Greetings from Pogo's daughter Jessie. We are holding a fundraiser for Pogo on Sunday September 20, 2009 at The Root River Center.
7220 W Rawson Ave
Franklin, WI 53132
From 1:00-6:00
Silent Auction
Raffle
Open Bowling & More!
Win a 42" TV or a spa basket. Perhapes some jewelry or a gift basket for you pet valued at $300.00! Come to the event to check out all the awesome prizes :) You won't be sorry!
If you cannot attend this event and wish to make a donation to the family, please copy & paste the link below. It will take you to paypal where you can make a donation in any amount.
Thank you for your continued love & support!
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=AMJRLXA5MPSUS&lc=US&item_name=Rich%20%22Pogo%22%20Poglitsch%20Fund¤cy_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
my overall health and lifestyle
The latest MRI I had was at the end of July, and based on the report the tumor is not getting any bigger and appears to be stable, however, there seems to be an increase in fluid in the surgical area which they think may be contributing to the paralysis on my left side. For now, we're not doing any treatment for the smaller tumor until we get rid of the edema, which is being done by an increase in the steroids again. The doctors here and in Cleveland are going to confer, plus another doctor from Duke University, to see what the next plan of attack is.
As far as physical therapy, and occupational therapy, I am now at St. Luke's, which doesn't have a brand-new facility like in Waukesha, but it saves us over an hour of driving time, and they seem to have their act together as far as the therapy. Unfortunately, at the present time, I'm only getting two therapy appointments per week and it is not always both PT and OT. I'm also missing out on my aqua therapy, which they are going to check into. there has been improvement, but as usual, it is a long process. My goal is to get back to normal by next summer. The good news for us is that the company that did the experimental surgery that caused the paralysis is covering the cost of all of the therapies. This is a big relief, financially for us, because of all the therapies that I do need.
My lifestyle is pretty boring at this time. I pretty much get up in the morning between 5 AM and 6 AM, then it is pretty much sitting at the kitchen table in front of a computer, reading the morning paper, doing a variety of exercises to strengthen and try to get use out of both sides of my body. I usually take a 2 to 3 hour nap in the afternoon, and in the evening, we usually watch a movie. When you are used to being so active and doing something productive and being with people all of time, it is quite a change and am anxiously looking forward to getting back to normal.
Since you can see how exciting my life is now, the blogs will not be coming as frequently, unless there is something to report. Again, I welcome visitors, just call first.
But I'm still in good spirits and it really isn't as bad as it sounds, just different.
pogo
As far as physical therapy, and occupational therapy, I am now at St. Luke's, which doesn't have a brand-new facility like in Waukesha, but it saves us over an hour of driving time, and they seem to have their act together as far as the therapy. Unfortunately, at the present time, I'm only getting two therapy appointments per week and it is not always both PT and OT. I'm also missing out on my aqua therapy, which they are going to check into. there has been improvement, but as usual, it is a long process. My goal is to get back to normal by next summer. The good news for us is that the company that did the experimental surgery that caused the paralysis is covering the cost of all of the therapies. This is a big relief, financially for us, because of all the therapies that I do need.
My lifestyle is pretty boring at this time. I pretty much get up in the morning between 5 AM and 6 AM, then it is pretty much sitting at the kitchen table in front of a computer, reading the morning paper, doing a variety of exercises to strengthen and try to get use out of both sides of my body. I usually take a 2 to 3 hour nap in the afternoon, and in the evening, we usually watch a movie. When you are used to being so active and doing something productive and being with people all of time, it is quite a change and am anxiously looking forward to getting back to normal.
Since you can see how exciting my life is now, the blogs will not be coming as frequently, unless there is something to report. Again, I welcome visitors, just call first.
But I'm still in good spirits and it really isn't as bad as it sounds, just different.
pogo
Saturday, August 8, 2009
adapting to home life
Since coming home and having the wedding the same weekend, we really didn't have a chance to adapt to our new living style at home. With all of this happening at the same time, it made things very difficult. Plus after being away from the office for over two months, I was way behind on bills and just general paperwork. Between the office and relying on Sue for so many things, it became pretty frustrating and there was a lot of tension, not that it is meant to be but it was just a situation since we really didn't have any time to figure things out.
The office was the biggest frustration, because she now had to come with me to the office and since we were so far behind it took 10 times longer to do things. And plus, I wasn't as sharp as usual and every time we went down there something would go wrong and we would be farther behind then when we got there. As of today, I'm glad to say that we are pretty close to catching up, but as an example we were there for four hours yesterday because we keep coming up with missing bills, missing deposits ,missing reports, among other things. My standard line was this should only take a half hour and we would always be there at least four hours. This does not make for a happy spouse. She has to open all the mail, plus read off all the numbers on the deposits and bills. As of now, we try to limit going to the office one day a week and when my wife says she has had enough, we stop. This has helped somewhat, but is still a pain.
