No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on February 7, 2013

The travel started rather early at 4:30 AM but the actual moving from place to place was smooth and without too many bumps. My neck came out of it pretty much OK.

I got to the rehab facility in fairly decent time with only one detour for some road construction. It looks like half of the highway to downtown is under construction. I went to Peter’s room only not to find him there so I sat down and waited for him to arrive.

It was so nice to see him. I can’t describe how happy I was. He stood up and took a couple of steps towards me and we hugged long and hard just enjoying being with each other.

To me it was amazing from where I left him to where he is now. He is walking. Let me repeat that, he is walking on his own with no assistance. His hand is so much better and the arm is improving. There are serious limitations as to how long he can do these things but it is a start.

It was great just spending time with him. Just talking about various topics and catching up on news. Silly jokes were said.

His rehab team has been great. They have pushed him to get better and have helped him get to where he is now. They are a fun group of folks and understand Peter’s sense of humor. Some of his jokes are the stuff of legend around here. They said that they weren’t going to forget him soon.

I know that this was the right place for him to get himself back together.

Today is all about the learning for me so I know what I can do to get him better. There is a lot of information to absorb and things that need to be done in a certain order. I can do this. I must do this because I want my husband back home with us.

Tomorrow we start on the next part of this journey.

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. They have helped so much. Keep thinking good thoughts for us as we start this next chapter in our lives.

I am so grateful to see my husband with my own eyes.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 5, 2013

I got up this morning and came down stairs to Caroline gathering up her school supplies. I bent down to pick something up off the floor and my neck reminded me that I have to be careful about what I do with my neck. It was so nice to forget even for a short period of time what is happening to me.

I have to admit that I have been doing a lot of thinking about what happened. I know I don’t have all the information nor do I have a plan in place yet on what I am going to do but I have a start. And that is that this is not going to define me as a person. It is part of me but it is not the end all be all of me. And as things return to normal for me, the more I resolve to make sure I stay there or get better from my previous normal.

Today is all about getting ready for travel tomorrow and getting the house ready for Gwen to take care of Caroline. There is a long list but it is not insurmountable. Just need to start with point A and work my way to point B. First piece is in place as I have finished the laundry.

Tomorrow is about Travel and finding out how I can help Peter once he is home. I am so looking forward to seeing him. This is the longest we have been apart since we got together.

I am grateful for the ability to get out of bed without thinking about the fact I am getting out of bed.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 4, 2013

Next Sunday is the Chinese New Year and also Peter’s first full day home. Maybe we should look at it as our New Year considering what 2013 has tossed at us so far. Just a thought I am having.

The neck continues to make positive progress. I can now turn it both directions. Not as far to the right as to the left but it is so much better than it was a week ago when there was no movement (or very little) at all. It is not perfect but I can function. And right now being able to function is a big thing in my book.

Today is kind of a little bit of every thing. I have stuff I need to do around the house. I have things that I have to get in place before I leave on Wednesday to get Peter. And there are Caroline’s usual activities of which she has a few. I see lists in my near future.

I’ll admit it, I fell asleep the last 15 minutes of the game. I awoke to the Ravens having won which means all my Baltimore buddies are probably very happy today or at least the ones that follow football. I am now catching up on what happened.

Peter is ready to come home. He knows that it is less than a week and he has a lot to do in that week but he is focused and ready to do what he needs to do get home.

Ariel, Gwen, and Shana all get lots of kudos throughout all this. They have been so helpful and right there when I have needed them. I am proud of the young women that they have become.

The cats are adjusting to the new norm in the house. Some of their hidey holes have been removed and we have some kitty politics as to who “owns” what space.

I am starting with laundry and then moving to the next thing on my list and working my way down to the end of today then picking it up tomorrow.

It is nice to have a plan even if I know some things are going to change. It feels closer to normal.

I am grateful for the ability to look left AND right. Oh how I missed it.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 3, 2013

Yesterday our friends Bob, Mike, and Steve came over to the house to help me set some stuff organized and moved for Peter’s return. Normally I would do it but with the neck still not liking me very much, I needed help.

They did was I needed and so much more. They got the house to the point that Peter can navigate safely. There are still things that need to be done, but none of these are heavy and I can do it even in my condition.

I really can’t thank them enough nor Glenn who came over on Friday and got the whole project started and Peter’s computer safely from the office to the first floor which I am changing into Peter’s office for a while until he is ready to go back to his office.

So guys, I am nominating y’all for Sainthood. I will never be able to tell you how much all the help I got the past two days helped me so much.

As to the neck, it is getting better sloooooowly. I am happy to say it now takes less than 5 minutes to get out of bed rather than the close to forty it was taking. I have some rotation both left and right which again is a far cry from a couple of days ago. As long as I do get a chill and keep the muscles relaxed, I am doing OK.

I did get a diagnosis and the next step. I knew I had arthritis in my lower back for a number of years and had been working on building core muscles to compensate for the condition. Well now I have evidence of arthritis from the base of my skull to my tailbone. Next step is physical therapy and we will see where we go from there.

Peter continues to do better and better. His balance seems to be returning which helps walking a lot. He is achieving what he needs to achieve and some to some home. Again we know that this is the beginning of the journey not the end. But at least we will be able to put this chapter behind us. It is time for him to come home.

