I didn’t make it to yoga class last Wednesday. They wanted me to come without my brace and I got about halfway and I am much too wobbly and the sidewalks are very unstable, it’s very dangerous. I don’t want anybody to drive me because if I’m going to do it I would rather do it alone are not at all. My OT from Dominican homecare Julie is going to meet me there next Wednesday so she can help me out and see what goes on, she knows a lot of people that might be interested.I went to see Dr. Jett just for our regular checkup, I see her about every three months just to check in, she is a spinal cord injury Dr. is very knowledgeable about just about everything.Yesterday, Sunday, I went to the school where we have our weekly play date but nobody showed up. Dr. Owens said that she wasn’t going to be there but that her daughter probably would. It was a beautiful day and Robby and I enjoyed the shade. We took a stroll on Westcliffe, along the beach, and ran into Robby’s grandma, Inez. I had met the lady in the Little shop in Los Gatos right after I got Robby and gave her my card. She was with her husband and a good friend and each of them had a CCI dog. one puppy was in training, one had turned three that day and Robby’s grandma. After I got home she sent me a picture of the three dogs with a beautiful background of the ocean. Hopefully next time she comes to Santa Cruz she will let me know and we can get together.I am finally discharged from home health care so now I can proceed with my standing frame and the seating clinic. They have a new chair back that is molded to your body so hopefully I won’t have to wear back braces anymore, especially in the summer they are so hot.My uncle, aunt, cousin and his wife are going to be here today from Arizona. I have not seen them in a very long time and I am so excited. They are going to be here for a week and I’m sure it will go by way too fast. My brother David from Georgia will be here Thursday morning and my brother Stanley and Corinne and possibly his wife will be here Thursday evening, pretty much everybody is going to stay until Sunday or Monday. I love it when family gets together.I didn’t make it to yoga class last Wednesday. They wanted me to come without my brace and I got about halfway and I am much too wobbly and the sidewalks are very unstable, it’s very dangerous. I don’t want anybody to drive me because if I’m going to do it I would rather do it alone are not at all. My OT from Dominican homecare Julie is going to meet me there next Wednesday so she can help me out and see what goes on, she knows a lot of people that might be interested.I went to see Dr. Jett just for our regular checkup, I see her about every three months just to check in, she is a spinal cord injury Dr. is very knowledgeable about just about everything.
I remember the first time I was in Arizona and I saw a Road Runner, I was so disappointed. They are not really big purple birds whose feet spin around so fast all you can see is a big circle and they don’t say “beep beep”... I think that’s about the only thing I ever believed while watching cartoons. I’m so glad that I got that out of my system, it’s been bugging me for a long time.The adaptive yoga class last Wednesday was great, I’m glad that I went and I can’t wait to start going regularly. The only part that bothers me is that the instructor wants to eventually put me on the ground and I’m really not comfortable with that, she says that we will wait until I am comfortable with it but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Being on the ground is very frustrating and confining for me. Not to mention the fact that it takes my caregivers about an hour to get me comfortable in my chair and make sure that there is no wrinkles behind me, it doesn’t take very much to start our pressure sore. I have an SP tube, a tube that goes directly into my bladder through my stomach, and whenever I laid down and start backing up and ends up over the front of my clothing. Next she brings it up I will just have to explain to her situation. I wanted to ask my therapist what she thought about it and she agrees it is not a good idea. Other than that I’m really going to love it, everybody is so nice and so helpful.It sounds like we are ready to get the new support group going. Roger e-mailed me before I had my surgery and told me that they were ready but I had to tell him that I wasn’t going to be around for a while. I e-mailed him and told him that I am back to my old self and ready to help in any way that I can. He forwarded my e-mail to one of the occupational therapists at Dominican rehab and she said she had a list of about 40 people and she would e-mail them and see how many would be interested, I am so excited about getting this started.Robby and I signed up for the Human Race. Every year some college kids get together and raise money for a nonprofit organization and this year they chose Canine Companions for Independence.Robby is so smart. I had a doggie door put in because I live alone and he needs to go to the bathroom sometimes when there’s nobody around. He has a little magnet on his collar that activates the door so only he can activate it, no squirrels or raccoons can sneak in. Sometimes he will walk up to the door and it will open and close before he can decide that he really wants to go outside. He has learned that if he turns his head to one side and then back it will open the door again...how smart is that??
I really wish the weather would decide what it wants to do. Robby and I have been going for a little scroll every morning, sometimes it’s really cold and sometimes it’s warm.I got some headphones for my iPod and I found an arm strap so I can turn it off and on and adjust the volume. And everybody here in Santa Cruz is really nice but I just want to cruise around with my dog, I don’t want to have a conversation with EVERYONE. I thought the headphones would be a deterrent but they are not. The other day there was two guys sitting on the bench in front of the soccer Park and as I went by one of them said “hello” so I said hello and as I was rolling by I heard him say something else so I stopped and turned around and said “excuse me” and he said “do you want to make out” I was so embarrassed because I turned around and stopped, I said “no thank you” and went on my way. I always think of the perfect thing to say AFTER. I had Robby with me and I should have said “he only likes bitches”, I guess I will be ready next time but I really hope it never happens again.Tomorrow I’m going to try and adaptive yoga. I remember hearing about it before and I actually drove down to the place and it is kind of far left nothing else to do and I think it will be good for me, everybody that I tell says that they love yoga so I will see. I’m not sure what to do with Robby. I really don’t want to leave him here but I don’t know how they will feel about me bringing him there. I think I will bring him there for the first time and see their reaction, if they don’t like it I can always leave and come back next week and leave him in his kennel. It’s only an hour class and it takes about half an hour to get there.I think Susan is going to come by tomorrow night to give me a massage, she has been on vacation and I have been doing a lot of range of motion so my neck and my arms are really sore.Somebody sent me a link to some exercise video that KFRC and Kaiser put together. I try to figure out a way to save it on my computer because it looks like a really nice workout but I couldn’t figure out how so hopefully putting the video and my favorite places will work until I learn the routine.They finally came and installed my vertical blinds and it is so nice, I don’t have to hang two sheets over my ceiling lift so the neighbors can’t see in. I was never a fan of vertical blinds but the wood ones look really nice.Today my mom and I went to get our taxes done. I’m is always so confusing because they always tell me that since my income is not taxable and don’t have to report anything that my caregivers make, that just doesn’t sound right to me but that’s the answer I get every year for the last five or six years. The lady that did our taxes today agreed that it didn’t sound right so now I get to contact the State of California and find out the right way to do it.
