9-29-2011 Thursday
I did not sleep well at all. In the middle of night I woke up and could not get back to sleep.
So in the morning I felt very tired. Anyhow I got up 6:45 since David was up early for his golf day.
I had my usual breakfast with oranges, longans and soy milk. David left 7:20 and will be back after 4.
I watched KCET while I had my breakfast. Then I worked on computer desk for more than a hour. After the work I exercised arms and legs, then goofing off the Internet for a while.
All together I was up for more than two hours. Even with the limited physical ability I pretty much resumed the normal life.
In the process of recovering from the trauma I not only learned how to cope with this kind of accidents but also realized that a human being was fragile. It tought me to appreciate heath and life with new perspectives. Also I realized what relationships with people in my life really stood for.
From this accident I experienced and realized that people with osteoporosis needed to do everything to strength the bones and avoid any risks of falls. Because even a small fall could lead a big sad consequence in ones life as well as the lifes of the people around.
Well, I had a long way to full recovery. But I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Along the way I would make every day count for recovering as well as fullfiled life.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Fourteenth day: sad
9-28-2011 Wednesday
Last night I kept waking up. First I woke up by some noise and saw David was up. I asked what was going on, he said don't know. He went downstairs and son came back. He told me it was flower delivery. Then I realized it must have been from my niece Lingling.
Then I woke up again and looked at the clock my goodness it was 4:30! I got up to knock Lei's room. Lei woke and looked at his watch then waved hand to me go away it's too early. Really. I went back to look at the clock; sure enogh it wad 1:30 not 4:30! Sorry Lei I said to myself though. I just could not sleep somehow; just laying on my back for a long time. After a short sleep I woke up again. It was 3:30. I sat in my wheelchair and waited. At 3:45 Lei's room was lit and soon he was out. I wheeled towards him to say thanks and goodbye. He gave me a gentle hug and I told him I love you.
After he left I cried in silence. It was the first time I cried when I said goodbye to Lei.
This morning I felt strong. The exercises paid off. So I needed keep doing it.
First thing I did was to open the flower box in there were tiger Lilly flowers. I put the vase with flower on my dresser next to the window. I had usual breakfast: orange, grapefruit, longan and soy milk.
Today was overcast again though the forcast said it will be close to
90 just like yesterday.
I felt fine after yesterday pro activities. I could resume my work now. After David left for his daily bruggers run I went to the computer desk to work till David's return. Then I went to rest a while. Lunch was onion, to-Fu and jelly fish leftover from Lei's cook.
Then I took a short nap. I checked Lei's flight to find out the bad news. The first leg was more than a hour later so the second flight already took off when the first flight arrived. The next one according to the schedule will be more than three hours later which was delayed one more hour from the scheduled time! I felt so sad.
Later afternoon I asked David to push me into the balcony to get some sun and fresh air.
I worried more about my heel than the back since I could see the recovering progress in the back but not in the heel. I am going to be very careful about the foot.
I had bak choy and dumplings for dinner while Dsvid went out for some BBQ in Lucille.
I watched some TV on PBS stations about Audubon in Louisiana.
About 8:30pm I got a call from Lei that he just arrived home! It hd been almost 17 hours since he left here the early morning.
Not happy day today, I am afraid depression feeling creeping onto me due
various reasons.
Last night I kept waking up. First I woke up by some noise and saw David was up. I asked what was going on, he said don't know. He went downstairs and son came back. He told me it was flower delivery. Then I realized it must have been from my niece Lingling.
Then I woke up again and looked at the clock my goodness it was 4:30! I got up to knock Lei's room. Lei woke and looked at his watch then waved hand to me go away it's too early. Really. I went back to look at the clock; sure enogh it wad 1:30 not 4:30! Sorry Lei I said to myself though. I just could not sleep somehow; just laying on my back for a long time. After a short sleep I woke up again. It was 3:30. I sat in my wheelchair and waited. At 3:45 Lei's room was lit and soon he was out. I wheeled towards him to say thanks and goodbye. He gave me a gentle hug and I told him I love you.
After he left I cried in silence. It was the first time I cried when I said goodbye to Lei.
This morning I felt strong. The exercises paid off. So I needed keep doing it.
First thing I did was to open the flower box in there were tiger Lilly flowers. I put the vase with flower on my dresser next to the window. I had usual breakfast: orange, grapefruit, longan and soy milk.
Today was overcast again though the forcast said it will be close to
90 just like yesterday.
I felt fine after yesterday pro activities. I could resume my work now. After David left for his daily bruggers run I went to the computer desk to work till David's return. Then I went to rest a while. Lunch was onion, to-Fu and jelly fish leftover from Lei's cook.
Then I took a short nap. I checked Lei's flight to find out the bad news. The first leg was more than a hour later so the second flight already took off when the first flight arrived. The next one according to the schedule will be more than three hours later which was delayed one more hour from the scheduled time! I felt so sad.
Later afternoon I asked David to push me into the balcony to get some sun and fresh air.
I worried more about my heel than the back since I could see the recovering progress in the back but not in the heel. I am going to be very careful about the foot.
I had bak choy and dumplings for dinner while Dsvid went out for some BBQ in Lucille.
I watched some TV on PBS stations about Audubon in Louisiana.
About 8:30pm I got a call from Lei that he just arrived home! It hd been almost 17 hours since he left here the early morning.
Not happy day today, I am afraid depression feeling creeping onto me due
various reasons.
Thirteenth day : outing
9-27-2011 Tuesday
Today was sunny from early on and it was supposed to be a hot day.
I woke up late around 7:30 due to a long period of time of awakening
in the middle of night. But I felt fine. I did all the morning chores
by myself: brush teeth, washing face, put cloth on.
Having grapefruit, swteet bun and soy milk for breakfast. then I read
news from my iPod while Lei went out to a sports store to get
something and it turned out he got the foams for my kayak which I told
him multiple times that I did not need them. Well who was the most stubborn of all?
Lei asked me I could go downstairs or I needed him to carry me down.
I wheeled my self close the the stairs. After I locked the breaks on
the chair, holding the benersters I stood up, then I put my weight on
the benersters by both arms resting on the benersters. Carefully I
lift my left foot and lowerd one stair down, then sliding down my both
arms, I took second stair down, those I finally got downstairs!
Resting on the wheelchair that Lei placed there for me I felt a
certain satisfaction: one more step fowards to freedom. My world
extended from upstair rooms to livingroom downstairs now.
Lei decided to go to Long Beach and tried out my little kayak. By
using the foams he just purchased this morning he tired the kayak on
top of my car. I was wheeled to the front yard after Lei pulled the
car out of garage and I was able to sit in the front passenger seat in
the car. Around 10:30 we headed to Mothers Beach in Long Beach.
