Updates on David

Tuesday and Wednesday were without extra help so David and I managed by ourselves okay those days,

Thursday and Friday were better, of course, since hard as I try the therapy assistants do a much better job of softening David up and getting the exercises done that I can, it seems.

By the way, the dog has become mischevious now, even heading out the front door when I was not looking, which is a first. Perhaps it is some misguided attempt at attention. Well, he is certainly getting it. At least he is not eating the furniture, yet. Thanks to our neighbors for helping out.

Tomorrow starts a new chapter with new help for David. The assistants have been great so far, when they are here, but clearly David needs help every day, earlier in the day, and for the whole day. So, we are investing in full time help that will start at 7:30 in the morning every day as a “partial live-in” to provide start of the day assistance and get the exercises in early in the day before therapy arrives. We’re not sure how that will work when I am in New York but we’ll figure that out in a few weeks before my next trip. David agrees that the more exercise and therapy he does the better he feels and the more progress he feels he is making so our answer right now is to focus on that to get something going on his arm and more on his leg.

The hot weather makes it hard for David to do therapy in the afternoon, but it is nice now at night (about 80 and dry with no humidity) so it is worth the trade off for a few days before we return to the ‘coastal’ weather we normally enjoy,

Looking forward to the weekend.

Drew

Lots of new exercises today, including walking up and down the road (me) looking for the darn dog. Everyone is back home safely and snoring away right now though.

David started the day early (for him) as he does each week with the wake up call from the hospital terchnician that comes to the house for his medicine tests. It gets the week started. By the time David got his breakfast and medicines done then his helper arrived and I got back to work and they started the routine of the day (shaving, etc).

PT arrived about noon and David walked around the deck for a while That is when we noticed that the dog had decided to do his own walking (as he some times does) out of the yard and down to the road. Usually he just does a little tour and comes back (the dog, that is) When he did not come back I went looking and for a few hours it was a little hectic. Thankfully our new(er) neighbors picked him up. He had some food, water, and cheese, so David keeps saying the dog went for ‘appetizers’.

During PT David was able to move some muscles in his leg a bit more than before. It’s getting better. Using the walker David was able to move the walker more to the side, giving him more room to move his leg forward, more like walking.

OT arrived after that and David learned some new exercises to strengthen his shoulder, including a ‘shrugging’ technique. Goes well with some of his jokes! The therapy also included more ‘standing up straight’ and ‘looking more toward the horizon’ to align his shoulders and assist in the nerve regrowth. It’s amazing how much difference the change in posture makes on his outlook and appearance as he is recovering.

Tomorrow we are alone at home (no therapists, no assistants) so David will be doing his own exercises and probably sleeping in. Before his stroke David had Tuesday’s off so I have been trying to get him back to his old routine.

Thanks again for all your support.

Drew

Back from New York a few hours later than planned but understandable given the weather there on Friday. There should be a required course in school, or perhaps a reality TV show instead, that includes running a mile (the length of the Denver Airport Terminal) with your suitcase and a cell phone in hand talking to a customer service agent trying to get a seat on the next alternate flight home that leaves in 20 minutes.  Well, enough about me, on to David…

Physical therapy today was great.  David is able to really move his left foot and leg (previously inactive), more and more.  It’s a combination of using the bike, walking, and doing the exercises.  Today he was doing an exercise (lying on the bed) of straightening his leg at the knee, bending his foot back towards his head, and lifting his leg using his stomach muscles.  His brain is talking to his leg and foot, now it is all about continued strength building and exercise to increase that communication and coordination.

After PT at home we journeyed out to test his strength a bit and to visit with friends at the Monterey Yacht Club.  To make a long story short our dear friend is now the owner of the sailboat PASSPORT that was recently resurrected from dereliction and we went to take a look.  This included “a dockside lunch including riparian entertainment” (if you know the character Hyacinth Bucket, pronounced Bouquet, from the PBS/British TV show ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ you will understand the humor, otherwise nevermind).

Her ship looks wonderful and has an amazing story, but the story here is that the Yacht Club does not have wheelchair access and requires four steps down from the ‘dock’ to the ‘club’ which is actually a very large barge that is permanently attached to the wharf.  There were too many steps to try to do it in the wheelchair, although I suppose I could have, so with my help and the watchful and supportive back up of two others David walked down the four steps and then back into the wheelchair (carried down by others).  In each case he took the first step with his strong leg and then moved the weaker leg afterwards.  On the return trip he walked UP the four stairs, each time using the strong leg first and using a little help from me to get the second leg to follow.  His knee bending control on the weak leg is JUST starting to work again, but it IS working.  Afterwards he was very tired but he DID walk up and down four steps which was a big achievement.

Things will settle back down on Sunday trying to get caught up on things around the house and next week we’re hoping to have BOTH therapists here working on David’s arm and his leg.

Thanks again for all your support during this long recovery process.  From time to time David gets very tired of being sick.  Your cards, emails, phone calls, etc all cheer him up a lot.  He is very motivated to have all this behind him.

Drew

Well, I did not get to doing a post htis past weekend, but things are going well for David this week while I am in New York. 

David is getting exercise and did his doctor’s appointment yesterday while I was gone so the week is really moving along fast.  He is looking forward to the arm therapist arriving tomorrow, finally.

I do  feel a  sorry for Shawn though, he is not used to having David 24/7  and it takes a LOT of work!  Well, it’s only two more days.  I am having a lot of fun with my belated anniversary gift from David, (a new Kindle electronic reading device for books and newspapers from Amazon). Looking forward to some time to sit down and read…..

