I'm not always up at five o'clock in the morning, but today I was. Kayley Cat, wanting attention, jumped up on the dresser below the television and Mike called my name wanting me to take her down. "Do you want to go outside, Kayley? Well, come on, and I'll open the door."
That cat has changed her habit of staying outside all night and coming in to sleep all day on Mike's bed. Now that spring has arrived, she wants to be outside most of the day. But, from what I see, she spends her time outside in the garage sleeping in the seat of the lawn tractor and her time inside sleeping on Mike's computer chair. She does walk down to the mailbox with me every day, so she does stir herself into activity occasionally. I had to laugh yesterday, Saturday, because she was asleep in the bed, having crawled up under a pillow at the foot, when Mark, the physical therapist came about noon. He laid his briefcase on that pillow and Kayley came out looking very confused and made us all laugh.
Speaking of Mark, since I mentioned that he planned to come back to see Mike on Saturday after Mike's visit to UAMS in Little Rock, I need to go back to Friday. We were up early on Friday, but not at five, more like at seven o'clock, getting ready to make the trip back to the hospital at the end of the first week of Mike's recouperation. It was not easy for Mike to get into the car but Mike2 was here to help him get down the three steps in the livingroom and the one-long-step down into the garage and the high step up into the car. I know the trip was hard on him because he wasn't able to find a comfortable way to set the heavy cast down and put his foot on the floor for most of the trip and kept using his hands to pick up his leg a little so he could move it to a new position. Even though the road was not, the trip over to Little Rock was smoothe. Mike didn't even think about plugging in the GPS (He calls it 'she' and has named 'her' Newbie.) until we were on I-630 and very nearly to the hospital itself. Of course Newbie never picked up any signal and Mike knows more than Newbie anyway, so I asked him to watch the road signs and tell me where to turn since he had been there before and knew the route. We went to the front of the hospital, the same place where I had picked him up to bring him home the week before. The hospital transport person on the front deck listened to where we needed to be, spoke to the lady a the information desk, and gave us a map and directions to get to the 'outpatient' cancer clinic. From there it was an easy trip circling around the hospital to the right building where a different transport person brought Mike a wheel chair and took him inside the building while I went into the garage across the street to park the car. I have to tell you that all the people at that hospital are very nice and very good about helping us out and giving us smiles of support no matter where we are. It is all very reassuring and makes the most difficult thing seem as if it were just a breeze.
The first task was to find the 'cast room' to have Mike's pretty blue cast removed. We went back to the very same place where Mike had originally gotten his leg brace and the very same technician who'd fitted Mike for the brace used a little saw to cut the cast in half, take the top half off his leg and wrapped his cotton covered leg in an ace bandage telling Mike that an x-ray could be taken okay with the covering on. It was not hard at all to find x-ray from where we were since we had been there before, but we did have to take a very small elevator to the 4th floor so we could take the walkway across to another building then take another elevator back down to the first floor where the x-ray would be taken. We remembered it, even though the memories had become a little vague. When we got to x-ray there were no orders for Mike and the receptionist recommended that I go tell Dr. Nicholas' office to put Mike into the system, but Mike used the cell phone to call and talk to Dr. Nicholas' nurse Kim and he was 'put into the system' almost immediately after that. His name was called, they removed the metal bits that held his ace bandage, took his x-rays and we took the elevator back to the 4th floor, walked across to the other building, and took another elevator up to the 7th floor where Dr. Nicholas' office was in the cancer clinics.
Dr. Carpenter, the surgeon, came out and talked to Mike awhile to tell him that he was not going to be seeing him that day because his wife had a doctor's appointment for her pregnancy. We congratulated him for his expecting a baby. As soon as Mike signed in, I got our parking ticket validated so I would not need to remember to do that anymore. We waited a little longer but it wasn't long before we were called back for a nurse to take Mike's vital signs, fill out his paperwork and take him to a visiting room. There one of Dr. Nicholas' nurses helped Mike out of his wheel chair and up into an exam chair. She removed the ace bandage, the bottom half of the cast and the cotton batting and uncovered his bare leg. Dr. Nicholas, the oncology orthopedist himself came in. He took the big bandaid off the surgical site and we could see the staples holding Mike's cut skin together. There must have been thrity staples. The entire surgical line looked completely healed over though.