It took us a bit more time to get there by a detour route due to construction work on the freeway. The parking lot was very sparsely used so we pulled the car very close to the beach. Lei wheeled me into the grassy area under big trees where a group of kids were having outing. Then Lei unloaded the boat and carried it to the beach and parked the car on the parking lot.
Mother's Beach was a small beach, a part of Marine Park which were
composed by several sections along the shore line, bay and water channels.
there were Many luscious yachts on the marina.
Soon Lei boarded, headed to left, and soon disappeared under a bridge on which thesecond street was running across the narrow water way.
I sat there with my ipad on by which I read and did some work. The
cool breeze made me feel a bit chilly. I tried to move to a sunny spot
but the wheelchair on uneven grassy ground was not easy to negociate
with, so I put all the stuff: water bottle, grapefruit, ipad and
everthing into a bag, then used the bag as a weight to do arm excercises.
Only a bit over thirty minutes Lei emerged from the bridge. I waved to
him and asked him to go left a bit in order to let me take some
pictures. It was a short run. But Lei said it was enough. He was satisfied with boat but complained the weight of the boat (38 lb vs 20lb of his boat with similar size).
Sitting in the wheelchair next to the sandy beach while Lei sitting
on a small beach chair we were very relaxed. While we sat to watch the
world goby, we had some sweet buns and grapefruit for snack.
After rested enough, we drove by to pick up our lunch from an in& out
burger place right at the corner where we drove out from the parking lot. It
was a really nice outing and I did not know when and where my next
nice outing will be.
I layed on a couch in our living room downstairs of our house for a long time, and it was the first time after the fall I was there to rest. Looking around
everything looked beautiful and peaceful that I felt fortunate to enjoy the moment.
I managed going to upstairs by half crowing and half pulling myself up by
holding the benersters without any problems. I made a good headway
today: went down and up of stairs, also sat in car and in a park next to a beach.
After rested in bed for a while Lei pushed me out to the balcony to
get sun and he told me half hour in sun everyday was required for
strength my bone. I allways value Lei's opinion very much.
Tonight dinner was very good. Lei steamed some xiao-long-bao, boiled
some dumplings and fixed jelly fish cucumber salad. The best part was
Lei and David all came up to have dinner with me that made it even
more special to me.
Lei cleaned up everything after dinner then layed next to me to do his
work on his computer while I was in bed to relax. I felt so fortunate
and proud to have Lei, yet a bit sad that he was leaving very early
tomorrow before 4am.
Today was sunny from early on and it was supposed to be a hot day.
I woke up late around 7:30 due to a long period of time of awakening
in the middle of night. But I felt fine. I did all the morning chores
by myself: brush teeth, washing face, put cloth on.
Having grapefruit, swteet bun and soy milk for breakfast. then I read
news from my iPod while Lei went out to a sports store to get
something and it turned out he got the foams for my kayak which I told
him multiple times that I did not need them. Well who was the most stubborn of all?
Lei asked me I could go downstairs or I needed him to carry me down.
I wheeled my self close the the stairs. After I locked the breaks on
the chair, holding the benersters I stood up, then I put my weight on
the benersters by both arms resting on the benersters. Carefully I
lift my left foot and lowerd one stair down, then sliding down my both
arms, I took second stair down, those I finally got downstairs!
Resting on the wheelchair that Lei placed there for me I felt a
certain satisfaction: one more step fowards to freedom. My world
extended from upstair rooms to livingroom downstairs now.
Lei decided to go to Long Beach and tried out my little kayak. By
using the foams he just purchased this morning he tired the kayak on
top of my car. I was wheeled to the front yard after Lei pulled the
car out of garage and I was able to sit in the front passenger seat in
the car. Around 10:30 we headed to Mothers Beach in Long Beach.
It took us a bit more time to get there by a detour route due to construction work on the freeway. The parking lot was very sparsely used so we pulled the car very close to the beach. Lei wheeled me into the grassy area under big trees where a group of kids were having outing. Then Lei unloaded the boat and carried it to the beach and parked the car on the parking lot.
Mother's Beach was a small beach, a part of Marine Park which were
composed by several sections along the shore line, bay and water channels.
there were Many luscious yachts on the marina.
Soon Lei boarded, headed to left, and soon disappeared under a bridge on which thesecond street was running across the narrow water way.
I sat there with my ipad on by which I read and did some work. The
cool breeze made me feel a bit chilly. I tried to move to a sunny spot
but the wheelchair on uneven grassy ground was not easy to negociate
with, so I put all the stuff: water bottle, grapefruit, ipad and
everthing into a bag, then used the bag as a weight to do arm excercises.
Only a bit over thirty minutes Lei emerged from the bridge. I waved to
him and asked him to go left a bit in order to let me take some
pictures. It was a short run. But Lei said it was enough. He was satisfied with boat but complained the weight of the boat (38 lb vs 20lb of his boat with similar size).
Sitting in the wheelchair next to the sandy beach while Lei sitting
on a small beach chair we were very relaxed. While we sat to watch the
world goby, we had some sweet buns and grapefruit for snack.
After rested enough, we drove by to pick up our lunch from an in& out
burger place right at the corner where we drove out from the parking lot. It
was a really nice outing and I did not know when and where my next
nice outing will be.
I layed on a couch in our living room downstairs of our house for a long time, and it was the first time after the fall I was there to rest. Looking around
everything looked beautiful and peaceful that I felt fortunate to enjoy the moment.
I managed going to upstairs by half crowing and half pulling myself up by
holding the benersters without any problems. I made a good headway
today: went down and up of stairs, also sat in car and in a park next to a beach.
After rested in bed for a while Lei pushed me out to the balcony to
get sun and he told me half hour in sun everyday was required for
strength my bone. I allways value Lei's opinion very much.
Tonight dinner was very good. Lei steamed some xiao-long-bao, boiled
some dumplings and fixed jelly fish cucumber salad. The best part was
Lei and David all came up to have dinner with me that made it even
more special to me.
Lei cleaned up everything after dinner then layed next to me to do his
work on his computer while I was in bed to relax. I felt so fortunate
and proud to have Lei, yet a bit sad that he was leaving very early
tomorrow before 4am.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Twelfth day: step by step forward
9-26-2011 Monday
I had strange dreams last night, other than that, the sleep was fine. The dreams were about feircy and unfriendly competetions and not pleasant at all. What a drag!
The morning was again overcast which was fine with me. After morning retiauls I made out a shopping list Lei was going to get for me. What I needed in following days were vegitables, fruits and some ready made Chinese food such like bao-zi, tuan-zi that I could eat when David was away for several hours.
Breakfast was as usual: oranges, longans and a cup of soy milk; an apple will be a snak.