As far as home life, it took a couple of weeks to get acclimated. The first few weeks, I had to depend on Sue too much, which is something I did not want to do. One of the most difficult things that I had to rely on her was to get me out of the house and into the car for therapies. not only was this difficult but it was also very dangerous because she had to get me down the two cement steps, while I just had my wobbly walker for support and balance. So she had to balance me and help me with my legs all at the same time. However, she did the best at that considering how small she is compared to some of my friends who tried to help me get in and out of the house. Because of this situation, we didn't go anywhere except for therapy appointments, and Dr. appointments. This meant that we were pretty much stuck to each other inside the house all the other times which again kind of wore on us. Fortunately, I had some friends design and build some steps in the garage along with some handrails, and now I can get in and out of the house by myself and transfer to the car very easily. This has helped dramaticallyand because of this, I've been able to get out and watch my baseball team, the annual estimates and plus go to the parties afterwards, along with going to the tennis club and hanging out with the guys whom I have not seen all summer, plus we even gone to a few movies .It is amazing how something as simple as putting in some steps and a handrail can make our life so much easier. special thanks to BOB S., GENE B., and RUDY M. for doing this for us. We have also had friends and family members who have given me rides to my therapies so again I don't have to rely on my wife.. I also have visitors come over and play games or just shoot the breeze, which also helps.
There is still a lot that she does for me but I try to be as independent as I can. The kitchen sink has become my bathroom as far as brushing teeth and sponge bath, since I can't get up the stairs take showers. First-floor powder room is my own private bathroom, because of the special seat I have on the toilet, so everybody else has to go upstairs or use the basement bathroom. But at least it gives them a little bit of a workout before they go. For bedtime, she makes sure that my feet are elevated with pillows and then everything is laid out for the next morning so I can get dressed and ready for the day. I thank her for everything she does and when I'm all better, I really want to make this up for her and start having some real fun. I think all in all, we are doing pretty good right now, it is just a matter of me getting better.
We are always open to visitors and volunteers to get me to and from therapy appointments, just give us a call first so we can let you know our schedule. Anything people can do to help us out is appreciated.
As a bonus to my daughter Lisa, who is an interior designer, had to get new furniture for the living room because there is no way I could sit and get up off of our present furnture, so we decided to redo the whole living room with new paint and new carpeting and new furniture.
pogo
The office was the biggest frustration, because she now had to come with me to the office and since we were so far behind it took 10 times longer to do things. And plus, I wasn't as sharp as usual and every time we went down there something would go wrong and we would be farther behind then when we got there. As of today, I'm glad to say that we are pretty close to catching up, but as an example we were there for four hours yesterday because we keep coming up with missing bills, missing deposits ,missing reports, among other things. My standard line was this should only take a half hour and we would always be there at least four hours. This does not make for a happy spouse. She has to open all the mail, plus read off all the numbers on the deposits and bills. As of now, we try to limit going to the office one day a week and when my wife says she has had enough, we stop. This has helped somewhat, but is still a pain.
As far as home life, it took a couple of weeks to get acclimated. The first few weeks, I had to depend on Sue too much, which is something I did not want to do. One of the most difficult things that I had to rely on her was to get me out of the house and into the car for therapies. not only was this difficult but it was also very dangerous because she had to get me down the two cement steps, while I just had my wobbly walker for support and balance. So she had to balance me and help me with my legs all at the same time. However, she did the best at that considering how small she is compared to some of my friends who tried to help me get in and out of the house. Because of this situation, we didn't go anywhere except for therapy appointments, and Dr. appointments. This meant that we were pretty much stuck to each other inside the house all the other times which again kind of wore on us. Fortunately, I had some friends design and build some steps in the garage along with some handrails, and now I can get in and out of the house by myself and transfer to the car very easily. This has helped dramaticallyand because of this, I've been able to get out and watch my baseball team, the annual estimates and plus go to the parties afterwards, along with going to the tennis club and hanging out with the guys whom I have not seen all summer, plus we even gone to a few movies .It is amazing how something as simple as putting in some steps and a handrail can make our life so much easier. special thanks to BOB S., GENE B., and RUDY M. for doing this for us. We have also had friends and family members who have given me rides to my therapies so again I don't have to rely on my wife.. I also have visitors come over and play games or just shoot the breeze, which also helps.
