Ready to Go Home

I am exhausted. What seem like just a few little things, have added up to be a tiring, but accomplished day. Now that I am healed and my brace is off, I am able to do more with my body. It started yesterday in PT. Kristen helped me reach forward while sitting straight-legged on the plinth, and from there I was able to touch and reach past my toes. That felt amazing. I have always been fairly flexible and that has been and will continue to be to my benefit through this recovery and into my new life. Boy, if there is one thing I have learned (and I said this to my fit friends Nancy and Karri-Anne who visited yesterday) being fit and flexible is so important because you never know when you are going to need it.

That increase in flexibility and my new found freedom to reach my toes lead to my curiosity about dressing myself this morning. And so I did. Underwear, leggings, bra, t-shirt, socks AND shoes. I have been doing my "uppers" for a while, but was not able to sit in a position to do my "lowers". I surprised my nurse and the folks down in OT when I told them, but Kelly is still going to come up and give me some pointers and short-cuts, because I was exhausted by the time I was done.

Remember how I said that they often surprize me in the morning and add something to my schedule? Well that happened again today, "Speech" was added - but I quickly learned that the plan is to assess my cognitive abilities to determine if my brain is still the way it used to be. I already know that my word recall speed is not the same and my reading eyes are different, so I am curious to know the outcome. The testing will help me make decisions about returning to work and any help that I may need in the future. Connie was interested in the fact that I was blogging, apparently that is a good sign. :)

After meeting with Connie I went straight to PT where Theo met us so we could try out transferring from chair to car! Now, he was supposed to bring the Kia, but he forgot and got distracted by the need to drive a clean car for Laura whom he brought with him this morning. Apparently living in a car leads it to not being clean enough for company? So anyway, before going outside there was some serious debate about whether or not this would work, as the Element is so much taller. All the worry was for naught - we did it anyway. It certainly was an uphill battle, and there are a lot of dangers to look out for, but I (we - thanks to Barry and Kristen) did it! I think that there will be dangers no matter what car - all those knobs and bits of metal that are inside the car door frame pose serious danger to my back as I can't feel it if I scrape along them as I get into the car. Safety first.

Even though I just wanted Theo to drive away with me in the car, we went back inside to the elevation table. I got all the way up to 65 degrees which is the highest they go! Yahoo! Now Kristen said I have to do it several more times to prove that my bp can handle it, that it wasn't a fluke. You see the whole time I was on the tilt table Theo was telling me about the home assessment that happened yesterday, and about all the changes that would need to be made for me to come home - even for a weekend. So, Kristen's theory is that Theo's talk was what kept my bp up, perhaps I was a bit worked up...I guess we will see.

To top off my day I learned how to do my own catheter. The nurses were all right - I am easy. So when all is said and done, I am ready. I can get dressed, get into and out of a car and pee on my own. What else is there? I am ready to go home. I wish it was that easy.