It is so nice to be back up in my chair again and have my puppy back. I got Robby back last Tuesday and it was a very happy reunion. The first time I brought him home I was supposed to let anybody pay attention to him for a month but of course that is very hard to do especially with lots of family and friends around but I quickly learned why they ask you to do that. This time I’m holding strong and not letting anybody but me pay attention to him and it seems to be working out really good. Before he would of course follow around whoever is moving and was starting to get more attached to a couple of my caregivers rather than me, this time he is paying more attention to me.On Wednesday, St. Patrick’s Day, we had about 10 people over for corned beef and cabbage and cribbage, I really miss those get-togethers. The meal turned out absolutely wonderful, everybody raved about it. After Teresa brought Robby back Tuesday evening she put the corned beef in the crockpot, one in Guinness beer in the other in water in a room full really good. Besides cabbage, red potatoes and carrots she also did some root vegetables.On Thursday and Friday Robby and I took a long stroll out past the lighthouse. The weather was really beautiful and it was great to see Robby prancing down the walkway with his head up and a big smile.I’m done with the visiting nurses and is released sad to see them go because they were so much help. The rest of my chair fitting I will do at Dominican with the rehab OT said PT’s. It will be nice to get back up in the standing frame, I was almost done with my session and ready to order the standing frame when I had to quit for my surgery. We need to work on my back rest in my chair. I have to do some tests to find out if I really have scoliosis or just weak muscles around my spine. they now make a mold of your back and make it into the back rest instead of adding a bunch of mechanical things, I’m really excited about that.I got REALLY sick this weekend, I don’t remember the last time I have felt this miserable. My head felt like it was about to explode, my ear and throat were hurting really bad and I kept sneezing. I missed Robby’s play date and he didn’t get to go out and get any exercise but we will make up for it tomorrow and all next week.
Getting up in my chair is getting easier every day. I am up to two hours a day to times a day. Today was the first day I went farther than the lagoon, I went down to the end of the wharf and then down to the boardwalk. Before my surgery they had just started rebuilding a haunted house and when I went by there today it looks like they are almost done with the outside of it, it even looks like it might be accessible.The physical therapist came by on Wednesday and Friday to show the girls a proper way to do range of motion, most of them were too aggressive and did it way too fast. He also showed them some resistance exercises to strengthen my neck and shoulder muscles, I can already tell the difference. By the time I made it to the lagoon and back the first week I could barely hold my head up. You can bet that I sure am remembering to do weight shifts every hour.I cannot wait until Tuesday when Teresa and Cassie go to pick up Robby, I cannot believe how much I miss that little guy. I didn’t really realize how many people noticed me when I was just cruising around but several people asked me where my dog was.On Wednesday a bunch of people are coming over for corned beef and cabbage and cribbage. We get together once in a while but not often enough as far as I’m concerned, we really have a lot of fun. I got to see Susan, the massage therapists, a couple of times this week. She brought over a movie “the weather girl”, it was a really great movie and we had fun just hanging out. She came by to other days to give me a massage and that always makes me feel GREAT and I sleep really well.
My first day up in my chair was kind of frustrating. I really wanted to get out and go but my body was not ready for it yet. I made it to the lagoon and then felt really dizzy so I came back and tilted back in my chair or while and tried it again. Today seem to be a lot easier and it’s just going to get easier the more I do it. Stanley, David and Corinne came down last night and spent the night so I got to go for a cruise with Corinne a couple of times. We went to the lagoon and fed the fish and the ducks. I get nervous going over the water but I did it and hopefully the more I do it the easier it will get. All in all I am SO glad to be home and got to finally be able to get up in my chair and cruise around once again. As always it was really great to see them. My neighbors across the street moved and I’m really going to miss them but they just moved up the street. They had our yard sale and I found a couple of really cool things.
I cannot even begin to say how great it is to be back home and to see everybody on a regular basis again. Tomorrow I’m supposed to start getting up in my chair for an hour twice a day, the next week two hours a day twice and so on... Teresa is going to go up to Santa Rosa and pick up Robby March 16th, I missed him so much and I cannot wait to see him again.Last Friday marked my sixth week and I was supposed to start getting back in my chair a little at a time Sunday. Nobody has been able to get a hold of the surgeon to find out exactly what kind of range of motion I need to have done before I can get up. I have called and left a message as well as two nurses and the physical therapist, hopefully we will hear something this week. I did ask the surgeon before I left the hospital what I need to do and she said that after care will know...well they don’t. The weather is starting to look really beautiful and I cannot wait to get outside and cruise around.Today it has been two weeks since I have been home from the hospital, tomorrow seven weeks since my surgery, and I finally got the okay to get up for an hour to an hour and a half twice a day, I cannot wait until tomorrow. I don’t know how hard it’s going to be trying to sit upright and drive my chair... everything slowly I guess. Today is supposed to be the only nice day this week but rain or shine I will be out there cruising around. It would be nice to just go down to the wharf and have a crab Louie salad.