There is still a lot that she does for me but I try to be as independent as I can. The kitchen sink has become my bathroom as far as brushing teeth and sponge bath, since I can't get up the stairs take showers. First-floor powder room is my own private bathroom, because of the special seat I have on the toilet, so everybody else has to go upstairs or use the basement bathroom. But at least it gives them a little bit of a workout before they go. For bedtime, she makes sure that my feet are elevated with pillows and then everything is laid out for the next morning so I can get dressed and ready for the day. I thank her for everything she does and when I'm all better, I really want to make this up for her and start having some real fun. I think all in all, we are doing pretty good right now, it is just a matter of me getting better.
We are always open to visitors and volunteers to get me to and from therapy appointments, just give us a call first so we can let you know our schedule. Anything people can do to help us out is appreciated.
As a bonus to my daughter Lisa, who is an interior designer, had to get new furniture for the living room because there is no way I could sit and get up off of our present furnture, so we decided to redo the whole living room with new paint and new carpeting and new furniture.
pogo
Jessie.s Wedding
As mentioned earlier, I got home about 4 PM on that Friday from the rehab hospital, so we had very little time to get to Silver Spring country club for the rehearsal. We did make it in time, and that is when I told my daughter that I would be able to walk her down the aisle. It was nice to see family and friends after being stuck in the hospital for three weeks. As usual, for rehearsal and dinner, it was very casual and lots of laughter. The wedding was on the rooftop and fortunately for me, I only had talked about 50 feet. After the rehearsal, we headed back south to our future in-laws for a Hawaiin Luau. Fortunately, they'll live a half a mile from us, so it was time to go home we would not be far from home.
Early the next morning, the entire female wedding party was at our house for hair, makeup and breakfast. I got some help from family members getting into that tuxedo, which is a real pain because of the paralysis. It was very uncomfortable, plus not conducive for quick bathroom breaks. And not only that it was very hot.
On the way to the wedding there was a major car accident, which backed up traffic for over two hours. Fortunately for me my chauffeur knew a different route, and we were the only ones who arrived on time. Most of the people were an hour or more later with my mom and sister taking last-place, so we had to wait for them.
Fortunately, it was a very short wedding, actually a little shorter than they planned. They had a friend do this ceremony and he was so nervous that he forgot about half of the wedding stuff. So the wedding lasted about 10 minutes. About five of those minutes involved me walking down the aisle. It was probably the most emotional time of my life as I cried all the way down the aisle. I was okay after that, it is just that a father should walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day, and I was not going to let anything stop me. I did have my fly open on my tuxedo as I walked down the aisle, strictly for bathroom reasons.
My wife volunteered to do the father of the bride speech for me, because I know I would not have been able to do it with all the emotion and my voice that kept disappearing. For someone who never spoke in front of a crowd before, she did wonderful. It was entertaining and she looked very comfortable doing it. She never ceases to amaze me. Lisa's speech was a combination of slide show and Lisa's sense of humor, which was hilarious.
Considering my condition, I was able to stand for photos and dance in a wheelchair along with getting to meet a lot of people. The music was good, the food was good, there were a lot of people dancing and no one got cheated at the bar. The night seemed like it was going fast, because I was dancing and mingling with the guests, though I thought it was close to midnight, it was only about 10 PM and I was getting pretty tired. I tried to make it to midnight, but I was beat and it was very hard setting in a wheelchair for that long of time, and my butt was getting pretty sore. Plus my pants kept falling off especially when I was trying to transfer into the car, which was pretty funny. We had some friends follow us nome to make sure that they could get me into the house.
The next day, was gift opening at the in-laws place, which concluded a very busy weekend for us. Despite everything it was a great time and we got a lot of complements on how nice a wedding and was and how everyone was having a good time. I made the best of it and wanted to make sure that the focus was on my daughter and not myself.
pogo
Early the next morning, the entire female wedding party was at our house for hair, makeup and breakfast. I got some help from family members getting into that tuxedo, which is a real pain because of the paralysis. It was very uncomfortable, plus not conducive for quick bathroom breaks. And not only that it was very hot.
On the way to the wedding there was a major car accident, which backed up traffic for over two hours. Fortunately for me my chauffeur knew a different route, and we were the only ones who arrived on time. Most of the people were an hour or more later with my mom and sister taking last-place, so we had to wait for them.
Fortunately, it was a very short wedding, actually a little shorter than they planned. They had a friend do this ceremony and he was so nervous that he forgot about half of the wedding stuff. So the wedding lasted about 10 minutes. About five of those minutes involved me walking down the aisle. It was probably the most emotional time of my life as I cried all the way down the aisle. I was okay after that, it is just that a father should walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day, and I was not going to let anything stop me. I did have my fly open on my tuxedo as I walked down the aisle, strictly for bathroom reasons.
