I’m back

I managed to get sprung from the hospital today and spent the entire afternoon and evening at home.  While my hospital visit was an absolute disaster, it definitely wasn’t fun.  The technicians finally managed to put my new motor on my wheelchair, but now it turns about three times as fast.  I ended up having to change a setting on my drive system in order to operate the chair effectively while I was in the hospital.  Then I allowed some other technicians to take my chair and put in a recline feature.  This was supposed to make it easier for me to ride around in a van, but now my shoulder is hurting, the chair won’t tilt back as far as it used to, and I absolutely hate riding around with the back reclined too much.  The only good thing to come out of this is the chair tilts significantly better than it used to.

 

I’m hoping that I’ll be a little figure out what is wrong with my shoulder tomorrow, so I don’t have to put up with this horrific pain.  The weird part is that started yesterday and I really don’t know what it was that created this monstrosity.

 

Well, I’ll try to get around and check on all of your sites.  Oh yeah, I didn’t have Internet connection for part of the time I was sequestered from the real world, but I didn’t upload my passwords to my new laptop.  At least I got a chance to read a few books will I was in there.
Take care,
BP

good to go, well sort of

I had all these grandiose plans, but they all went flying in the wind.  I did get a chance to see my mother yesterday and she is doing much much better.  In fact, she’s going to be discharged today and take the remainder of her antibiotics from home.  Unfortunately all of this has set back her chemotherapy timescale, but hopefully it hasn’t diminished her ability to recover from this terrible ailment.

I’m stressing today because I haven’t packed and my wheelchair was in the shop the entire day.  They had forgotten that they ordered my motor and it was sitting at the shop for a week.  My sister-in-law dropped it off to get repaired early this morning and it was done by around 2:30 PM.  The problem came when I got into the chair and discovered several of my settings, which took so long to get fine-tuned, are no longer valid.  I don’t know if the new motor has to have certain things reset, but it is very dangerous around here.  I did call Permobile headquarters and talk to the technicians there.  According to them the technicians down here do need to set the brakes and this might be what I’m experiencing, but I am not really buying that right now.  The chair turns about three times quicker than normal and it’s backing up at the same speed as it’s going forward.  That is not good at all.  I’m hopeful someone will get will tell me tomorrow morning.

I’m going in to the hospital for caregiver respite.  It’s definitely not any break for me, but they do deserve some time off.  I have my housesitter and hopefully I’ll get everything ready to go in time.  If I get Internet connection, I’ll give you guys a shot, if not I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.

On a completely separate topic, I think I’m starting to get my southern twang back a little bit.  Every now and then I’ll say the word "I’ll" it almost sounds like a-ll.  I never used to do that.  I don’t know when I started to get that lazy.  Normally I don’t talk with too many contractions, but I have been getting a little bit lazy.  I’ll see you all later.
BP

Finally a shred of good news

I wanted to share this with you as quickly as possible, so I’m going to make this really short.  My mother has been to hell and back and thankfully she had a really good day today.  She had about three or four days of hallucinations which about drove her over the edge and seriously worried all of us.  It appears it was just medication, because today she was fully cognizant and in a much better mood given what had happened yesterday evening.

I’m going to go into detail tomorrow on what happened yesterday.  Let’s just say it’s going to be a ranting to let my feelings out.  It’s really too bad that my brother from Pensacola doesn’t read this blog, because he could learn a thing or two.  Stay tuned tomorrow for the venting.  I would do it today, but I don’t want to piss on a good day.  Hopefully she’ll be out of there in about 10 days.

I want to give you my thanks as well of my family for all of your thoughts and prayers.
BP

Small Update

Things are not good. I’m not going to get into all the details, but my mother has taken an unexpected turn for the worse. She wanted us to call my brother from Pensacola and have him come down, so I took care of that. He should be in tomorrow.

Things must really be bad because my brother spent about four hours with her today and he went back again around 9:30 PM to spend some more time with her.

I was there yesterday for about an hour and a half and it wasn’t too bad. Today, however, has been considerably worse. I’m hoping that it is a medication problem, but my brother will probably be able to let me know more when he gets here later this evening.

Thanks again for all the prayers. A lot of my friends are praying also and all we can do is pray right now. This has been excruciating for all of my family

. I am often a control person, it’s probably difficult for people to understand how I can be that way when I’m a quadriplegic who was unable to do for himself. I do, however, direct most of my care, so that I do maintain control. This is something that I’m unable to control or do anything to help at all. Even when I go there I can only be a comfort to her, but right now she’s not even really aware, so it makes it even worse.