The floor was very dirty due to the lacking of cleaning, plus many strangers (parimedicak personals, friends) walked in with dirty shoes on. I asked Lei tovclesn up the wood floor upstairs. He used swifer with refill to clean the floor. Good, at least it was not that dusty anymore.
Around 10 am David and Lei went out, I got up to sit on the wheelchair watching TV. It was a program showing people in the house market which was interesting and also waist of time. Well it is time to go back to work.
It was easy goofing around doing nothing. Until they were back I did not do anything meaningful at all.
Lei cooked lunch with frech vegitables, then we sat in the balcony to eat. the sun was not really out, though got really warm . After lunch I was hot and pushed in by Lei.
After lunch it was a short nap. I guessed my recovering process was almost over since I almost could resume my normal activities other than the limited physical movements. Well, I tried to go on for a couple of more days to see any thing new. Other wise I thought I should go on with my life and did not think that I was disabled therefore I had an excuse of doing nothing.
Now I had been up in the wheelchair a lot. I would say that the time on the chair could be almost as much as in bed (not counting the night sleep time in bed).
I needed to take my laptop up here and I could resume my works partially at the same time keeping doing exercises to strainthern my arms and legs.
So I asked Lei to take my laptop from my downstairs room to the computer desk of my bedroom where I could access by wheelchair. But I would remind myself oftern that each sitting time should be limited and adjusted accordingly.
Lei cooked nice frech bak choy for me before heading out for dinner with David. While I was eating I watched PBS news hour.
After the dinner I wheeled my self to the bathroom sink to brush teeth for the first time all by myself (unlike before that David took toothbrush and cup of water to me then I used washing pan as my basin on the bedside). When I wheeled myself next to the basin I locked breaks on the wheelchair then stood up by left leg while using one arm holding on the basin top I could use the other hand to brush teeth and wash the face. I still used the pan to hold water whenI rinsed upsince I could not lean forward but I did get water and pull the water of the pan all by myself . This was a new step forward today.
I had strange dreams last night, other than that, the sleep was fine. The dreams were about feircy and unfriendly competetions and not pleasant at all. What a drag!
The morning was again overcast which was fine with me. After morning retiauls I made out a shopping list Lei was going to get for me. What I needed in following days were vegitables, fruits and some ready made Chinese food such like bao-zi, tuan-zi that I could eat when David was away for several hours.
Breakfast was as usual: oranges, longans and a cup of soy milk; an apple will be a snak.
The floor was very dirty due to the lacking of cleaning, plus many strangers (parimedicak personals, friends) walked in with dirty shoes on. I asked Lei tovclesn up the wood floor upstairs. He used swifer with refill to clean the floor. Good, at least it was not that dusty anymore.
Around 10 am David and Lei went out, I got up to sit on the wheelchair watching TV. It was a program showing people in the house market which was interesting and also waist of time. Well it is time to go back to work.
It was easy goofing around doing nothing. Until they were back I did not do anything meaningful at all.
Lei cooked lunch with frech vegitables, then we sat in the balcony to eat. the sun was not really out, though got really warm . After lunch I was hot and pushed in by Lei.
After lunch it was a short nap. I guessed my recovering process was almost over since I almost could resume my normal activities other than the limited physical movements. Well, I tried to go on for a couple of more days to see any thing new. Other wise I thought I should go on with my life and did not think that I was disabled therefore I had an excuse of doing nothing.
Now I had been up in the wheelchair a lot. I would say that the time on the chair could be almost as much as in bed (not counting the night sleep time in bed).
I needed to take my laptop up here and I could resume my works partially at the same time keeping doing exercises to strainthern my arms and legs.
So I asked Lei to take my laptop from my downstairs room to the computer desk of my bedroom where I could access by wheelchair. But I would remind myself oftern that each sitting time should be limited and adjusted accordingly.
Lei cooked nice frech bak choy for me before heading out for dinner with David. While I was eating I watched PBS news hour.
After the dinner I wheeled my self to the bathroom sink to brush teeth for the first time all by myself (unlike before that David took toothbrush and cup of water to me then I used washing pan as my basin on the bedside). When I wheeled myself next to the basin I locked breaks on the wheelchair then stood up by left leg while using one arm holding on the basin top I could use the other hand to brush teeth and wash the face. I still used the pan to hold water whenI rinsed upsince I could not lean forward but I did get water and pull the water of the pan all by myself . This was a new step forward today.
Eleventh day , sit in the balcony
9-25-2011 Sunday
I managed to go to bathroom in the middle of night by wheelchair and felt good. The night sleep was good too.
We had late start of the day: David got up after 7:30. I had my usual breakfast: oranges. Longans and soy milk.
Somehow our package of oranges went fast and needed to be stocked
right away. I checked on line and found the closest farmsrs market was
the one in Long Beach marina which we visited a few times before.
David decided to have a run to the market since I would be doing Ok on my
own for a couple of hours. Before he left I took a short ride on my
wheelchair around our bedroom. I found if I rest my back straight on the back of the chair I felt not much strenth pressured on my back and could use both hands to push the wheels. And I could spend more time sitting on the chair rather than just laying in bed.
After David left I did my exercises and Internet browsing and found the flight Lei was taking to LAX arrived 35minutes earlier than scheduled which was a good news.
Then my sister in law called me from Florida to tell me that she and my brother Jim were happy to see my progress but remineded me that I needed to be extreamly careful during the recovering process. Also my brother Qiang emailed me to say that I needed to realize that I was after all like our mother, with fast temperament, not greatly patient. These were all true. They put emphisis on resting and patience while Lei and David on the other hand, as trained medical doctosr in US, put emphasize on moving and exercises. From different perspectives, east and west medical philosophy projected into the matter very clearly. I would like combine them in a sensible way for my advantages to achieve the
fast recovering result.
David came back from farmers market with a bag of oranges and first
crop of pomegranates this year. It was al most 11:30. according to the flight schedule Lei Ready landed 1:45 hour. Before long Lei showed up. When he was walking to my room I was in the wheelchair and so glad to see my beloved son. He gave a big and gentle hug. Suddenly I felt strong and well. He encouraged me doing well rather then just laying in bed. We called his family back in the east.
Soon I had lunch he heated up for me and it was left over bak Chou,
pork and an apple. After lunch every one had a nap, including Lei too, since he got up 3am this morning.
The weather was geting better in the afternoon after whole morning overcast. Lei pushed me out into the balcony where was sunny but I
stayed in the shady area while my legs got sunshine. It was nice
sitting there, the air was fresh and temperature was just right. We sat
there while webcamed Lei's family. They were nice boys, I meant my
grandsons. Kyle played many piano tunes for me, usually he wad the one
who did mo like practice much, but when grandma wanted to hear, he was
gladly complied. Joshua on the other hand liked to practice and played
a couple of songs with no glitch at all. Obviously he practiced and
got things right. Well everyone was different.
