Is it really July??

Monday I got up and took Robby for a short cruise before my appointment with Dr. Hurray. I was practically on pins and needles wanting to find out how my pressure sore is doing, he has been keeping it covered for a week. Both Teresa and Dr. Hurray had a very surprised, happy look on their face when they unveiled it. That was all I needed to see, it's just a matter of time now. After my appointment we went to Gail's bakery in Capitola, I have been here twice now  and each time the food was AWESOME. This time I had the vegetable polenta  casserole and garlic bread. After lunch Teresa and I cruised around the little shopping center, the stores were really small but everybody was really nice and accommodating… I personally think it's because I have such an adorable dog that everybody wants to talk to. Robby gets so animated when people talk to him. Teresa had a facial appointment so I cruised down to Capitola Village and Capitola beach. They have the cutest shops there but just like the little shopping center they were really small and some of them had steps to get in. The sidewalks were really thin and the streets were really narrow so I couldn't go in the streets like they do in Santa Cruz. Capitola is not a very wheelchair friendly place but it sure is beautiful and they have some really cool stuff, I will definitely go back. After Teresa's appointment I met her at the end of the beach walkway and she showed me the E. Cliff Dr., that's what I'm going to be cruising around next time.

Tuesday I had an appointment to get a manicure and my hair trimmed but my morning care took way too long so I rescheduled for Wednesday. Teresa came over and waxed my face and gave me a nice long hot bath, it felt so good and I slept great.

Wednesday I took Robby for a cruise and then went to sunshine Villa to get a manicure and to get my hair trimmed. It's always really nice visiting with Claudia, she is such a sweet lady. Robby and I cruised around the boardwalk and to the end of the wharf and back, I was surprised how crowded everything was but it is summer. I came back and Teresa and I met with an accountant to help me pay my bills, I have been wanting to find one for a long time.  She was looking around at my painted windows, I have my windows painted for all of the holidays, and she said how beautiful they looked and asked who did them. I told her I saw a lady painting the windows at Trader Joe's and she said Melissa? Apparently she also is an accountant for Melissa… it really is a small world. I met this lady while I was having my hair colored at Claudio salon in sunshine Villa. For breakfast I had some watermelon and for dinner I had some mustard chicken, some spinach and some zucchini.

Thursday turned out to be a great day. The weather was beautiful and Robby and I got to cruise around a lot not only on our regular cruise but down to my favorite nursery to identify a find that I had. They not only identified It but had some in their other store so I will be able to get it on Thursday, I'm so excited. After that I had an appointment with the dermatologist to see if I am in any danger from all these weird moles, skin tags and barnacles all over my face and body. He froze a bunch of stuff off and punched out one questionable one in my shoulder and said everything else looked great. We stopped by Charlie Hong Kong's then I got my usual pad Thai noodles with garlic tofu, I can never get enough that stuff. I was looking forward to taking a nice long hot bath  but everything that he froze off started burning really bad on the way home  so I thought I had better wait. For breakfast I had some watermelon, mustard chicken, spinach and quinoa.

Friday was a long personal care day and my shoulders were still burning from where they froze all of those barnacles off so I didn't really want to wear any more clothing than I had to so I just stayed in bed. I ate the rest of my pad Thai noodles with garlic tofu entries as steamed vegetables I decided I wanted a burger for dinner so we called this place up the street that has the most amazing and the weirdest burgers ever because they deliver, apparently they don't deliver on Friday so Tom went up and got them. I have an Ahi burger  and onion rings and it was AWESOME. I usually try to take a picture to share it but I eat most of it by the time I remembered. Teresa gave Robby a bath, it's always funny to hear those 2 in their when she gives him a bath because she is trying to stay dry and he is trying to get her wet.

Saturday turned out to be a really great day. I thought it was going to be really warm outside but it was perfect. Robby and I cruise through the lagoon and over to the wharf when I ran into Connie and Yara, Marvs wife and service animal. I was going to stop and watch everybody at the day on the beach but when I saw that Marv was there I decided to go and say hello. Day on the beach was founded by a guy named Foster Anderson, I met him a couple of times and what a great guy he is. He does adventures and outings for families with disabled people in them, they are always doing something. Once a year they have a day on the beach and I have missed everyone so far because of our support groups but this year I went. There is always so many people there, so much food and drinks and live bands. I am really glad I went because I do not only got to talk to Marv and Connie but a guy that used to go to the support groups many years ago named Greg, I haven't seen him for years and he said that he has a little girl now and he looked really great. I also ran into a guy that I met while cruising along the levee named Bob, I didn't recognize him because he wasn't on his and cycle bike. Everybody was having such a great time and was such a awesome event but it started getting really warm and I needed to get home. I got home just as Teresa was getting here so she put me to bed and somehow in the process lost an earring, she looked around but couldn't find it… she said she had just gotten them today.

  Sunday morning I took a nice long hot bath and got up around noon to take Robby for a cruise. It was way too cold and way too crowded so we cruised around for only about 2 hours and decided to come back and call it a day, really hate being outside when it's really cold and especially when the day before was so nice and warm.