I think I’m going to delete a lot of these entries if things don’t turn out as well as think they will. There’s no way that I can go back and look at these off and on

.

I’ll be back whenever I get my mind right.

BP

PS at least the VA seems to be more on top of things than they used to be. Because the spinal cord psychologist is on vacation right now I had my outpatient nurse put in a console for me to see the psychologist. They have called me a couple of times to make sure everything is okay and to give me the numbers in case I feel like I’m going for myself. At least they’re trying to be proactive.

A Little Bit of This and That

I really thought I would be writing about nothing but good things at the beginning of this week, but that all changed on Sunday. My mother had to be admitted to the hospital. She is fighting off about four infections right now and her white blood cell count is down really low. Therefore, her immunities are not working effectively. I just got back from the hospital and she looked really tired and inflated. It seems like she’s going to have to be in the hospital for a least a couple of weeks to undergo IV antibiotic therapy. Hopefully they’ll get her on the road to recovery pretty quick.

On Friday things were going so well that I decided to go to see a movie for the first time in at least five months. I watch the box office smash Inception and I have to say I was not disappointed at all. It is extremely layered and complex, but the acting is phenomenal, the cinematography is first rate and the plot is deliciously original. This movie is definitely not the type of film that you go in and just simply watch and not try to figure out. It requires a decent thinking cap and even then it’s a bit hard to get all of the ramifications of the story, not to mention all of the symbols they are throwing at you.

Inception definitely fits into my movie list of, "Movies for Men Who Love Movies." I haven’t heard from anyone who was truly disappointed in the film. There are several who don’t quite comprehend what’s going on entirely, and fact, I’d have to say I’m still not entirely sure of everything I saw. I’ll probably have to watch it a couple of more times later on when it comes out on DVD. If you do have some spare time and want to see some movies, I would definitely recommend this movie.

I’m hopeful that my next progress report will be better than this one. I don’t know how often I am going to be on spaces over the next few days. I have to get some preparation work completed for some time I will be away. Although, it now appears that I might be able to be online while I am away. I have a ton of things to do, not the least is making sure my house and my cat are taking care of while I’m out of the picture. Now I’m thinking I need to get my lists as well as getting my new laptop trained so that I will be able to get online if I am able to get Internet access. I’ll let you know.

Take care and enjoy this hot and sticky week.

BP

Not Much Luck Right Now

Yesterday I had a litany of things I wanted to write about, but today I just don’t feel like doing it.  Well, maybe I will endeavor to write a few things.  At least my Internet connection is working, yesterday it went out our way through the day.  It’s difficult for me to go a day without being connected.

After my mother visited on Saturday, I was riding around outside when I heard a strange noise under my chair.  It sounded as if I had ran over a small branch, but when I turned around I saw nothing in the roadway.  The streetlights illuminate enough for me to be able to watch for any obstacles in my way, but what I didn’t know then was that I had inadvertently ran over a fishing lure attached to a strand of fishing line.  That noise was the line being wrapped around my right axle.  About another 50 feet further I heard a popping sound and stopped the chair to see if I could see what was going on.  I slowly turned around and didn’t see anything, but I decided to error on the side of caution and just trundle back to my house.  My brother didn’t see anything wrong with the chair that night, but the next day there was a puddle of oil lying right next to the right rear wheel.  It seems that the fishing line blew the seal of the right motor.  Now I’m sitting at home waiting on a new motor to come in in about a week.  I was fortunate that they were willing to put the chair back together and I am able to use it around the house and to do small errands, but I can’t use it for too long at once.  At least I’m not stuck in bed.

Oh yeah, while the chair was in there I learned that my old chair was condemned by the VA and shipped off to be destroyed without them notifying me.  They could’ve at least turned it over to me and I could have possibly tried to get a used version of what I am using now to be able to drive the chair.  The actual wheelchair itself was good enough to use as a backup.  I guess that won’t happen now.  If there’s anything major which happens to this chair I’m going to be stuck in bed until they’re able to fix it.  Oh boy!  I’m right back where I was before I got this chair.

If things go well tomorrow, I’m going to go down and visit my mother.  If not, then I’ll probably go to the movies and tried to visit her Friday or Saturday.  Thanks for the continued prayers and I’ll keep you updated when necessary.
BP

A Really Good Day

Well, I thought I was going to write about television, but my mother surprised me today with a visit.  I was planning on going down there, but she said she wanted to come up here since she was feeling pretty well.  So, I ran off to the store in order to get the few items that I had planned on buying them.  The visit went well, albeit the 30 minutes I spent trying to set up their new phone.  My father had ran over the other when I got them with his seat in the car.  He dropped his cell phone under your car seat, don’t move the thing backward without looking under it first.

