Saturday, February 7, 2009

Friday, February 6th ... TGIF!!!

Thank goodness it's Friday; it's been a long and busy week for all of us. Dad just says it's long ... period!! He told Mom yesterday that the 4 walls are closing in on him and he wants to come home. We don't blame him, of course, but he just hasn't made much more progress and the thought of him being left alone during the day while Mom works is very scary. Dad's discharge date has been set for Friday, January 20, so Mom is going to "shake a stick" at the therapists this week at Cane Island and try to get them doing more than just the daily repetitive things ... stationery bike, hand bike and electrical stimulation, they've done so far. Dad is still waiting on the AFO (ankle/foot orthodic) to arrive that will supposedly help him balance himself while standing/walking on his right foot/leg. The therapist told Mom on Tuesday, that they did order it, but when it came in, it didn't fit properly so adjustments had to be made and hopefully Dad will have it on Monday. Mom plans to take some PTO time on Monday or Tuesday to attend one of Dad's therapy sessions and make sure his new therapists are aware that Dad was walking with assistance from his therapists at KRH and his walker, of course. In fact, Mom took Kelley, Laurie, Barbara and Connie (they missed you, Rachelle!) to lunch on Thursday to ask their opinion on things; she and Dad both miss their enthusiasm and communication style, as well as their aggressive approach in therapy! Dad has been able to continue speech therapy with Barbara, she's a traveling girl, and also works at Cane Island, so we've been thrilled to have her continue to work with Dad. Mom is making me include this little story which happened on Tuesday ... when Mom arrived at Cane Island, Barbara was in with Dad and they were playing word games. Barbara would give 3 clues describing an object, and Dad would have to tell her what it is, for example: gold, swim, bowl ... GOLDFISH! Dad and Barbara were having a little controversary over the next set: roots, ground, leaves ... TREE, right?!? Wrong! Dad likes to give Barbara a hard time, so he argued saying it could be many things, a bush, a flowering plant, etc. So, after their lengthy discussion about that one, Barbara said here's the last one: woman, throne, rule. What's the answer?!? Dad said, "my wife!" Barbara told Dad that she wasn't about to argue that answer either, so they all had a good laugh, and Mom was pleased that Dad finally realizes who rules the roost (ha!). Dad had quite a few visitors this week ... Brian Smith, who entertained us with Har-Con tales as well as how early in his career, Dad told him he should become an estimator, and how much he appreciates that advice to this day; Butch Scherer, who stops by regularly to visit Dad and lends all of us his support;Dad's nephew Alan Stone and his wife, Cindy, from Bryan, and Billy Watson, associate pastor at St. Peter's. Greg, Dad's #2 son, has been staying at Mom & Dad's house this week, and I know Dad has been enjoying seeing him in the evenings, and tomorrow, they have a "yard date" ... Dad is supervising and Greg will be trimming hedges and bushes getting them ready for spring!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Sunday, February 1 ... SUPER Super Bowl Weekend!

Blog update by Cindy. What a great weekend!! The Steelers win, the weather was absolutely beautiful, and George spent the majority of the weekend home and did really well. On Saturday, Bev & Jim Brewer came out to Katy and spent the day with us. They arrived at Cane Island about 12:30, we loaded up George, and headed out to meet Lindsay & Dave at Pei Wei for lunch. From there, we took George and got his eyeglasses adjusted, and then headed home where the guys hung out for a couple of hours and we girls went and had pedicures. George needed to be back at Cane Island around 5 p.m. to get his next dose of medications before dinner, but after we got back there and saw what was on his evening tray, Bev & I went out to Jason's Deli and picked up dinner. The four of us sat around a card table, eating sandwiches and reminiscing about the good ol' days, and we sure look forward to more fun times ahead with them! George told me on Saturday that he was hungry for a home-cooked meal, so I took his "order" and started cooking Sunday morning. When I arrived at Cane Island on Sunday, George had a visitor ... Tommy w/Moore Supply . I didn't know if George was going to want lunch brought to him, or if he wanted to come home to eat, but I should have guessed the answer! Tommy was very kind (even though I did find out he was a Cardinal's fan!) and helped me get George into the car because I was bit nervous to try it solo. However, when we got to the house, George & I did manage just fine. The only snag we hit was getting the wheelchair up and over the door step, so George just had to use his good leg to push down and help me boost it up and over ... we made a pretty darn good team! Brady, of course, was glad to see George back again. He just sat by George's wheelchair and made George pet him and scratch his ears while I finished up lunch. I baked a chicken, made garlic mashed potatoes, sauteed squash and zucchini, and sliced a tomato freshly picked from George's garden. After lunch, I tried taking Brady AND George for a walk; that was not so successful! I decided not to press my luck for one day, so we headed back after only making it two houses down and got George ready to return to Cane Island. My brother was hosting a Super Bowl party this evening, so after getting George settled, I headed over to say hello. I only planned to stay until half-time since I was pretty worn out, but the game was so exciting and close, I decided to stay until the end. Lindsay had the winning numbers for the 2nd quarter of the football pool when the Steelers intercepted and ran for a touchdown in the final seconds before half-time. We were all standing up and cheering so loudly, that I think we were the reason James Harrison was able to break a few tackles before heading into the end zone to make Super Bowl history (ha!!). Hope everyone has a great week ahead ... oh, and here's a picture of George's visitor's last Thursday night.