August 19, 2008

Stupid Morning

I hope your day is going better than mine, which has been a pain in the….hand.

Up before the crack of dawn, Husband and I load ourselves into the car. I unlatch the keys from the hook on my purse and promptly drop them. They fall under the passenger seat.

A smart person would get out, walk around and open the passenger door and reach under the seat to retrieve them. Plenty of room, even with someone in the seat.

I…am not a smart person.

I chose to squeeze my hand into the narrow space between the console and the seat. Was a little difficult but I felt the keys and grasped them.

Then I tried to pull my hand out.

Nope, it wasn’t happenin’.

I thought, “OK, if I fling the keys forward, I can flatten my hand out and remove it.”

Ha.

Keys flung, hand still stuck.

I realize that it is Husband’s weight on the seat that is pressing my now-turning-blue appendage so snugly that it prevents proper pullage. (I know that’s not a word, just go with me here).

So I asked him to raise up. Not easy for a man who suffered a stroke three months ago. His raisage (I know, I know) was intense, but brief. But in the spirit of freeing his damsel in distress, he repeated the effort. He lifted himself up multiple times. (My hero!)

Finally on the third or fourth bounce, I was able to pull my hand free. Skinned my knuckles a little bit, but got my hand out, retrieved the keys and started the car.

Thank gawd we don’t have any neighbors who could have seen us, me bent over, him bouncing up and down…..

:-)

Cheers to all!

Categories: Family, Humor, cars

August 5, 2008

Onions In My Underpants

The road to recovery from a stroke can be rough at times, especially if you have onions in your underpants.

Let me explain….

Husband has been out of the hospital for seven weeks now. He returned to work last week. I want to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers, it really helped us through this very difficult time.

Part of his therapy is to walk every day. He is doing very well - when he was discharged he was in a wheelchair, then progressed to a walker, and is now using a cane. A very spiffy cane, that looks just like the one on “House” with flame decals on it.

Dr. House flame decal cane

We go to a city park with a nice walking trail to exercise and strengthen his leg. Sometimes we take a sandwich to eat before beginning our hike around the lake.

The sandwich we took one day was on an onion bun, with lots of onion bits on top. After we ate, I made a quick trip to the park potty because we’d also taken a big jug of water, and it’s a long walk. I’d left Husband sitting in the car in the sun so I was hurrying. I noticed onion bits on my T shirt as I was relieving myself, but since I was in a hurry, I just brushed them off as I sat there, then pulled my pants up and scurried out.

We started our walk on the trail around the small lake, and I noticed a peculiar feeling in my nether regions. But I was holding Husband’s “assist” belt, a big webbed belt he has to wear around his chest for someone (me) to hold onto in case he stumbles, so I couldn’t just hike back to the restroom. The farther we walked, the more uncomfortable it became, and by the time we got back to the car, my hoo-ha felt like it was on fire. Tears were streaming down my face.

I dashed back into the bathroom and yanked my panties down. The crotch was full of onion bits. Worst of all, they were wedged into my unmentionable places. Never before have I wished that a park restroom had a bidet, but that day I did.

Let me tell you, if you think onions near your eyes make you cry….

:-)

Categories: Family, Humor

July 29, 2008

Today is Marti’s Birthday

Happy birthday mom

(picture courtesy of Marti’s daughter)

Categories: Family

June 30, 2008

Welcome to Hell

The oversize hand basket screeched to a halt at the fiery cavern’s entrance. A tall thin man in a snakeskin jacket (made of real snakes) greeted me.

“Hello Marti! Welcome to Hell!”

“Oh, hey Satan, how’s tricks?”

“Wonderful! I love the American political season. So much opportunity for mischief! But I brought you here to talk about you. How are things…hmmm?”

“Well, I gotta give you credit. You have done a real number on me. Been taking care of grandma with her Parkinson’s for more than a year now. Just got the girl through high school, with all the prom and graduation hoopla. She’s not out even a month when you give Husband a stroke. Good one, Lucifer.”

“Oh thank you! I love kudos. So why haven’t I heard from you? Many people in your situation call on me, you know.”

“Nah, I’m hanging in there.”

“But I’ve forced you to live at your mother-in-law’s house! That one works almost every time!”