Customer service was real nice and added their minutes to my minutes, so now they have almost 2000 minutes on their Tracfone.  I will definitely last them until February.

She wanted to take some pictures before her hair fell out, but none of them turned out.  I was doing something weird with my chin and I look like a thinner version of Jabba the Hutt.  I’m not kidding or using hyperbole.  I went into the bathroom and the only way I could achieve that pose less to hold my chin down against my neck.  What the hell was I thinking?  My sister-in-law was only in one of them and she is sitting there with her mouth half open and her eyes rolled up in her head.  She was probably joking around and didn’t think her son would take the picture at the exact moment.  Well, it looks like I’ll have to go down there in the next day or two if we are going to get pictures.

I really do appreciate all the thoughts I do feel quite a bit more optimistic.  Prayers are always a good thing and in this case it seems to be working so far.  We are under no delusions at this time.  We know that she is most likely going to get really sick, but she’s better off now than she has been in more than a month now.  That in itself has buoyed our spirits.

I’ll probably check on all of your sites today, but I do need to get started on that book.  I’ve already answered a few of his questions, but he seems to have more, so I guess I am going to have too read it.  It’s just that I was in the middle of reading a Lawrence Block novel and I was really starting to get into it.  I guess I’ll have to save it.

Take care everyone and have a wonderful weekend.  I think it is as hot here as it is up there.
BP

Finally a trickle of something other than just bad news

It’s nice to finally have a little bit of good news.  My mother started her chemotherapy session today and she sounded considerably better than I anticipated.  I do, however, believe that she will be extremely sick tonight and tomorrow, but I have a little bit more optimism than I’ve had the entire week.  I don’t want to go into all the minutia and be anymore of a Debbie downer, so I’ll leave that alone.

I did finally get my ear loop in for my Plantronics microphone and now I’m able to use my wireless USB microphone.  It used to be my backup, but my wireless system for my really good microphone is muffling everything, so now this is going to be my primary microphone.  I’ve gone from about 80% accuracy to well over 95%.  I guess that means I don’t have as much of an excuse as I have been using.

Tonight I have to read at least a little bit of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea so I can answer some questions for my nephew, so I probably won’t be around tonight.  Then again, with how quietly it has been lately I don’t think I’ll be missed too much.

Insert: small violin playing really tragic music.

Talk to you on the flipside.
BP
PS hopefully I’ll remember to write about the new show Covert Affairs and the supposed comedy Louie on FX.

More Bad News

I am really haveing a hard time getting much of anything done lately.  I’ve been trying to keep myself from concentrating on the problem, but every time I call down to check on my mother it just seems to get worse.  We haven’t even started the chemotherapy yet, but she is so nauseated that she hasn’t even hardly eaten anything in a couple of days and were afraid she’s going to become extremely dehydrated.  I can only provide encouragement and my brother can go down there and try to help, but it really hand wringing.

She is supposed to be getting a medical port put in on Wednesday so she can have chemotherapy treatments, but with all of the pain and nausea I am beginning to wonder whether they are going to do chemo at all.  They have said if she’s too sick, they won’t do it.  I just hope she doesn’t give up.

All of this comes on the heels of the diverticulitis surgery she had about four months ago.  She hasn’t been eating well since then and this has just gotten worse.

I know I keep writing and saying that I’m going to start a new blog, but the truth is I’m just not into doing much of anything except reading and watching television.  I’ll let you know if there is any change in the next few days.

Until then,
BP

Another Update

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am doing okay.  I was going to set up a new site on spaces today, but I had some little minor difficulties and didn’t get onto the computer till real late.  Now I don’t much feel like it.  Not to mention my stupid microphone just doesn’t seem to be picking up my dictation unless I talk real loudly.  I guess I’m going to have to go back to my backup microphone, which is working considerably better, but now needs a new ear clip.  It’s just my luck that now they’re not making the microphone anymore.

We’re still waiting on my mother’s first appointment with her oncologist.  For me this is horribly difficult to wait.  I really think they should’ve jumped on this right away.  Now she’s developing pain in the other side and my father is handling this much worse than anyone else.  Her appointments Friday and I’ll keep you all abreast.

Take care and thanks for all the prayers and thoughts.
BP