Hello friends and family members!!! I am finally back from our big sale at Warrenton! Ollie and I got back Sunday night and were happy, but exhausted! Thank you God for a successful show!
I went to visit Mom and Dad today. I arrived simultaneously with the physical therapist. I was sad to learn that today was Dad's 15th, and last, home physical therapy treatment. Susan, the therapist, said that Medicare requires specific progress and, if he is not making it, then they think that he can do "maintenance" on his own. Truthfully, he is able to do the exercises without her supervision. The problem is that he is pretty stubborn about doing them! Mom said that he does walk around with his hemi-walker, but he usually won't exercise at the handrail or lift the little weights to strengthen his arm when she suggests that. I believe he will do the exercises with us kids when we visit, so we are determined to take turns so that someone is there a couple of times a week, if possible.
Dad's right shoulder has been hurting. Due to the effects of the stroke, the arm has separated from the shoulder in the socket. This is a common issue with stroke victims. Dad wears a special splint when he is up and supports it with a pillow when he is in a chair or in bed. The therapist said that people who have this issue from a stroke either have no feeling at all in the affected limbs or they have pain. Sadly, Dad has pain. It doesn't seem to be constant, and it mostly hurts after it has been exercised. Mom said that she has been trying to get Daddy to let her make an appointment with an orthopedist. I don't think that's a bad idea, especially because I don't think that shoulder has ever been x-rayed. I'll talk to Mom about making that appointment.
Speaking of appointments, Mom told Dad last night that he had a dental appointment scheduled for today at 12:50 to have his teeth cleaned. She said he started blurting out all kinds of negative "words" of disapproval! She laughed and said to him, "You're cursing aren't you?!" Mom deserves so much praise for retaining her sense of humor!!! Maybe it's a good thing that she couldn't understand what he was saying!!! Rev. Billy Graham said, "A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected and outlast the unbearable." Mother is the epitome of that!
Despite Dad's grumblings, we did go to his dental appointment!!! You'd think that, after 64 years, he'd have learned not to argue with her!!!
After the appointment we went to lunch. Mom was headed towards a restaurant called the River City Grill, but when she got to a stop sign where she needed to turn right, Dad made it very clear that he wanted her to turn left. We had been talking about Janie's Mexican Food restaurant and turning left would take us there! So...we had a nice Mexican food lunch!!! Dad reads the menu and points to what he wants to eat. Today it was Steak Ranchero!
I headed back to Austin once we got back to the house! It was already after 3:00 by that time!The day sure does fly by when we're visiting! One of their favorite daily activities is to sit in their comfy living room chairs and watch "The Virginian" on the western channel on TV. We don't talk during that show and it was about to come on, so it was a good time for me leave!
Oh...good news...the communication machine that was ordered weeks ago came via UPS today! Marge, the speech therapist, is scheduled to be at Mom and Dad's tomorrow, so I am hopeful she can start setting it up immediately! Dad isn't very optimistic about it, but I have high hopes that it will be user-friendly and help him "talk" to Mom and all of us! Prayers please!!!
Ollie and I are taking a little vacation next week, October 14 - 20, and going to New York to visit some dear friends of ours who lived across the street from us for about 9 years and deserted us to live where it's not so hot! They live outside Buffalo in a little Amish village called Orchard Park. We plan to go into Canada from there as well as see what should be the 8th modern wonder of the world, Niagara Falls! After 3 or 4 days with our good friends, we will rent a car and drive to Cooperstown NY. Ollie is a HUGE baseball fan (he grew up in St Louis MO, so guess who's his favorite team?!), so "we" are thrilled that "we" get to spend a WHOLE DAY in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown! We'd better take a bunch of tissues with us because my ol' softie of a husband will definitely shed a few tears that day!! If he had a bucket list, visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame would probably be Numero Uno!!! I'm sure it will be wonderful...I'll be happy just watching him enjoy it!
Thank you all for your patience in waiting for this new blog posting! I am not sure how much I'll post between now and when we depart for NY, but you are all always in my heart and in my prayers! "Love is not written on paper, for paper can be erased. Nor is it etched on stone, for stone can be broken. But it is inscribed on a heart and there it shall remain forever." Amen.
