Tuesdays: A day of Progresses

How do you like that word I think I invented:  Progresses.

Finally the orthopedic consult.  I got to the home late morning and Redjeb was nowhere to be found.  Our friend Dee had gotten there before me and she too had been looking all over for him.  Finally I found him on the Ground Floor in the orthopedic clinic waiting room.  I didn't get there much too early as before long they whisked him into see the physician consultant.  I had heard he was an elderly (my age?) retired specialist from Mt. Sinai.  He looked the part and I thought negative thoughts:  but now I apologize.  He was indeed an experienced doctor, you could tell by the questions he asked and the way he responded.  He was a man of few words, yet kindly and listened when you had something to say.  No one seemed to know his name:  he was "the ortho consult."

The good news is that the good doctor said all had healed.  Redjeb has been telling people that for some time.  After all we are on the 8th week since the accident.  So now the PT people can stop being sooo protective and really push him.  They even wanted him to wear a sling on one arm, which he kept taking off cause he said it was worse having it on:  kept him off balance and would also weaken the arm.  So patients do know their bodies and physicians of today depend too much on their tests....I'm sure I'll get some flack for such a statement, but I did read somewhere that some medical schools are trying to teach the new doctors to listen more to their patients.  What a splendid new idea...!!

The other good news related to this is that Redjeb can now walker further than before.  Part of this is that they have now given him a walker instead of a cane.  With the cane they were trying to have him walk a certain unnatural way, and Redjeb just couldn't get himself to do that.  But now with the walker he can walk all the way to the garden.  I follow him with the wheelchair just in case he gets tired.  He does get out of wind.  For those of you who don't know the distances, the garden is on a lower floor so one takes the elevator.  For those of us who walk it can take 5-10 minutes.  That may not sound like much to you, but when Redjeb arrived at the home a week and a half ago, he could barely make it from the bed to the wheelchair that was a step or two away.

He was very sleepy again today.  He took a small dose of sleeping medicine last eve but it left him with a hangover.  Not good cause such tiredness can lead to falls, particularly in the elderly (present company included).  Doctor suggested melatonin, so I got some today.  Not sure if he'll take it this eve.  He seems to have night and day mixed up.  The exercise wipes him out during the day so he naps deeply but then is wide awake and bored at night.  Yet he doesn't have the focus to read much or do his email.  I am happily (but slowly) leaning to use the new Kindle.  I hope he will get to be comfortable with it soon.

P.S. If you don't see your comments at the end of the post, then whatever you are doing isn't working. Several of you have told me that you have been writing comments, but if they don't appear then....  You do have to have a Google account and long in with your secret words to write comments. Whatever else you may not be doing I cannot say.