It was a long sitting there for me, at least 30 minutes. Afterwards I
layed on my back in bed and did some leg exercises.
Lei went to downstairs to cook rice and fish for dinner. It was the
first time for me to have rice in a long time ( at least two weeks).
About 6 pm he brought up my dinner: seabass with onion and rice, mmmh
it was good, I was not even hungray but I gobbled it down without
hesitation.
Later David brought up a nice price of watermelon to top of my dinner.
Now I was thinking about a shower. I did wash myself everyday with
towels, yet it is not as good as taking a shower. I asked Lei and
David when I would be able to have a shower. Lei did not give any
definite answer while David said after a month. I could not believe
it. I was thinking two days might try to sit on a plastic chair to
shower. It was just a plan and I had to wait and see.
I managed to go to bathroom in the middle of night by wheelchair and felt good. The night sleep was good too.
We had late start of the day: David got up after 7:30. I had my usual breakfast: oranges. Longans and soy milk.
Somehow our package of oranges went fast and needed to be stocked
right away. I checked on line and found the closest farmsrs market was
the one in Long Beach marina which we visited a few times before.
David decided to have a run to the market since I would be doing Ok on my
own for a couple of hours. Before he left I took a short ride on my
wheelchair around our bedroom. I found if I rest my back straight on the back of the chair I felt not much strenth pressured on my back and could use both hands to push the wheels. And I could spend more time sitting on the chair rather than just laying in bed.
After David left I did my exercises and Internet browsing and found the flight Lei was taking to LAX arrived 35minutes earlier than scheduled which was a good news.
Then my sister in law called me from Florida to tell me that she and my brother Jim were happy to see my progress but remineded me that I needed to be extreamly careful during the recovering process. Also my brother Qiang emailed me to say that I needed to realize that I was after all like our mother, with fast temperament, not greatly patient. These were all true. They put emphisis on resting and patience while Lei and David on the other hand, as trained medical doctosr in US, put emphasize on moving and exercises. From different perspectives, east and west medical philosophy projected into the matter very clearly. I would like combine them in a sensible way for my advantages to achieve the
fast recovering result.
David came back from farmers market with a bag of oranges and first
crop of pomegranates this year. It was al most 11:30. according to the flight schedule Lei Ready landed 1:45 hour. Before long Lei showed up. When he was walking to my room I was in the wheelchair and so glad to see my beloved son. He gave a big and gentle hug. Suddenly I felt strong and well. He encouraged me doing well rather then just laying in bed. We called his family back in the east.
Soon I had lunch he heated up for me and it was left over bak Chou,
pork and an apple. After lunch every one had a nap, including Lei too, since he got up 3am this morning.
The weather was geting better in the afternoon after whole morning overcast. Lei pushed me out into the balcony where was sunny but I
stayed in the shady area while my legs got sunshine. It was nice
sitting there, the air was fresh and temperature was just right. We sat
there while webcamed Lei's family. They were nice boys, I meant my
grandsons. Kyle played many piano tunes for me, usually he wad the one
who did mo like practice much, but when grandma wanted to hear, he was
gladly complied. Joshua on the other hand liked to practice and played
a couple of songs with no glitch at all. Obviously he practiced and
got things right. Well everyone was different.
It was a long sitting there for me, at least 30 minutes. Afterwards I
layed on my back in bed and did some leg exercises.
Lei went to downstairs to cook rice and fish for dinner. It was the
first time for me to have rice in a long time ( at least two weeks).
About 6 pm he brought up my dinner: seabass with onion and rice, mmmh
it was good, I was not even hungray but I gobbled it down without
hesitation.
Later David brought up a nice price of watermelon to top of my dinner.
Now I was thinking about a shower. I did wash myself everyday with
towels, yet it is not as good as taking a shower. I asked Lei and
David when I would be able to have a shower. Lei did not give any
definite answer while David said after a month. I could not believe
it. I was thinking two days might try to sit on a plastic chair to
shower. It was just a plan and I had to wait and see.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Tenth day : a big step
9-24-2011 Saturday
I slept well last night with some dreams. Today started off gray and cold. So I had a bath rope on. The breakfast was as usual: two oranges, a tengerine, few longans and a cup of soy milk.
Somehow I rather laid on my back most time I figured that I was not ready sit or stand up much yet, the excercises of siting and standing might have done more hurm than good. On coming few days I just was going to spend more time laying on my back with certain amount leg and arm excercises.
I emailed back and forth with Wang Qiang about our good hearted lady friend Ge-zhen. I hope she got the message and did not come.
Too much food in the fridge for me now. I needed to work on them hard. Increasing excercise times might be one of the way to do. Since my back did not seem to have improvment for a couple of days I could only work on my arms and legs.
There was a nerve pinch on left of my neck just like pounding headache.
I called Wang Qiang this afternoon talking about his leg injury experience many years ago. The common scence as well as his own experiences was that life means moving, less moving the life deteriates, no moving there was no life. I needed to keep doing all the excercises while resting in bed.
Olive pit left over plus home grown red peper was my lunch.
Later afternoon I talked with Lei's family. Little Kyle was very concerned about grandma, he asked when my bone will get heeled, what a sweet boy he was. When his daddy Lei was telling me what to do and what not to do, Kyle was adding on his advices along with Daddy's.
Lei emphasized for keeping moving for me and said the worst thing you were doing was laying in bed. Ok, I could get up if it will not hamper the recovery. He said no as long as I move with care: no bending, no twisting, no pounging, anything could go. All right.
After ended webcam with them. I got up and stood with arm support for a while. When David came up to me I asked him to push the wheelchair close to the bed.
I carefully put the wheel breaks on one by one with much of effort, then I slowlly move my self into the chair. Hurray! It was a big step. After I released the breaks I used one arm to support my body , other hand pushed the wheel while I used my left foot to guild the direction. It was a succesful step: I could get on and off the wheelchair by myself and I could go around the room. Finally I pushed myself to the bathroom and back to bed, David was as glad as I was.
It meant a lot to me since I no longer needed personal care all the time and could be left alone for a period of hours and reclaimed a certain freedom for myself.
Some left over of bak choy with ribs and an apple was my dinner. I was able to have part of the dinner by sitting up with one arm supporting.
Watched more TV than ever, mainly PBS stations ( total 4 of them).
I slept well last night with some dreams. Today started off gray and cold. So I had a bath rope on. The breakfast was as usual: two oranges, a tengerine, few longans and a cup of soy milk.
Somehow I rather laid on my back most time I figured that I was not ready sit or stand up much yet, the excercises of siting and standing might have done more hurm than good. On coming few days I just was going to spend more time laying on my back with certain amount leg and arm excercises.
I emailed back and forth with Wang Qiang about our good hearted lady friend Ge-zhen. I hope she got the message and did not come.
