Catching up on new progress...

I haven't not updated this daily as I did when we were in Richmond and I could use a laptop to access the blog from Pete's room. There are no computers and no Internet access, nor is there any room to have a laptop easily in his room so evenings are the only time I have to update the blog. Evenings are usually full of trying to get a few things done at home and to get into bed and get some much-needed rest.

Pete's roommate has turned out to be a wonderful friend. He is a super nice guy and has a lot of great stories to share about his days as a Merchant Marine in WW II. We have enjoyed him immensely.

Even with that said, the quarters at Friendship are a little too close for comfort and not nearly as private as we would prefer. There isn't much space in the room and there is often a lot of traffic with cleaning people, nurses with pills on about a 4-hour schedule, CNA's, meals, and transport people to get patients to and from physical therapy. Not everyone respects a closed door when someone is dressing, washing up at the bedside, or taking care of bathroom business. Some just barge right on in and some knock but totally ignore if you yell out for them to wait a minute.

It is also often very noisy because of the closeness of the rooms because there are two patients to a room and two rooms share a single bathroom so you hear a lot from that usage. The rooms are also close enough that you can hear the patients in the room across the hall. Since the majority of the unit is made up of older folks they talk a little louder. And of course you have very regular nurse call noises while one room after another rings their bells for all sort of non-emergencies from "where is my lunch?" to "can you bring me some tomato sauce?".

All in all, most of the people are nice and it has been a pleasant experience but we are ready for it to come to an end.

Pete has had occupational therapy and physical therapy every day except Sunday since he first arrived 3/18. Physical therapy is just what you probably think. Occupational therapy is to help patients do general daily living types of things whether that is dressing, eating, using the bathroom, doing the laundry, or whatever it may be to learn how to do things again after whatever event put them in therapy.

After the first few days of evaluations and in-bed exercises, they began to demand that he get washed and dressed in street clothes and also began to limit him from sliding into the wheelchair to only being allowed out of bed with a power lift (looks like an engine lift).

He didn't have any problem with the washing and dressing as he much preferred to feel more human. They wouldn't let him take a shower or bath because of his sutures and wouldn't let him use the bathroom at all. So, we learned to adjust on every level and invent our own ways of accomplishing the simplest of things on our own.

The lift situation didn't go over with Pete very well because he felt as if he was going backwards instead of learning to do more for himself. We quickly learned the power of the PT people. They hold all the cards in this facility above nurses or doctors and what they say goes. Since they were worried that he wasn't to put any weight more than a toe touch on his left leg and were worried about the weakened condition of his right leg, they were not willing to take any chances.

They worked on keeping his left leg flexible and strengthening his right arm and leg to help with the burden.

On Friday March 28 we had an ambulance ride to the orthopedic doctor that performed the surgery. They took the sutures out and took x-rays. The doctor said everything looked fine and that he could move on to put 50% of his weight on his leg and use a walker. He also gave him permission to shower. Pete was ecstatic and I was a little surprised. I asked several questions to make sure there was no confusion or misunderstanding. We got this all in writing because we were sure that PT would argue the point.

We didn't return to Friendship until about 6:00 that evening and all the PT people were already gone home. Early Saturday morning I went to PT to see his therapist and couldn't find her. Another therapist took the form from me and allowed me to write a post-it note explaining that Peter intended to go home and the doctor gave his O.K. We expected to hear from her later that day but didn't.

Today, Monday, he had his regular therapy appointments. They started off normally and nothing was said about the note. I made a point to be off-site during this time to leave Peter to deal with the situation on his own and not to interfere.

He had to bring up the fact that he planned to go home. The therapist stated that he needed another 3 weeks of therapy. Peter plainly stated that he intended to go home this week. It was mentioned again that there was much to be learned and worked on and that he needed to stay for another 3 weeks. This went back and forth and they got it down to 2 weeks and the discussion continued. Finally Pete just had to flat out say that he was going home and while he would prefer to be home by Wednesday, he would give her until Friday and that was it.

She wasn't very happy and while she must give her approval of his release, he does still have the right to leave and has given his notice so as far as I know should be heading home on Friday.

We already had a meeting set up for 4/3 to go over his "plan" of what care he would receive. Now I suspect this meeting will be a final meeting and everything will be set up for final arrangements instead of a starting point.

I intend to listen, but I do want to see his chart because I am positive that they are not giving him the right doses and medications that his oncologist ordered. There is so little time left and we have these at home so I'm not going to raise a fuss about it now, but I want to see what they have because I've found some other discrepancies and want them to know that they have to do a better job in keeping up with patients. It's not life-threatening in this case, but it could be in another case.

I've lined up someone to replace our porch railings and really wanted to get a ramp to make things easier, but Peter is against that idea. He doesn't know that I'm having the railings replaced or that I've hired someone to do the lawn work and to cut down some greenery and do other things. I really was looking forward to him being gone long enough to get ahead on a couple of things. I do want him home with me and it will save me from going over there and spending every day away from home with him. It will just be a bit of a battle because I'm not giving in on any of these projects and he's not going to like me spending money to pay someone to do things he thinks he should be doing. Tough!

Room change

Pete received a physical therapy and occupational therapy evaluation today. They wanted to know about our lifestyle and what he was able to do before this recent setback and, as always, were amazed at what he could do and how little medication he really takes as well as the fact that he's in perfect health except for the Multiple Myeloma and some side effects and now two fractures.

The evaluation worked out well because the corner that we can been confined in was not in Pete's best interest. His bed was right against the wall so that his right arm could lean on the wall. When he does get out into a wheelchair, he had to get out on his good side and get back in on the good side. So he get's in and out on opposite sides of the bed.