My wife volunteered to do the father of the bride speech for me, because I know I would not have been able to do it with all the emotion and my voice that kept disappearing. For someone who never spoke in front of a crowd before, she did wonderful. It was entertaining and she looked very comfortable doing it. She never ceases to amaze me. Lisa's speech was a combination of slide show and Lisa's sense of humor, which was hilarious.
Considering my condition, I was able to stand for photos and dance in a wheelchair along with getting to meet a lot of people. The music was good, the food was good, there were a lot of people dancing and no one got cheated at the bar. The night seemed like it was going fast, because I was dancing and mingling with the guests, though I thought it was close to midnight, it was only about 10 PM and I was getting pretty tired. I tried to make it to midnight, but I was beat and it was very hard setting in a wheelchair for that long of time, and my butt was getting pretty sore. Plus my pants kept falling off especially when I was trying to transfer into the car, which was pretty funny. We had some friends follow us nome to make sure that they could get me into the house.
The next day, was gift opening at the in-laws place, which concluded a very busy weekend for us. Despite everything it was a great time and we got a lot of complements on how nice a wedding and was and how everyone was having a good time. I made the best of it and wanted to make sure that the focus was on my daughter and not myself.
pogo
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
life in a rehab hospital
Waukesha Rehab Hospital came highly recommended for my situation. It is a brand-new facility, but being in Waukesha, it was anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour to get there, depending on traffic. As mentioned earlier, I got there late at night on Saturday, but they did give me some food and then I hit the hay. On Sunday, one of the therapist checked me out and determined that my muscles and nerves on the left side were functioning and that we should get things back to normal. It is just a matter of time and letting the nerves find a new path to the muscles through a lot of physical therapy and occupational therapy, plus a lot of hard work at home. the whole purpose for the rehab hospital is to get you out as soon as possible and get home so you can function properly at home, which is just the beginning of the journey. Like any hospital, you are a prisoner there,not being able to leave the building and dependent on the nurses and aides. During the week they would schedule two physiotherapy's and two occupational therapies plus one speech therapy session per day. They were all approximately 45 minutes long. So the weeks went by really fast. Unfortunately, on weekends they only had one therapy session for the whole weekend, which made for long weekends. The therapies is what I really look forward to because I was actually doing something. Otherwise, you're just lying in bed and watching TV, which for me is quite boring. Most of the people working there were really nice and of course we have our favorites but the communication and response time when you paged for the nurses was extremely poor. Since I was supposed to be helped for transferring, I always had to ring for the nurse and sometimes it would be over an hour before someone showed up. When dealing with bathroom issues, that is an eternity. I am also an early riser, but they wouldn't come in for several hours later to get me out of bed. An example of poor communication, I told them about the swelling in my left ankle on Monday morning and then the following Friday, they send me to a hospital for an ultrasound to see what was the cause. And that was Friday night about 10 PM. Besides those minor inconveniences, it wasn't that bad. The food was really good and since I had an unrestricted diet, I could eat pretty much what I wanted, they just wanted to make sure that I got lots of protein. Every morning I have my bacon, cheese, and ham omelette,along with my oatmeal, a variety of fruit and every once in a while some pastry. The lunches and dinners were always good, but if you didn't like anything on the menu they could grill you up something. All of the therapist were really nice and like a mentioned above, the therapies is what I really looked forward to. It is amazing how the simple things in life, like walking, become a challenge. The physical and mental part of trying to learn how to walk again can be very tiring. Thank goodness, I was in such good shape to begin with, which did help a lot as far as learning how to walk. You have to think about every little detail, where to position your hips, making sure you lock your knees before taking a step among other things. If you forget to do one of them, then chances are you'll be lying on the floor. There's a lot of exercise involved to strengthen the right side because the right side has to compensate for the left side. The physiotherapist basically works on the waist down while the occupational therapist works from the waist up, plus teach you how to get dressed, shower, and typical daily things. it was great to have family visitors but at the same time it was still very emotional for me. With my daughter's wedding coming up and missing my grandson starting to walk, I felt like I was missing out on quite a few things which again would cause me to cry. When I got to the rehab center, I had three weeks before my daughter's wedding and after one week there my goal was to make sure that I could walk my daughter down the aisle for her wedding, even though the people at the rehab clinic said I would probably have to do it in the wheelchair. Two days before my release, we had two therapists come to our home to determine what I have to do to get our house ready. My release date was the day before the wedding so it made for quite the weekend. The wedding and the timing of my release made for quite a hectic weekend. They didn't deliver my bed which is in the living room until 4PM that Friday, along with the wheelchair. Then I had to be at the rehearsal dinner by 6 PM, which was over a half hour away. So between getting home and getting ready for the wedding there was very little time, which added a little stress to the weekend. But we survived.