In other excitement (like I needed more), when I woke up yesterday morning I noticed that we had no heat. Because it had been so cold, we had gone through our home heating oil faster than last year. A call to the oil company and by noon we had oil. Heat took a little longer because I had to let everything settle before starting up the furnace. The furnace started up and we had heat.

About 4 we noticed that there was water in the main floor half bath. Mopped it up and about 15 minutes later there was more water. I figured it was the toilet so I turned off the water to the toilet but the water kept appearing. I checked both the tank and bowl level and nothing seemed different. I closed the door and came back after half an hour. When I opened the door I smelled that odor that only comes from steam radiators. Sure enough once I opened the cap at the valve end, I could see where the water was spewing from in the valve. And that water was HOT. Managed to avoid getting burned. Peter called the oil company and they sent a repairman who fixed the problem pretty quickly and then checked the system so there weren’t any other problems. So by 9 pm that adventure was done for now. There is a minor repair and we need to get the yearly furnace servicing done but that can wait a week.

Today is the SuperBowl. My day will be mostly cleaning and getting things ready for Peter but I do plan to sit down and watch the game giving myself some me time. Snacks are going to be limited because it is just Caroline and me but that’s fine. It will be doing something normal.

I am so very grateful to all my friends. I can honestly say I don’t know how I would have gotten through this as well as I have with our your love and support.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 1, 2013

Neck pain is a pain in the neck. I have had problems with my left ankle (broken after a 16 foot fall to a marble floor when I was hanging lights), both knees (various injuries both sports, theater and klutz related), multiple breaks to my nose (My ENT doctor was amazed I was still breathing through it), and my back (with various problems some that stem from the fall that broke my ankle). I had never had too many problems (close to none) with my neck.

Well that changed rather severely last Friday when I woke up with a stiff neck on the left side that was rather painful and bothersome. I babied it as much as I could and hoped that it was a minor muscle strain. By evening it was pretty obvious that it was a little more than that. The weekend is not one I care to remember because it was so painful. By Sunday night the whole neck had seized up and trying to lie down or get up was 40 minutes of pretty continuous pain. From Friday night to Sunday night my sleep pattern was miserable. I got at most 40 minutes in a clip if that. Most of it was in 20 minute increments with a lot of trying to find some position so I could get back to sleep.

Monday I called the Doctor and got an appointment. He agreed I was in some serious distress and gave me some medications to help with it along with some other advice on how to deal with the various problems. Monday I started taking the medications as prescribed and things started to loosen up. I was still in pain but not the OMG kill me now kind of pain. So I thought I was on the mend. However my stomach was not very happy with me so I ate light and bland. However I did get sleep in 2 to 3 hour clips which really helped.

Tuesday I had an appointment for some X-Rays to see if there was something to see. I still haven’t heard anything about it so I am going to try later and see if there was nothing or something to see. I did not get a frantic phone call so I am going to take that for a good thing. However about half way through the tech trying to get his perfect picture he moved my neck in a direction I informed him it could not turn. He made it do so and I lost the minimal contents of my stomach on the floor. I put it down to some rather extreme pain.

Well I learned I now have to add codeine to the list of things not to give me. Tuesday afternoon and evening were so much not fun. And violently heaving while one’s neck is in severe pain is not. Again not a day I would care to repeat. Caroline was Aces in helping me by picking things up so I didn’t have to deal with the floor. Again I was back to 20 to 40 minute dozing which really annoyed me.

Wednesday was mostly recovering from Tuesday and not much more. There was still the problem of it taking about half an hour to get up however the new medication did help with getting some sleep. Getting up was still a lot of time but once up and moving I found I could move and get my neck to go enough back and forth so I could drive on my own. That is when the living room DVR decided to start smoking and the hard drive cocked up totally. I drove over to the repair/exchange center and exchanged the box and the remote.

Since I was on the North Shore, I stopped by Fourth World Comics who did a raffle for Peter. I can’t thank Glenn, Christine and the staff for their generosity along with all the fans who bought raffle tickets. Peter has promised to sign all the books that the winner. I have to say there were serious tears being fought back on my part. We felt the love and we appreciate everyone who participated.

I did learn something that I hadn’t really thought about before, when one is on a schedule of medication to keep said medication at a certain level to let the body recover, then one should remember to bring it along with them so they don’t miss the dose by enough that the neck reminds one that they were an idiot. Yesterday afternoon was not fun but I got it so I could get Caroline to her Girl Scout meeting.

I took my medicines as scheduled and went to bed wondering what I was going to wake up to.

What I woke up to was being late. I bounced out of bed pretty fast in sheer panic that I wouldn’t be able to get Caroline ready for school in time. After the initial OWWWWWWWW I got my head going the right direction to come downstairs with Caroline dressed, her hair brushed, and her backpack packed ready to go. I got her breakfast and sorted out her lunch. She made the bus on time. I dealt with the cats needs this morning and am now sorting out what needs to be done next.

If you haven’t heard, Peter is coming back a week early so I am frantically getting things in place so the house will be in shape for his needs. I am happy about getting my husband home but have some trepidation about getting everything done. The nice thing is that he is doing so well some of the things we thought he was going to need aren’t necessary anymore. Every time his body gets closer to PSP (Pre-Stroke Peter) the happier I am.

I am grateful that my neck seems finally to be on the mend.

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