Sunday Dec. 9th Lorraine’s Report
Hello from Thousand Trails, Palm Springs. Yes, we are back on the road. I just wanted to say, we hope everyone is well and you are doing fine. Chuck is doing most of the blog, but I wanted to say Hello.
This stroke thing is the pits and I surely miss the way I was able to express myself before this. Hopefully things will get back to the way they were before this thing happened.
I am thankful for the way Chuck handled all of this. Without him, I’m not sure of the way I would have ended up. Thank you Chuck for taking such good care of me.
Until next time - - -
Lorraine
12/9/12 Chuck’s report
Yes, we are traveling again. Lorraine’s doctor agreed with us that it might be better for her to get away from the doctors and therapists for awhile. He agreed that a two week absence wouldn’t do any harm and might help so here we are, enjoying the sunshine. I haven’t been able to get her to slow down too much, seems she wants to see and do something everyday (is that a good thing?).
I didn’t post last week as there wasn’t much to report, mostly just therapist for Lorraine, one per day it seems. The physical therapist developed some exercises for Lorraine, mostly to increase/restore her strength on her right side, both leg and arm. I didn’t notice the difference but when he had her try some movements against resistance he could tell she was noticeably weaker on the right side, not unexpected he said.
Lorraine has been doing her exercises every day, even after the physical therapist said he was done, couldn’t do any more home therapy but told us Lorraine’s doctor could ask for more outpatient therapy.
The speech therapist ran some tests for Lorraine and once again found some issues with her comprehension and speech. She came up with some therapy for her, one was to write from a book then re-read the words from her paper. She said seeing, writing and speaking the words would help and it appears to be working. Lorraine said she sometimes still has to read sections of her book over a couple of times to allow it to sink in.
The speech therapist came over twice and wanted to work with Lorraine more but once the physical therapist said no more home therapy, that automatically included no more speech or occupational visits either. And the occupational gal hadn’t even come by yet. I called the office and we got one visit from the OT scheduled mostly for her to check Lorraine over and make recommendations.
The OT came on Monday and ran some tests on Lorraine. She suggested that Lorraine didn’t need any more therapy from her discipline but even if she did, she couldn’t have any more at our place.
We saw Lorraine’s doctor on Monday after the OT session. He reviewed the reports from all the therapists and as I said earlier he agreed that a break from therapy might be a good thing. He noticed that Lorraine’s blood pressure is higher than normal, I guess I understand that with all she has been going through. And as most of us know, high blood pressure can cause a stroke, not something we want to chance with Lorraine, especially as she had just gone through the stroke symptoms from her mini-stroke.
He wanted her to start taking a blood pressure control medicine but we agreed that Lorraine would check her pressure twice a day once we got back on the road and if it was still elevated she would start the medicine. So far so good, her pressure is still within normal good limits, right at the upper level but still good. We filled the prescription and have the pills with us in case but are still hoping she doesn’t have to start them.
I haven’t had any more doctor visits but did get a written report from the VA about the sleep study test I had a few weeks ago. I reported at that time I have a combination of sleep apnea but didn’t realize how often I stop breathing. The report said when I am asleep, I stop breathing an average of 35 times an hour and my blood oxygen content drops from normal of 97 to 83. He also said I might have trouble staying awake during the day, and here I thought it was just an old age thing, ha. He wants to make sure I don’t fall asleep when driving and I told him I’m not that bad by any stretch. I have an appointment with my regular VA doctor next week and will get more info and see what lies ahead.
And Susy has started her regime of pills to help her back pain and disks being bulged. She started these, one a day and working up to 12/day as needed. She has noticed a great improvement from this medication, yea. But on this past Tuesday, she did have the shot in her spine. This was done at an outpatient surgery place, they had to deaden the site, place the injection needle in just the right place, verified via a couple of x-rays, then do the injection. Of course there are possible side effects or problems from this but she notice an improvement right away in the fact her numbness and tingling in her hand was better. She said she had a good night, was able to lay on her right side for the first time in a long time. Here’ hoping this is all the treatment she needs, they can do three shots a year if needed or the next step is surgery.