Too much food in the fridge for me now. I needed to work on them hard. Increasing excercise times might be one of the way to do. Since my back did not seem to have improvment for a couple of days I could only work on my arms and legs.
There was a nerve pinch on left of my neck just like pounding headache.
I called Wang Qiang this afternoon talking about his leg injury experience many years ago. The common scence as well as his own experiences was that life means moving, less moving the life deteriates, no moving there was no life. I needed to keep doing all the excercises while resting in bed.
Olive pit left over plus home grown red peper was my lunch.
Later afternoon I talked with Lei's family. Little Kyle was very concerned about grandma, he asked when my bone will get heeled, what a sweet boy he was. When his daddy Lei was telling me what to do and what not to do, Kyle was adding on his advices along with Daddy's.
Lei emphasized for keeping moving for me and said the worst thing you were doing was laying in bed. Ok, I could get up if it will not hamper the recovery. He said no as long as I move with care: no bending, no twisting, no pounging, anything could go. All right.
After ended webcam with them. I got up and stood with arm support for a while. When David came up to me I asked him to push the wheelchair close to the bed.
I carefully put the wheel breaks on one by one with much of effort, then I slowlly move my self into the chair. Hurray! It was a big step. After I released the breaks I used one arm to support my body , other hand pushed the wheel while I used my left foot to guild the direction. It was a succesful step: I could get on and off the wheelchair by myself and I could go around the room. Finally I pushed myself to the bathroom and back to bed, David was as glad as I was.
It meant a lot to me since I no longer needed personal care all the time and could be left alone for a period of hours and reclaimed a certain freedom for myself.
Some left over of bak choy with ribs and an apple was my dinner. I was able to have part of the dinner by sitting up with one arm supporting.
Watched more TV than ever, mainly PBS stations ( total 4 of them).
Ninth day : which one ? More or less
9-23-2011 Friday
Even after a nice night sleep I did not see much of progresses that I expected to see. This morning it did not seem any easier than last night to move around. It might take longer than what I have anticipated. Well, the recovering will rake it's own course while I tried to do my best to go along. I would continued excercises with arms and legs, in addtion to
standing excercises. But I don't think I should be up too long each time, since I could tell that last night more than 30 minutes sitting up was too long even I used arms to reduce the weight on my back as much as I could. I could feel the sour and pain of my back worsened
than before.
When I was having my breakfast of two oranges, a few longans and soy milk I watched TV which were most advertisements unbearable to me. So I was changing the chenels constantly. Finally I settled in PBS station for a while.
Checked Internet for various information, specially I spent cetain amount time to get mobile homes in Brea since the lady visited me a few days ago wanted to help a friends of her to get a home in Brea. I told her there was nothing less than $200,000. She said it is too much and might be all right to have a mobile home. I found out the fees in
those mobile parks were rediculously high: $800-950! I don't think it wad a good propersition at all. Small condo might be better.
Mind my own bussness as David always said to me. I just hated that I was reconfined in bed and not able to sit which limited my activities. I read a bit from iBook in ipad and an advertisment book that David handed to me this morning coming withe daily paper.
Chinese said " it takes 100 days at least to recover when eithe catileage or bones injured" which might have some truth and wisdom there. I needed to work on it at the same time I needed to be patient and realistic.
David bought me a nice lunch from "olive pit" with my three favorite items. I had half of it and saved the half for later.
More standing ups for very short time, arm and leg excercises were important part of my daily activities now.
Early afternoon I called Sydney try to get my son Yan. the first call did not get answer but I left a message. A hour later I called again and this time my little granddaughter Mia answered and I was so happy to talk with her. She told me she liked very much she just received a sweater I knitted and sent to her. That made my day.
I told Yan about my injuries and also ensuring him that I was doing better abs better by day. He told me to get a helper to take care of me saying regardless other's openion I should be the one to asses the need which was very true.
My neice Ling Ling called to report me about her situation. At the end of her report I told her my injuries too. She sent her regards and emphasized that I should be patients on resting in bed many weeks. I found it might be true. Today my back did not give me very good feeling.
After a short nap I heard someone coming to talk to David downstairs. A minute later the Chinese lady friend appeared at the door of my bedroom. I was cought by a big surprise. She said she got six apples, veggies, pork ribs ang jelly fish for me! My goodness gracious! I did not know she was coming, and did not have ideas she was going to bring me so much food! She was so kind and helpful. I really moved and felt I was over looked after by her. I wrote email to my brother Wang Qiang and asked him to tell the
friend of his not bother to comevisiting me again. She was so nice and I would call her if I really needed her help next time.
I had so many choices for my dinner. finally I had new bak choy, pork rib, an apple and a plum. It was very balanced meal.
I watched Aljazera TV which was close to BBC. Then I watched PBS Washington weekly which was a good program.
I did not feel to get standing or sitting up this afternoon and felt I need resting my back more and let it heal in it's own speed.
Even after a nice night sleep I did not see much of progresses that I expected to see. This morning it did not seem any easier than last night to move around. It might take longer than what I have anticipated. Well, the recovering will rake it's own course while I tried to do my best to go along. I would continued excercises with arms and legs, in addtion to
standing excercises. But I don't think I should be up too long each time, since I could tell that last night more than 30 minutes sitting up was too long even I used arms to reduce the weight on my back as much as I could. I could feel the sour and pain of my back worsened
than before.
When I was having my breakfast of two oranges, a few longans and soy milk I watched TV which were most advertisements unbearable to me. So I was changing the chenels constantly. Finally I settled in PBS station for a while.
Checked Internet for various information, specially I spent cetain amount time to get mobile homes in Brea since the lady visited me a few days ago wanted to help a friends of her to get a home in Brea. I told her there was nothing less than $200,000. She said it is too much and might be all right to have a mobile home. I found out the fees in
those mobile parks were rediculously high: $800-950! I don't think it wad a good propersition at all. Small condo might be better.
Mind my own bussness as David always said to me. I just hated that I was reconfined in bed and not able to sit which limited my activities. I read a bit from iBook in ipad and an advertisment book that David handed to me this morning coming withe daily paper.
Chinese said " it takes 100 days at least to recover when eithe catileage or bones injured" which might have some truth and wisdom there. I needed to work on it at the same time I needed to be patient and realistic.
David bought me a nice lunch from "olive pit" with my three favorite items. I had half of it and saved the half for later.
More standing ups for very short time, arm and leg excercises were important part of my daily activities now.
Early afternoon I called Sydney try to get my son Yan. the first call did not get answer but I left a message. A hour later I called again and this time my little granddaughter Mia answered and I was so happy to talk with her. She told me she liked very much she just received a sweater I knitted and sent to her. That made my day.