The first thing Mike did when he saw the doctor was to ask not to have the cast put back on. Dr. Nicholas seemed surprised that I had brought Mike's leg brace along but he didn't answer that question at first, just telling Mike that he was only going to remove half the staples and that he was going to put bandaid type sutures in the spots where he took the staples out. He seemed to be delighted at how well the wound was healing. He looked at Mike's x-rays and once again seemed to be delighted--at how well the bone cement was setting and the bone at the top of the tibia was knitting. Then he told Mike that he could leave the cast off and use just the leg brace. He removed about two thirds of the staples from Mike's leg and replaced them with tape type sutures and told Mike he wanted to see him again in a week.
When Dr. Nicholas left the room, the nurse rebandaged Mike's leg and explained to us how to redo it at home. She wrapped her work in an ace bandage, helped Mike put his leg brace on, helped Mike back into his wheel chair and out into the hall. Nurse Kim came and apologized for Mike's not being in the system when he got to x-ray and said something about she'd put in the information in but it had disappeared. (She probably does not realize that Mike knows what can and cannot happen when using a computer.) Then, we were free to go! Back to the entrance and Mike waited in the wheelchair in the foyer while I went to the parking garage, found the car, turned in the parking ticket at the exit and wound my way back to where Mike was waiting. One of the hospital transport people offered to help Mike into the car, but he didn't need any help. I think he felt like he was light as a feather without that heavy cast on his leg. He didn't even need a walker or crutches to push himself up out of his chair on one leg, turn and pull himself up high into the car seat.
The trip back to Bismarck was smooth, apparently, since Mike was able to make himself comfortable. He did ask me once if there were some pillows in the car, so I know it was not perfectly easy for him, and I did stop in Malvern at Walmart to pick up some things we were running low on and some fresh bananas and a tomato, knowing neither would go to waste but we were back home again a little after one. An easy trip! Mike2 came to help Mike back up the steps he would need to negotiate on his crutches, but mostly Mike didn't need any help. Without the cast, he didn't have any trouble at all. He was tired though and as soon as he ate some lunch he fell fast asleep for a time.
Since then, being back home, Mike has not been taking his pain medication other than tylenol. He uses his walker to get to the bathroom and into the computer room and although he has not gone downstairs and has spent most of his time in his bed with his leg propped up on a pillow, he has been quite capable of doing things for himself and has barely called me to come and help him. When I did my shopping last Wednesday, though, I had a coupon for Reese's Pieces miniatures and since I had to buy two bags to get one free, I got both the regular ones and a bag of dark chocolate ones. Mike seems to love his Reese's and have a special liking for the dark chocolate so he has asked me a few times to go get him some Reese's. Other than bringing Mike food and drink from down in the kitchen and the pantry, I have not been on call. Yesterday Mike2 and I drove to the trash dump. I went for a walk down to the mailbox in the morning and in the evening I raked dead leaves and sticks and sweet gum balls into a pile and lit a fire outside and at night I watched episodes of Kitchen Nightmares and 30-Rock with Mike2 and Mike didn't even miss me.
Yesterday afternoon Mike went into the bathroom all by himself (with his walker) and cleaned up, washed his hair, brushed his teeth, shaved and changed clothes and the only time I helped was when I offered to get him clean clothes. I didn't help him put them on though. He is doing everything himself. And he seems to be taking very good care of his leg to boot! (pun intended!) I saw him twice doing his exercises and watched while he rearranged his pillows to continue keeping his leg raised. He changed the settings on his brace to match the bend where the cast had kept it. He told me that today he is planning to take a shower sitting in a chair using the hand held sprayer. Mark the physical therapist, when he came yesterday just talked to Mike for awhile then cancelled both his Tuesday and Thursday appointments. He'll call before he returns next.
Mike already has his schedule to go back to see Dr. Nicholas next Friday at nine in the morning. And after that if all is well he'll go back once a month for a time just to be sure that no regrowth of the tumor takes place. Mike got the statement from the hospital in the mail yesterday and his surgery and his 3 extra days in the hospital cost over $14,000. Thank goodness we went to a University Hospital and thank goodness for the Medicare and Windsor Insurance that covers some of that. I hope we are not too much out of pocket. Just to make me smile, though, along with the hospital bill came a $40 rebate from EVGA on a video card we bought and a $20 check from a class action dryer duct settlement. God works in wonderous ways! Mysterious, but amazing and wonderous nevertheless! From the looks of the day it is going to be a very pleasant and peaceful Sunday today!
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