We spent lots of time with Kaitlyn while we were there, picking her up from school almost every day. We helped her with her homework and also added some extra reading and math time with her. Her mom, dad and teachers have also been working with her and last Tuesday Susy got a note from her teacher that Kaitlyn was picked as most improved student for the quarter in her class. She was to receive this award on Thursday and needed to have a 30 – 60 second acceptance speech. Kaitlyn was really not looking forward to that, for sure.
But with everyone’s help, she got her acceptance speech written and rehearsed it a few times. Unfortunately, we were schedule to leave on Wednesday and were unable to be there to see her accept her award and watch her give her speech. But thanks to facebook, Susy took a short movie and posted it on line and we saw her. She did a great job, better than we had seen during her rehearsals so I know she had rehearsed lots of times since we were there and before her actual speech. GREAT JOB, KAITLYN!
We had a good trip from the Bay area to Palm Springs. We did stop over at the Orange Grove RV park in Bakersfield and this time the oranges were getting ripe. We picked some tangerines and oranges to share with folks we know here plus Kaitlyn really likes tangerines and we will bring her some when we go back there.
Our friends Joe/Alice have been at this 1000 Trails park for two weeks before we got here and had to leave the day after. But we’ve managed to spend some time with them both here before they left and last night at their place at a County park. After happy hour at their place, we drove downtown to see the Christmas displays at a country club they have visited in years past. We have plans with them for tomorrow and I’m sure more times too before we leave. They are able to return to this park the day after we leave, too bad our schedules worked out that way but at least they didn’t have to move too far away, about 15 miles I think.
Another couple we are friends with, Tom/Dorothy live close by and we are planning on seeing them this afternoon after church. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve visited with them and we are looking forward to catching up with the changes in their lives.
We got a note from our good friends Dave/Sandy from Minnesota. They are going through a medical issue and will not be traveling South until sometime in March. We wish them the best possible outcome and hope we are both finished with our medical issues by then too. If all that happens, I’m sure we will find a way to meet them somewhere down here when they get here. Let’s make that happen Dave and Sandy.
Boy, talk about good weather, I’m almost ashamed to put that information in this report. We’ve had nothing but blue skies and warm weather since we left the Bay area. We left in the rain and it continued for a couple of hours and the skies started clearing up after that. Once we got over the hill and a bit down South, we were in blue skies and the temperature started climbing. I think we’ve exceeded or came close to 80F each day here, parked among the palm trees. In fact, the sun is shining so much, it’s starting to drift in places, hope we don’t have to shovel it (that is added for those who have snow, ha.) I can understand why folks like to live in this area, the winters are just great, now the summers may be too hot but I don’t plan on being here then.
We will be here until next Saturday when we will head back over to the Bay area to spend Christmas with Susy and Kaitlyn. Susy told me about a Christmas present she has for both Lorraine and me, Rose Bowl tickets. We’ve never been to a Rose Bowl although we did manage to see the Rose Parade two years ago. I’m working on our time in the area now, places to stay and such. We’ll firm all that up when we get back to the Bay area and work our schedule in with Susy’s. But it looks like we will have a place to park the coach at an Elks Lodge somewhat close by. There has been talk about going to Disneyland while we are there too but I’m not too keen on that part of it. But guess we’ll see when we talk with Susy next week.
Lorraine has taken some pictures that seem to have vanished somewhere, I think her SD card was full so they got stored on her camera somewhere. Anyway, I don’t have access to them to add them to this blog but do have some from the new SD card. We went to a POW WOW at a nearby casino on Friday and Saturday night. I’ll add some pictures from there because that’s all I have. Most of them are during a Tribal dance with all the different type regalia. They also have individual dances for each type of dancer/regalia but we didn’t get too many pictures of them.
Christmas tree at the casino.
Thanks Chuck
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