I told Yan about my injuries and also ensuring him that I was doing better abs better by day. He told me to get a helper to take care of me saying regardless other's openion I should be the one to asses the need which was very true.
My neice Ling Ling called to report me about her situation. At the end of her report I told her my injuries too. She sent her regards and emphasized that I should be patients on resting in bed many weeks. I found it might be true. Today my back did not give me very good feeling.
After a short nap I heard someone coming to talk to David downstairs. A minute later the Chinese lady friend appeared at the door of my bedroom. I was cought by a big surprise. She said she got six apples, veggies, pork ribs ang jelly fish for me! My goodness gracious! I did not know she was coming, and did not have ideas she was going to bring me so much food! She was so kind and helpful. I really moved and felt I was over looked after by her. I wrote email to my brother Wang Qiang and asked him to tell the
friend of his not bother to comevisiting me again. She was so nice and I would call her if I really needed her help next time.
I had so many choices for my dinner. finally I had new bak choy, pork rib, an apple and a plum. It was very balanced meal.
I watched Aljazera TV which was close to BBC. Then I watched PBS Washington weekly which was a good program.
I did not feel to get standing or sitting up this afternoon and felt I need resting my back more and let it heal in it's own speed.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Eighth day, more and more
9-22-2011 Thursday
Last night I slept very well. I think the excercise helped. Whole night long I did not need to go potty that means I need drink more fluid.
Too bad I don't have TV, at least for now. Before bed time I asked David to check the cable connection to the TV since the pictures were snowy. By doing so somehow the power line got shrot circert ( that was my guess). I hope we can fix it today and I have a plan to do so.
This mornining was foggy that meant it was going to be sunny. I had a plum, an apple and a cup of soy milk for breakfast.
I could feel my neck and shouders sour due to the stress I put on whwn I was washing my hair. Even withe one arm support my head weight was mainly supported by the neck musles. On the other hand it was good by using musles that were hardly ever stressed.
Interesting weather, it was still foggy around 10.
I had to pee since I had more water this morning but David was out for his blugguers run, I decided to use the bedpan becouraec I was not ready to go to the bathroom on my own. Somehow due to the curveture in the bed the pan tiltiled a bit and made mess. This was the worst spill. Too bad!
When David came back he tried to use a new extention cord to bypass the one next to the TV stand, it did not work either. It turned out the power cord was loose, so no wonder TV was dead, since it did not connect power!
I had to get a clean shirt since the one I was wearing was spoiled.
I asked for lunch right after noon. David was pulling my legs when I told him what I wanted for lunch. He said the pork meat I asked to put into the fridge last night was tossed out and grapes might be gone; so I just get whatever I was given. I was crossed. After a few minutes later he put two plates next to me: one was two pieces of toast, other was a bunch of grapes. I said too bad there was no pork. He said you just look. In fact he put the heated meat underneath the bread so I could not see. How tricky David was!
David said I should do more excercise which is darn right. I tried to stand up on left leg with my arm's support for two minutes then I did three mote minutes. Aslo I did various excercises with legs on bed. I think my arms were Ok since I have to use them whenever I need move. In fact I could tell the arms were overworked (just by using iPod and
ipad).
I was anxious to find out about the new features facebook announced today, but it did not seem available yet even beta version. I wondered if if I should put my blogs into facebook.
In the evening I watched part of a movie "Ocean" by Disney. It was an excellent movie with fantastic photography and real rare footages of ocean life.
Last night I slept very well. I think the excercise helped. Whole night long I did not need to go potty that means I need drink more fluid.
Too bad I don't have TV, at least for now. Before bed time I asked David to check the cable connection to the TV since the pictures were snowy. By doing so somehow the power line got shrot circert ( that was my guess). I hope we can fix it today and I have a plan to do so.
This mornining was foggy that meant it was going to be sunny. I had a plum, an apple and a cup of soy milk for breakfast.
I could feel my neck and shouders sour due to the stress I put on whwn I was washing my hair. Even withe one arm support my head weight was mainly supported by the neck musles. On the other hand it was good by using musles that were hardly ever stressed.
Interesting weather, it was still foggy around 10.
I had to pee since I had more water this morning but David was out for his blugguers run, I decided to use the bedpan becouraec I was not ready to go to the bathroom on my own. Somehow due to the curveture in the bed the pan tiltiled a bit and made mess. This was the worst spill. Too bad!
When David came back he tried to use a new extention cord to bypass the one next to the TV stand, it did not work either. It turned out the power cord was loose, so no wonder TV was dead, since it did not connect power!
I had to get a clean shirt since the one I was wearing was spoiled.
I asked for lunch right after noon. David was pulling my legs when I told him what I wanted for lunch. He said the pork meat I asked to put into the fridge last night was tossed out and grapes might be gone; so I just get whatever I was given. I was crossed. After a few minutes later he put two plates next to me: one was two pieces of toast, other was a bunch of grapes. I said too bad there was no pork. He said you just look. In fact he put the heated meat underneath the bread so I could not see. How tricky David was!
David said I should do more excercise which is darn right. I tried to stand up on left leg with my arm's support for two minutes then I did three mote minutes. Aslo I did various excercises with legs on bed. I think my arms were Ok since I have to use them whenever I need move. In fact I could tell the arms were overworked (just by using iPod and
ipad).
I was anxious to find out about the new features facebook announced today, but it did not seem available yet even beta version. I wondered if if I should put my blogs into facebook.
In the evening I watched part of a movie "Ocean" by Disney. It was an excellent movie with fantastic photography and real rare footages of ocean life.
Seventh day
9-21-2011 Wednesday
I did not have a good sleep last night. The pain was not bad but my dirty hair was bothersome that made me sleepless. Around 12:30 I was up at the ceiling and doing leg excercise. Finally I got to sleep and woke up early.
The first thing I asked David to help after he got up was fetch a washing pan with warm water and put the pan on a chair, place the chair as close to the bed edge as possible. I put a plastic bag at the edge of the bed next to the water pan. Facing up I carefully laid my back on the plastic bag and stucked out my neck and head on top of the water pan which was siting on the chair and touched the bed edge. By one hand holding my neck I use the other hand to wash my hair. It was not easy job to shampoo, scrach, rings in this awkward posture. David changed the water several times, finally I did what I planed to do. I was glad that I found a way to wash my hair even I was bed bound Since dirty hair was unbearable and not only my mood but also my sleep.
After the exhusting job I relaxed in bed by watching TV for a while.
It was 8:45 when David came up again. I was starving I told him and I wanted orenge, longan (a Chinese fruit yersterday our lady friend bought forvme from a Chinese market) and soy milk. I felt it was a long waiting when David went downstairs to prepear all the stuff for me. After the big breakfast I called Kaiser to cancel an appontment made a week ago to see a arthopidics for the heel bone crack on my right foot since I was not able to go and according to David it was not even necessary anyway.