They recommended a room change, but since there are far more female patients than male and they have to keep same sexes together, they simply traded places with him and his roommate.

Now there is room to get around on both sides of the bed and I believe tomorrow he will be up and in a wheel chair for at least a little while. There is more room for me to place a chair beside the bed and sit next to him rather than at the foot of the bed. We have the door as our only downfall, but that's a little price to pay for the expanded room space. And since his roommate only has a visitor for a brief time in the evening, there is not as much need for as much space.

The roommate is a delightful and outgoing gentleman. His daughter is as well and as it turns out is married to the doctor that looked at Pete's rotator cuff in December. The only problem with the roommate is that he wants to talk all the time. He even talks in his sleep. Pete didn't have much sleep last night because the t.v. was on until 1:30 and the guy talked all the time. Then Pete kept dozing off to be awakened by a question or comment or thinking there was one as he heard him talking in his sleep. Luckily today roommate napped quite a bit when he wasn't gone for therapy or dinner. Pete was able to get some good naps in today.

A wheel chair was delivered this evening so I believe that tomorrow physical therapy will come to get him up and we'll get started on a routine.

Any mail to him should include 1 North and room 1011 on the address I'm told.

Home Away From Home: Friendship Manor

Peter was transfered to Friendship Manor to the Orthopedic Rehab unit. This facility is supposed to be excellent. Friendship Manor is a huge complex, almost a small city in itself. It is part nursing home, part assisted living, part rehab, and I'm sure parts that I don't even know.

I don't have his official mailing address, but the address is 327 Hershberger Road, Roanoke, VA, 24012. I'm not going to give out his phone number because there is no way he can reach the phone to take calls and mainly wants to sleep when he's not doing physical therapy.

While this facility is highly recommended and the appearance is very nice and is certainly much better than the hospital, I find myself feeling spoiled and in my own selfish way guilty for dis-liking his room.

The rooms are very nicely furnished and there appears to be a lot of effort that has gone into details to make it feel the exact opposite of a hospital. Being oncology patients to date, we have always had what must be considered a luxury to others. We've had the comfort of a private room with plenty of space and a nice recliner to lay back and nap in next to Peter.

This room is so small and split between two people that you have to go outside to change your mind. Actually, the room isn't that small, just our half by the wall and window. The side of the bed on Peter's right side, that is the "good" side, is against the wall and you can't get to it. His injured left side is exposed to anyone entering. I foresee a problem with people entering his space and putting their hand on his broken arm or his torn rotator cuff or patting his broken leg.

There is a high back chair thankfully, but it doesn't recline and there isn't enough room to put it next to the bed to sit with him. The chair is carefully placed at the foot of the bed that makes me feel very removed and more like an occasional visitor than his companion. Perhaps some of this is on purpose, but the staff didn't make me feel unwelcome in any way or give off any indication that this is the case.

There is a small nightstand next to his bed and of course a bedside table and a curtain between the other patient.

The other idea may be that they intend that you will not spend your time in bed, but be in the dining room, physical therapy room, or somewhere else. I don't see that happening in the next couple of weeks since he is not allowed to bear any weight on anything on his left side and since he is so run down that he just wants to sleep.

He was trying to sleep when I left this evening. While I know he won't have the interruptions of a hospital, since it wasn't "bed time" there yet he had his roommates television blaring and the older gentleman trying to talk to him "to keep him company".

I can see that it would be impossible for me to spend the 12-hour days with him that I do at the hospital or cancer center and don't think I can even get in more than a few hours in the chair at the end of the bed. I know we'll get a schedule worked out and things will fall into place. Tonight this just seems like it's going to be a long 6 weeks!

Bone Breaks

After so many years of being careful not to break any bones, it finally happened.

On Wednesday March 12, 2008 Pete took a fall from his 4 x 4 pickup and landed hard on his left foot and his leg gave way under him and he fell. The initial fall broke his tibia (shin) bone in his left leg and the ending fall on the pavement broke his left humorus (upper arm). This was the same side that already had the torn rotator cuff.

The next day he underwent surgery to have steel rods placed inside his leg and arm bones. Surgery went well.

The doctor ordered more x-rays of the other long bones to see their condition due to the Multiple Myeloma. He found that his right tibia is almost in as bad a shape as the left tibia that fractured. He recommended having that strengthened with a steel rod as well in the near future. Pete was not fond of this idea since he's in so much pain from his current situation.

The doctor stated that having the rod put in before a bone breaks is much easier and he can be up and walking on it the same day. There is not near the pain or inconvenience of having a bone that is broken and waiting for it to heal, which is the situation he is in now.

It was also noted that his forearms have a little bit of involvement and while they are not at a huge risk of breaking, precautions need to be taken during rehab to prevent too much stress on them with a walker.

At this time he has been moved from the oncology floor of the hospital to the orthopedic floor and is awaiting an evaluation and recommendations for transferring to a rehab facility for the next six weeks. We don't believe we can adequately deal with this at home by ourselves.

I anticipate he will be moved in the next couple of days.

He has been undergoing daily rehab that started with simple leg raises which were terribly painful to sitting on the edge of the bed and getting slid into a wheelchair most recently. Because he doesn't have needed strength in his right leg, he's not able to get up to a standing position or to get himself moved adequately. The steroids and chemo have taken his strength and it isn't apparent that the PT people are aware of this as much so I have to explain this to them. Still, he's surprised at his own progress and I'm proud of him for trying.