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