Somehow I was more tired today than previous days. I think not good sleep last night and washing hair in such odd way were the contributing facts. But at least the back pain was much less severe than yesterday. When David was out for his Blugguer run I just relaxed
then started a short documentary netflix movie: saving the ocean, reef sharks. It was about 50 minutes long. Right at the end of the movie David came back.
I was starving again I told him. He got me pork with onion which was cooked yesterday by my lady friend, waterlon and a yellow peach. AfteI gobbled down the pork and the melon there was no room for the peach. It will be my snack I told David.
After checked emails and read news on my iPod and other routines I felt do sleepy and went to a long nap which lasted mare than 1:30. Good. I hope it will not ruin my night sleep.
The weather was getting warmer than what I would like, so I needed more water in the afternoon. My yesterday's visitor replied my thanks email by sending me a long story about her few poor friends which was interesting. She insisted on wanting to get my son Lei from LAX to home by her way- metrolink and buses even after I told her my son already booked a car rental at LAX. Is she a odd woman?
Following daily excercise routine took disipline as well as time. As my physical condition had been improved more excercise time and strength would be required. I planed in few days I could add 3 lb weight for my arm excercise.
I stopped to use bedpan for now. But I need help to get into the wheelchair and move from wheelchair to sit on the toilet. I am looking forward to the day I can move around without help. I wonder how many days would it be? I bet a week. We will see.
I had good BBQ pork slider which David brought back from Luccious for dinner. It was good and we always liked the resturaunt well. David said it might be his favorite one.
Watched Rick Steve's Europe for a half hour, Granada on southern tip of Spain, next to Gibraltar Strait.
I did not have a good sleep last night. The pain was not bad but my dirty hair was bothersome that made me sleepless. Around 12:30 I was up at the ceiling and doing leg excercise. Finally I got to sleep and woke up early.
The first thing I asked David to help after he got up was fetch a washing pan with warm water and put the pan on a chair, place the chair as close to the bed edge as possible. I put a plastic bag at the edge of the bed next to the water pan. Facing up I carefully laid my back on the plastic bag and stucked out my neck and head on top of the water pan which was siting on the chair and touched the bed edge. By one hand holding my neck I use the other hand to wash my hair. It was not easy job to shampoo, scrach, rings in this awkward posture. David changed the water several times, finally I did what I planed to do. I was glad that I found a way to wash my hair even I was bed bound Since dirty hair was unbearable and not only my mood but also my sleep.
After the exhusting job I relaxed in bed by watching TV for a while.
It was 8:45 when David came up again. I was starving I told him and I wanted orenge, longan (a Chinese fruit yersterday our lady friend bought forvme from a Chinese market) and soy milk. I felt it was a long waiting when David went downstairs to prepear all the stuff for me. After the big breakfast I called Kaiser to cancel an appontment made a week ago to see a arthopidics for the heel bone crack on my right foot since I was not able to go and according to David it was not even necessary anyway.
Somehow I was more tired today than previous days. I think not good sleep last night and washing hair in such odd way were the contributing facts. But at least the back pain was much less severe than yesterday. When David was out for his Blugguer run I just relaxed
then started a short documentary netflix movie: saving the ocean, reef sharks. It was about 50 minutes long. Right at the end of the movie David came back.
I was starving again I told him. He got me pork with onion which was cooked yesterday by my lady friend, waterlon and a yellow peach. AfteI gobbled down the pork and the melon there was no room for the peach. It will be my snack I told David.
After checked emails and read news on my iPod and other routines I felt do sleepy and went to a long nap which lasted mare than 1:30. Good. I hope it will not ruin my night sleep.
The weather was getting warmer than what I would like, so I needed more water in the afternoon. My yesterday's visitor replied my thanks email by sending me a long story about her few poor friends which was interesting. She insisted on wanting to get my son Lei from LAX to home by her way- metrolink and buses even after I told her my son already booked a car rental at LAX. Is she a odd woman?
Following daily excercise routine took disipline as well as time. As my physical condition had been improved more excercise time and strength would be required. I planed in few days I could add 3 lb weight for my arm excercise.
I stopped to use bedpan for now. But I need help to get into the wheelchair and move from wheelchair to sit on the toilet. I am looking forward to the day I can move around without help. I wonder how many days would it be? I bet a week. We will see.
I had good BBQ pork slider which David brought back from Luccious for dinner. It was good and we always liked the resturaunt well. David said it might be his favorite one.
Watched Rick Steve's Europe for a half hour, Granada on southern tip of Spain, next to Gibraltar Strait.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Sixth day: one more visitor
9-20-2011 Tuesday
I had a setback. Whole night the back pain was persistant through not severe. I figured the reason was that I had sat in the wheelchair last night to brush teeth sinceI felt I wad strong enough to sit next to the wash basin in the bathroom. The problem was that while the chair was lined along with the basin while I tried to face the basin to brush my teeth. The posture required a twist of my body to accomedatevthe task. After the teeth brushed I could feel the pain was getting stronger. That was a bad judgement.
Next question was pain medication. Taking or not taking, this is the question. I'll take mild kinds if the pain is so bad it might get me fainted or make me unable to sleep. If it did not work then I take a bit stronger kinds. Most cases I just let the body going through necessary healing process. Yesterday the physics therepist said if I don't take the pain medication then the recovering process will be prolonged. My openion about it was that a patient should do whatever one could bear to do. The pain is a signal body menifast it's problems. By pain drug to force the body do more obviously to me will do more hurm than good.
If tonight the pain is resistant sure I'll rake Alevel to make sure a good sleep.
Around 10:20 my brother's fraind Ge-zhen arrived with all the goodies for me. Early morning I got her email to tell me she was a brave one with lots of advantures in life. Some problems with taking buses were just a small potato. That was good that she had a positive atitute when she had some bumps on the road.
I was glad to see her arrival afrly and expedietly oppsite to the troubled trip that caused all the worries yesterday I experienced. First she put a bag of tengerines on my side befor she sat down to talk to me. After a Shetland chatt she went downstairs to prepear
dishes for me. First I got a bowl of young bak choys. Then she brought up a small cntaner with braised fish which she bought from the market and was one of my faveraite dish. We talked a lot. Then she cooked some onions whichvwas what I asked her to get for me. Her visit last more than three hours half of which we were just chatting. She seemmed
pretty talkative which was just fine with me.
Today I did not feel as strong as yerstetday afternoon, so most time I just laid on the bed resting. I tried to do some leg excercises too which was very minimum. Hope the setback will be oversoon. David's Den called to invite father to play golf as he often did. David turned it down and told him all the things happened to me from the beginning.
Well what can I do?