pogo
pogo
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Road trip with the Farkel Family
We wanted to get home as soon as possible. Air transportation was expensive, plus I could not travel, being paralyzed on the left side. So the plan was to take ground transportation. On Friday, my wife checked with the social worker and was able to get information on getting us ground transportation back to Milwaukee. Again, this is where my wife came through. When the social workers contacted the transportation company, they said that we could not get out till Monday. My wife said that there was no way that we were staying here the weekend and was persistence in getting a hold of this company even though no one was answering the phone until she got them to commit to leaving Saturday morning. My wife also made the connections with a rehab center in Waukesha and made sure that there would be a bed available and they knew when to expect me. She also took care of the payment for the transportation among other things.
The next morning this large vehicle comes rolling in. It was huge, the front half was like one of those there RV,s and the back half was like an ambulance. So my wife and I were in the back part in a queen size hospital bed with one foot square windows on each side for our viewing pleasure. The front half was like a regular RV that included a full kitchen, table, bathroom, etc., which I never got to see. Now they were three people that came along, one was a nurse, one was the main driver, and one was the fix-it man, who also did some driving. This part is hard to believe, but they did have a GPS system which would seem hard to believe after I describe what happens next. Oh by the way, we find out these people were from Tennessee, very nice people, but very laid back. So how does one get lost going from Cleveland to Milwaukee with an interstate system and a GPS system in the vehicle. After about two hours, I don't think we went more than 30 miles and from what we could tell looking out our tiny windows knew something was wrong. For some reason, they were on these dead-end country roads and there were numerous times when we were stopped for 5 to 10 minutes and then tried to make a U-turn and this happened several times. Not only that, but it was an extremely bumpy ride in the back which the nurse jokingly explained that it was good for therapy because all the jostling would help wake up the nerve's. I think part of problem of being lost was that they were looking for this special truckstop for their lunch. And when they finally found this place, it was an all you can eat buffet and they loaded up for lunch and dinner. My wife went in and tried to get me something that she recognized that I might like. We ate our food and then sat there for another hour and a half while the Farkel family took their time eating their lunch. It was getting close to mid afternoon and we still were not too far from Cleveland. Eventually we started making good time and after a few more wrong turns when we got to Waukesha to the rehab hospital, our journey had ended late Saturday evening. The Farkel family didn't even want to leave when they got to the rehab hospital. So needless to say, this was a very long day. It was kind of funny at the time, but a lot more funny now. It was an experience that I will never forget and also never want to go through again.
POGO
The next morning this large vehicle comes rolling in. It was huge, the front half was like one of those there RV,s and the back half was like an ambulance. So my wife and I were in the back part in a queen size hospital bed with one foot square windows on each side for our viewing pleasure. The front half was like a regular RV that included a full kitchen, table, bathroom, etc., which I never got to see. Now they were three people that came along, one was a nurse, one was the main driver, and one was the fix-it man, who also did some driving. This part is hard to believe, but they did have a GPS system which would seem hard to believe after I describe what happens next. Oh by the way, we find out these people were from Tennessee, very nice people, but very laid back. So how does one get lost going from Cleveland to Milwaukee with an interstate system and a GPS system in the vehicle. After about two hours, I don't think we went more than 30 miles and from what we could tell looking out our tiny windows knew something was wrong. For some reason, they were on these dead-end country roads and there were numerous times when we were stopped for 5 to 10 minutes and then tried to make a U-turn and this happened several times. Not only that, but it was an extremely bumpy ride in the back which the nurse jokingly explained that it was good for therapy because all the jostling would help wake up the nerve's. I think part of problem of being lost was that they were looking for this special truckstop for their lunch. And when they finally found this place, it was an all you can eat buffet and they loaded up for lunch and dinner. My wife went in and tried to get me something that she recognized that I might like. We ate our food and then sat there for another hour and a half while the Farkel family took their time eating their lunch. It was getting close to mid afternoon and we still were not too far from Cleveland. Eventually we started making good time and after a few more wrong turns when we got to Waukesha to the rehab hospital, our journey had ended late Saturday evening. The Farkel family didn't even want to leave when they got to the rehab hospital. So needless to say, this was a very long day. It was kind of funny at the time, but a lot more funny now. It was an experience that I will never forget and also never want to go through again.
POGO
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