Thursday, January 10, 2013

Goin' Home... Goin' Home... UPDATED

Actually I AM home (but hum the Dvorak anyway). I'm sitting at the computer... my very own, with my familiar keyboard, mouse and display. The chair is a different matter; my old office chair is slightly too low for me to do a proper launch off of it to mount the walker. But I'll get over things like that in time, and for the moment, any old chair with arms and stable footing will do the trick.

Hospitals have amazing capabilities and their docs and nurses and techs can do equally amazing things, but believe me, there's no place like home... for better and worse. My first real challenge here was taking the walker up a shallow step from the brick patio to the deck, on the way to the back door. Without Stella's assistance, and that of my good friend and neighbor George Batten, I might still be sitting outside trying to figure out a way to get in. The solution to the ascent was simpler than I imagined: I just had to muster more nerve than good sense, and go for it. In part, it's a strength problem, and the additional physical therapy and such that I receive at home should improve my fitness to get from here to there considerably.


I didn't take my camera to the hospital, so I can't show you the wild post-midnight parties of doctors and nurses. I also can't show them to you because as far as I can tell, no such parties ever happened, at least not in the hospital. But allow me my occasional fantasy; otherwise, the hospital is a dull place indeed. My only nonmedical accomplishment was reading most of Leonard Susskind's The Black Hole War (hey, my first link in four weeks!) about Susskind's intellectual battle with Stephen Hawking over questions of information falling into a black hole and various conservation laws (do you like physics? read this book!), and reading all of Mike Lofgren's The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted. (Thanks to the Battens for that one!)

With luck, I'll manage perhaps a post a day. The blog will contribute to my mental health, if not to anyone else's...

UPDATE: for years, I've recited this tongue-twister:
A skunk sat on a stump. The skunk thunk the stump stunk and the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

Today, Stella gave me a coming-home present: a doggie chew-toy in the form of a skunk, which I can set... where else... on my stump. Some senses of humor never change!

11 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your escape to a place where you can heal at a much faster pace in a much safer environment than a hospital [even with Lily around].

    I have never understood the resistance to visiting nurses and home health care programs. You get a lot more 'bang for your buck' than a hospital setting. The other major benefit is that you can get a good night's sleep with no one disturbing you, and real sleep is really restorative in its own right.

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    1. Bryan, home is a sort of scary place, at least this old house, for a guy with only middling skill on a walker. But I can't begin to emphasize enough how glad I am to be here. Thanks for your welcome-home.

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    2. You are so right Bryan. I've been involved in In Home Care for over a decade and it is a remarkable, professional and humane way to heal.

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  2. Glad you are home, Steve! Now start those push ups and weights and ... maybe you should start by lifting cats for muscle building.

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    Replies
    1. Lily resents your implication that she can be picked up...

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  3. Glad to hear that you're escaped the hospital and are home Steve.All the best in your recovery.


    I remember the joys of getting around a house using walker myself.I will never get impatient with anyone who has to use one

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    Replies
    1. A walker hurts even a strong person, and I'm not one of those. Stella yells at me about having allowed myself to be sent home "early," but there really wasn't much choice, thanks to the ins. co. So here I am, hobbling and hopping around and trying to strengthen my arms to make up for the missing foot. Ain't life great?

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  4. All the best in your recovery! Glad you're home!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, ellroon, jams, cristina. Sparse blogging today, but continuous telephoning to line up every damned thing, all of which will fall on me like, um, bricks over the next couple of weeks. I'll blog when I can.

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