“Nope. Actually it’s easier to take care of both of them in the same house, especially since hers is all on one level and already has safety bars in the bathroom.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re enjoying your time there or I will hurl.”

“I’m just hangin’ in, that’s what I do.”

“Isn’t the noise getting to you? I enticed dozens of teenagers to hot rod up and down her street at all hours of the night. And I got 100 gremlins to work on the next-door neighbor’s air conditioner compressor, so that it rattles and roars like an airplane engine. Surely that is annoying you!”

“I just moved down to sleep on the floor. It gives hubby more room to sprawl in the bed, and it got my head away from the wall where the sound came in.”

“But what about the late-night call you got from your son? I caused his car to overheat on the freeway and you had to go rescue him. Wasn’t that enough to make you at least consider…?”

“Sorry, Beelzebub, not interested. Husband is still seeing improvement, getting more movement back. Daughter is learning responsibility by having to take care of herself more. I have faith that things will get better.”

“Damn you!”

“I think you’ve already tried that. I need to be gettin’ back now.”

“AAARRRGH! Be gone with you!”

“Okie dokie. See ya.”

“Oh you can count on it, my dear. You can count on it.”

Categories: Family, Humor

June 5, 2008

My husband had a stroke

I wish that was the start of a great joke, but it’s the actual truth. A blood clot struck his brain and caused paralysis of his left side.

When the alarm went off last Thursday morning, (one week ago) he couldn’t get out of bed because his left arm and leg were numb. Daughter and I got him into my car and called 911 and told them we were bringing him in to St. Mary’s Hospital (the closest one). They tried to get us to accept an ambulance, but Husband didn’t want to do that so we started for Blue Springs. The emergency operator called back and said there was no point in going to St. Mary’s because they didn’t have a neurologist on staff and asked us to let an ambulance take him to Centerpoint Hospital in Independence, Missouri. She kept insisting that we let an ambulance meet us along the way and transfer him, but I knew that would take longer than me driving him. I told them we were already on our way and that I would drive him to Centerpoint. We got him there and took him in to the ER. They gave him some medicine to lower his blood pressure because it was 222 over 180. The ER tech looked like she was pretty scared when she saw those numbers. They gave him several doses of blood pressure lowering medicines and kept him there until they could get a room upstairs. He was assigned Room 633. He was well enough that he made a joke about it not being room 666. A staff doctor came in and checked him, and said it looked like a full-blown stroke instead of a TIA, and that they would need to run a bunch of tests.

They ran a ton of tests, CT scans, MRI’s, heart echo, cardiograms, sonograms and more that I can’t remember. The doctors confirmed that he had a full blown stroke, located in the parietal area of the brain. We had hoped that it was a TIA, a transient ischemic attack, (a mini stroke) but with those you regain motion in the affected area pretty quickly, and his damage is still there. His left leg has some mobility (he can lift his leg about three inches off the bed, but when he tries to stand on it, it buckles under him). His left arm just hangs (or lays on the bed). The doctors still think that with therapy he will regain a good deal of use, but they aren’t making any promises. When the therapist worked with him yesterday, they were able to get him to focus on the leg and straighten it enough to “lock” his knee into place. This allowed him (with assistance of two therapists) to take one step towards the chair to sit in. With the arm, they had him use his right arm to lift the left one and exercise it. When they had him hold it up at chest level, and pull his wrist toward his chest he was able to get a little jerk motion happen from the muscles, which was encouraging that some of the neural pathways are still intact and can be rebuilt.

He was transferred to the hospital that is closer to us now, because they have a floor that is a dedicated in-house physical rehabilitation unit. (I hate saying my husband is going to rehab - LOL)

Already seeing some progress though, as he has regained a little movement in his arm, and can stand up with a walker. They put him in a wheelchair and he is able to drag himself forward with tiny steps. (Can’t use the wheels because the left arm is paralyzed and if he only used his right hand he’d just go in circles. I’m not being cruel, that was HIS joke - LOL)

If you know any good clean jokes, please share them, as Husband is getting daily visits from the chaplain and they are exchanging jokes. Plus I could use a good laugh.

Thank you for your love and support.

Categories: Family

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