Monday, March 2 - Time is "Marching" On!!

Last Thursday, February 26, marked three months since George suffered his stroke. Life truly can change in an instant, and I sure do miss the "good ol' days!" We all take soo much for granted ... walking, talking, dressing ... and complain about driving in traffic, doing household chores, and cooking dinner. But when all of those things are suddenly taken away from you, or a loved one, it gives you a whole new appreciation of the joy that lies in our daily routines. George is making slow but steady progress, so I hope at the 6-month mark, he is able to perform some of the simple tasks of daily living for himself. In the past few days, we have made some strides in that direction. My son-in-law constructed a wooden "step" to even out and stabilize the leg of the bathtub bench that was really meant to be used with a standard tub, not a spa tub like we have. And, after exhausting many resources in hopes of finding a Roman tub hand-held shower fixture that would work with our current faucet, I resorted to an $8 rubber shower hose that you just literally shove onto your faucet and hope it doesn't "blow" when you turn the water pressure on ... but, hey, it works, and that is all that really matters. Now George can slide off of his transport chair onto the bathtub bench and get a "shower" everyday; much better than the "spit baths" he was getting bedside!

Yesterday, George's daughter, Terri, her husband, Paul, and their girls came and spent the day with us. Paul does general construction work, so he came to look at the hall bathroom to see if we could widen that doorway, as well as put an ADA lavatory in there instead of the cabinet sink we currently have. That way, George could get up under a sink with his wheelchair to brush his teeth, shave, etc. Our master bathroom is just too long and narrow and has a very long cabinet with double sinks, so we think it would be too complicated and expensive to try and change it. Hopefully by adding a wall-mount sink and giving George a few more inches to maneuver, we can make things a little easier for him until he gets back on his feet. So, after lunch at Victor's, we all went to Home Depot and Lowe's to look at lavatories and faucet sets. I found one by Kohler in a special order book that I really liked; it would make it look more like a home bathroom instead of the stark white "institutional" sinks that you find in hospitals or office building bathrooms. So, I'm going to try and get some prices on that, and Paul is going to check his calendar for an open weekend, and then hopefully we'll get this project started!

We want to thank George's nephew, Kevin and his wife, Lucy, for coming to visit on Saturday. It was George & I's 28th wedding anniversary, so Lindsay made brunch for all of us (complete with mimosas!) and then we watched the A&M basketball game together before Kevin, Lucy, Lindsay & Dave headed to Minute Maid Park to watch college baseball. Unfortunately, the #1 ranked Aggies, fell to Rice Saturday evening, but they did win both their Friday and Sunday games ...Whoop!