month in the computer & checked the mail and bills. He told me after the 3rd morning of getting up and making his coffee that he could do that by himself (thank-you very much), plus he gets his own breakfast and lunch just like he always has. He decided that he wanted to make a chocolate topping for his ice cream, as well as a lemon curd. And he washed the dishes one night while I was showering, but he got in a lot of trouble for that one:).
During the afternoons, Gary uses his walker around the house and for the last two days on any outing we take: Dr. appt., PT, Walgreens, World Market and HEB. Did you know that you can actually grab a 40 lb. bag of potassium and get it into the bottom of the cart, supposedly holding onto your walker. while your wife panics. AND you can lift it out of the bottom of the cart and put it into the car, holding onto nothing, while your wife's heart rate speeds up considerably? He is doing a great job walking with his feet straight ahead. That is so different from even a week ago.
We've had several visitors this week and I'm so thankful for that. Ariana has stayed with us a few nights and she had a friend sleep over last night. We love having her here, but we're letting her work with her dad now to make future plans. (Praise God Richard is showing improvement.) My sweet parents are heading back down here on Tuesday and they will stay with Gary while I go and pick Alyssa up from Ballet Magnificat in MS. It was pretty traumatic for me to be at home without her at first, after all that has happened, but it's been wonderful to hear what a great time she's having. She loves dancing 32 hours a week, going to chapel, studying and hanging out with her small group. I am looking so forward to hearing all about her experiences.
Thanks for all your prayers and help. We'll continue to let you know how things are going. I think it's going to be exciting to see how God uses all of this in our lives. I know that we have all learned a lot of lessons. I'll be sharing more about that on my blog over the next few weeks.
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