Monday I got up and took Robby for a cruise before my appointment up at Stanford. We ended up being about a half an hour late because one lane of Highway 17 was closed from about Summit Road to Los Gatos because they were changing a couple of links in the fence by Los Gatos it looked like, we couldn't believe it. They should be doing all of this on weekends? We got there and found Lisa and they did a bunch of that routine research stuff that I remember from years ago. Lisa is going to send me home with an exercise program but my pinch grip wasn't strong enough  so we need to find some exercises to strengthen my pinch grip, I will ask Andrei when I see him tomorrow for my wheelchair evaluation… he is an OT and will know exactly what will help. On the way home Teresa happened to look down at the gas gauge and it was flashing 0, I don't think that's a good sign? I have found with this new  van that is really hard to find a place that sells diesel gas. The 1st 4 or 5 places that we hit didn't and we were getting really nervous, we were thinking about just parking it and calling AAA. We looked it up on the telephone and Internet and finally found a place and made it just in time. We didn't leave Stanford until 6 PM, Susan was supposed to be at my house at 6 PM to give me a massage. I called her and told her and she said that she had already found childcare for the evening so she would just cruise around and meet us there when we got there, I love how flexible she is. We finally made it home about 7:30 PM and Robby was starving, we forgot to bring his food and he was supposed to eat at 4 PM. The massage felt really good but by the time Teresa was able to leave she was exhausted and it was 10:30 PM.

Tuesday was another busy day. I took Robby for a cruise and then Teresa came by and to me into my wheelchair of valuation appointment with Andrei and Eric at Dominican rehab. I'm really excited about the chair that I'm getting because it is fully loaded, headlights and tail lights… even turn signals, tiedowns already installed in the chair, the feet lift up independently in the back lays down independently, and also has the tilt and they're going to put in a 12 V plug so I can plug in my electric throw. I remember when I got the chair that I  have now it took me about 6 months to get in it because I was so used to my other chair it just seemed weird. I don't think this one is going to be as hard to get used to, except learning all the controls all over again. Teresa brought me home and I rested for a bit and then I had a dentist appointment, just a cleaning. I was really excited because the last time I was there she told me about this water/air flossing machine and I got it and I have been using it, it just makes your mouth feels so clean afterward. She said there was definitely a difference and to keep using it and next time there will be a bigger difference, I think she just wanted to make sure I kept using it. It was always really hard to get my caregivers to floss my teeth because they were afraid it would hurt me or cut my gums. I came home and Heather cooked me this awesome meal, scallops, shrimp, oyster mushrooms and arugula with red quinoa and roasted brussels sprouts.  It tasted so good, I haven't had a great meal like that in a long time.

 Wednesday I thought it was going to be really cold so I wore a thin thermal shirt underneath my shirt, it turned out to be a really nice day.  I cruised Robby around the lagoon and then came back and Teresa brought me over to see Dr. Hurray, he is so funny and always in such a great mood. He said everything looks really great and my wound will be totally healed within a month. We went to Charlie Hong Kong's and I decided to try something different,  pad Thai noodles with prawns… although it was really good I missed my garlic tofu. The last couple of times we've gotten some mixed steamed vegetables to go with it is just the perfect touch. The day before yesterday Lauren called me from CCI to tell me that another service dog got attacked by an off leash dog, it sounds like the dog is in pretty bad shape. She wanted to find out where I was with my progress and I had to tell her that I just kind of game up. I wrote the mayor, Congressman… everyone I can think of and although everybody was outraged it just kind of died over and everything went back to normal except for Robby and I. Robby seems to be okay except for loud noises every once in a while makes him nervous but I am constantly looking down at people's feet to see if they have a dog and if they do I turn Robby around so my chair is in between him and the other dog or I just turned around and going away. I told Lauren I would love to get in touch with this other person and maybe together we can get something done about it, I just feel so defeated.

Thursday was a really long and painful personal-care day, by the time I finally got up I still felt really sick… I will never wait 4 days again to do personal care. I  had an appointment in San Mateo this afternoon to see a plastic surgeon, the same one that in my flap surgery. It was really nice to see him and I'm surprised that he recognized me, or seem to, but he couldn't really help me this time. I've been trying to think of everything so I finally decided to see about getting fat injections in my butt. I have lost so much weight that my butt is just down to skin and bones. He said that he had not only not heard of that  but he hasn't heard of anything that will really help, I was really excited to see him because I thought for sure he would be able to help. By the time we got back home I still really did feel good so I didn't eat anything, now of course I'm starving but I will be okay until morning. We came home and the tree that I have next to my porch had split down the middle and part of it was laying in the driveway, Teresa moved it over to the side so he could park and my mom could get in the garage. For breakfast I had some chicken with artichokes hearts, corn and asparagus.

Friday turned out to be a good day, a little cold but it warmed up.  I cruise Robby around for a while but even on Friday is starting to get really crowded around here. I ran into our friend Donna, she is a security officer on the boardwalk and only schedule the water. I ran into her a lot and I saw her when we went on the roaring Camp Railroad trip. When I got back Kelly took us  to Costco, I haven't been there for a long time and I need a lot of stuff… okay and there's some stuff I didn't need. We decided to stop in the Costco cafeteria to get something to eat, I heard it's better to shop on a full stomach but that doesn't work for me. Kelly had a turkey and provolone sandwich on chibatta bread and it looked really good. I love their chicken bakes so I couldn't help myself.

Saturday for some reason I was just really tired, I would've loved to have stayed in bed but we are training a new girl. She went to nursing school with Teresa and I hope she works out because I really like her. Lee and Claudia, my uncle and aunt and my mom and I played cribbage. Claudia was my partner and we won $5.

Sunday I was just so tired so even though we were training I decided to not get up. I found a bunch of movies on pay-per-view but I haven't watched them yet.