More on Saturday after I get home…

Drew

Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.

I never thought I would be an expert on wheelchair design, but here I am.

The new wheelchair arrived today. FIre engine red, of course. The best things are the foot rest that folds back either way, not just to the outside, and no bracket sticking out to catch his leg every time. The old chair had little pins that made it very hard to keep taking the leg supports on and off. I suppose that is why his old chair was a loaner. The height and width is set closer to his body, so it fits better around the house. He has pneumatic tires now too, much smoother ride.

Functionally he now has a built in arm support that actually works, and since it is built on he won’t be making me leave it off now. There are dozens of little differences that will really make it more comfortable for him. I did not think that getting the chair would make that much difference, but it will be a LOT easier for me too.

David has been getting lots of exercise with his ‘hemi’ walker lstely and is using the stationary bike our friends lent to us. What ALSO arrived today is his new arm support, called a ‘Givmor’ sling that holds his shoulder together without pushing really hard on the joint, which is why the previous slings hurt him so much. the new one uses elastic and holds the arm close to his body but in the extended position (about 30 degrees on the elbow) and allows the hand to move around (not strapped to his chest).

The arm therapist should start in the next day or two, so we are expecting some big progress on that in the next month. Everything that is happening for him now is very encouraging for him and is lifting his spirits. He really wants to be back in the kitchen and is looking forward to me being in New York next week since he will have Shawn here all day for the week and he can have his full attention during the day to help him in the kitchen more than I can when I am home working.

Our friends from France are here this week for Concours and unfortunately we can not be there this weekend as we normally would, but we did get to see them in the meantime which was great. Stan (the artist) who paints spectaular portraits of classic autos and their owners made a wonderful painting of David, myself, Boudreaux, and David’s beloved roadster which he presented to us as a thank you for using our place in Paris each year when he is at the Retromobile Salon each February. Well, David is very proud of the painting and he is a very happy guy right now (he happens to be snorring away for his afternoon nap with the dog).

I’ll update this weekend and try to get in a word during the week I am in New York.

No news is good news.  In this case really good news.  We are back online.  Oh by the way, David is now walking with a walker! More on that in a moment.

I have been strugglng with the fact that it is August already. David started the month with a possible lung infection (he has always had this problem whenever the weather changes) but seems

to have averted the probem with a couple of additional medicines that he hates taking.  He is not a happy pill taker in the best of circumstances so he was extra miserable when he was not feeling well.  Thankfully that is over.

We didnt have that much outside help this week, so it was mostly David and myself for the week.

We did a lot though and really pushed David a lot. Last Friday we had Shawn back for most of the

day and that was a relief!  Not so much for David of course, since on these days he gets more

physical therapy and exercise, but for me it was a chance to sit down for 5 minutes.

This week is the Concours so it will be busy.  David is feeling very helpless not being in the

kitchen.  He has been working with the therapist for a while using the walker to get vertical  but had been having a lot of problems with his left leg.  Today he just said “give me the walker, I want to walk to the car”.  I stook along side him through the walk, with a chair at his side in

case he got tired.  It was a slow walk, but a walk. He is a lot better able to point his left leg now. He is getting better at slowly sitting down and not just plopping into the chair. We ran some errands and when we got home, he was able to get his legs out of the car, stand up, and walk back to the house weith mer by his side.  Yes, it took 15 minutes, but it was a spectacular 15 minutes.

I will be back in New York next week so Shawn and Ken will be taking care of David (mainly Shawn) so David will be getting LOTS of exercise.  The additional therapist should be in place by then and hopefully David will be seeing something happening there in a few weeks.

Thanks again for all your emails!

We just picked up the loaner bike gizmo from our friends so David will now be ‘pedaling’ his way to better lower body strength. He hurts all over and in his hips and joints from general exercise, but I keep reminding him that it’s a ‘good’ hurt. Sort of that ‘no pain, no gain’ kind of hurt. Yeah, he’s not buying that either. Luckly he can be mad at the PT or the exercise people, not me.

As he says, he is really very tired of this now and wants to walk, stand, and be able to do things on his own. He remains very motivated.

Went to the neural doctor on Thursday and got a ‘preseciption’ for a new arm support device that is supposed to be better than what we have been trying that is not working well. The objective is to hold his shoulder together but let his arm move naturally and be worked in therapy. We’re also going to get an additional therapist focused on his arm. It is pretty clear that with enough strength and practice his standing and walking will eventually work, but he needs his arm to start working to enable him to use a walker effectively. Everything is related.

We also went to SVMH on Thursday to see the nurses and others thet helped David in those early days in March and April. He does not remember his stay there, of course, but they all gathered around and we so happy to see him recovering. David joked with them and thanked them for everything they did for him and for me. By the time we got home after the doctor’s office and the visit to the hospital he was exhausted of course so we were pretty much homebound on Friday, but a full day of PT and exercise therapy. He is resting today (Saturday)

Next week is pretty much the same plan as last week with home therapy and a variety of exercises to get his body and brain working better together. We are STILL waiting for his new wheelchair to arrive and will have to go to SCVMC to exchange his loaner for the new one and have the new one ‘fitted’. We are hoping that is next week.

Congratulations to Jean Phillipe (he was TALL intern that was here with us in 2002 when we first opened the store) who just got married today in France to his longtime girlfriend Aurailia (she was an intern in LA the same 6 months he was here).