I had good dinner after David came back from his dinner. I think it worked out nicely with the food the Chinese friend cooked fo me. After dinner I watched PBS TV abot antique roadshows from UK followed by an American which was fun always to me
I had a setback. Whole night the back pain was persistant through not severe. I figured the reason was that I had sat in the wheelchair last night to brush teeth sinceI felt I wad strong enough to sit next to the wash basin in the bathroom. The problem was that while the chair was lined along with the basin while I tried to face the basin to brush my teeth. The posture required a twist of my body to accomedatevthe task. After the teeth brushed I could feel the pain was getting stronger. That was a bad judgement.
Next question was pain medication. Taking or not taking, this is the question. I'll take mild kinds if the pain is so bad it might get me fainted or make me unable to sleep. If it did not work then I take a bit stronger kinds. Most cases I just let the body going through necessary healing process. Yesterday the physics therepist said if I don't take the pain medication then the recovering process will be prolonged. My openion about it was that a patient should do whatever one could bear to do. The pain is a signal body menifast it's problems. By pain drug to force the body do more obviously to me will do more hurm than good.
If tonight the pain is resistant sure I'll rake Alevel to make sure a good sleep.
Around 10:20 my brother's fraind Ge-zhen arrived with all the goodies for me. Early morning I got her email to tell me she was a brave one with lots of advantures in life. Some problems with taking buses were just a small potato. That was good that she had a positive atitute when she had some bumps on the road.
I was glad to see her arrival afrly and expedietly oppsite to the troubled trip that caused all the worries yesterday I experienced. First she put a bag of tengerines on my side befor she sat down to talk to me. After a Shetland chatt she went downstairs to prepear
dishes for me. First I got a bowl of young bak choys. Then she brought up a small cntaner with braised fish which she bought from the market and was one of my faveraite dish. We talked a lot. Then she cooked some onions whichvwas what I asked her to get for me. Her visit last more than three hours half of which we were just chatting. She seemmed
pretty talkative which was just fine with me.
Today I did not feel as strong as yerstetday afternoon, so most time I just laid on the bed resting. I tried to do some leg excercises too which was very minimum. Hope the setback will be oversoon. David's Den called to invite father to play golf as he often did. David turned it down and told him all the things happened to me from the beginning.
Well what can I do?
I had good dinner after David came back from his dinner. I think it worked out nicely with the food the Chinese friend cooked fo me. After dinner I watched PBS TV abot antique roadshows from UK followed by an American which was fun always to me
Fifth day: a visitor
9-19-2011 Monday
With a certein improvment in hand I was a bit releaved. Talking with Wang Qiang (my brother in Vancouver) I decided that I need to get more food, specially more vegitables (onions, greens). Last night before bed time, with help from David and the wheelchair I
was able to get into the bathroom next to our bedroom. But with all the effort I was not able to get a bowel movement going. We decided that this morning I take a pill which I just did around 8 am.
Around 9 am when I checked emails I found Lei (my son working at Yale University) already booked a trip coming to see me. I was really moved and felt fortunate to have such good son, yet regrated for telling him about my falls. He is a super busy man. All the extra time he spends for me had to come from his free time which he does not have much to begin with. Yesterday on the phone I told him do not come, but he did what he wanted to
do. I know it was all for me and that made me to feel guilty. The physical therepy called and will be here after 10.
The physical therepist showed up at 10:39. First she went over what medications I was taking. That was simple since I only took two proscription drugs and I showed the bottles to her. Then she typed in on her computer and got a person on the phone. She asked about over the counter drugs. I told her I took multiplevitemine daily and calcium tablet. Even I showed her the calcium tablet bottle. But she went on to ask me all the proscriptions over many years when I had been with Kaiser. It was really a useless and wastful procedure that I had put up with, not to mention the cost the Medicare had to pay this nonsense. From previous experience we had during the times after David had few major operations, the physical therepist home visitings were most wastful and least cost/benifit effective procedure that American Medical System ever created. At least the bulk of it.
After almost one hour, can anyone believe it? Whole hour in my case which would be one for the simplest medication patients was spent on checking my medications, even I told her multiple times that what I was taking were just from two bottles with original Kaiser pharmacy labels. Then she breifly told me several simple leg and arm excercises that I
should be doing three times a day. Ah well, I had been doing all along already.
Then she asked me if I could get up and sit. I told her I did what ever I could yersteday and I am going to do more today. But I am not yet be able to sit up without my arms support. After she pushed the wheelchair next to the bed I managed to move myself to the chair in
less than two minutes I sat on the chair with my arm support for a few minutes. Back to bed I went. I thought it will be it. No. She dragged on and on by asking question from a folder while with the attention I could have paid no more. She asked me how I manage some emergency situation like a fire. She reminded we needed a week supply reserved. On an on for all the things every householder was aware. Why do we need home visiting from a Heath insuarance campany to repeat these? Finally she asked me to sign few documents one of which was the termination of more further physical therepist home visitings. I was willingly put my signature there. After such a long time she finally finished.
Thank goodness, it was over. That was a long and tiresome event. I learned that if I have a similar situation next time ( keep fingers crossed, hope not) never to agree for a physical therepy home visit. After David left for his blugguers run I ate an apple as my brother (Wang Qiang in Vancouver Canada).
Right in the middle of the mess I got a call from Wang Qiang's friend who lives in Buena Park and would like to help me in my need. She told me she was going to a 99 Ranch Market somewhere , then get all the food I want then take buses to my home. My golly. I tried to stop her but she made her mind and decided to come. All right. But whole afternoon she did not show. Around 4:30 David got a call from her and was informed that she was on bus and wanted to make sure our street is next to Apricot av. So I thought she was well on the way. After one hour she did not arrive that got me worried so I phoned her cell phone but got no answer. After 30 minutes I tried again and still
no answer. It was close to 6pm and I called her home. Her husband answered the phone. I told him the situation, he said she was experienced with the bus system plus she had phone so there was no need to worry about. I did not know what else I could do but waiting.
Before David headed out I asked him to bring a watermelon into the kitchen sink dincs I was expecting my lady fraind tired, hot and thirsty. One hour later I got her call from which she told me that she had ready walked 6 miles or so; right now she was in Krammer and Orangethorpe crossing which was almost ten miles from our home. What a
bad drama!
I felt so guilty to course such trouble for a kindhearted lady. I told her to call her husband to pick her up but she said it was easy to get back home. In any case I told that she had to head home mo matter what. Then the phone went sialent. I tried to call her back and no
viel. I called her home and told her husband the terrible situation. He said he'll call her right back even after I told her tha lt the phone went dead in the middle of our conversation. It was around 9 I emailed Ge-zhen ( the fraind) to express my concern and gratitude. 9:20 I got phone call from her who just arrived home with pretty upbeat tune. She started talking about what good experience it was for her. What ever. I could be releaved from the guilty feeling.
With a certein improvment in hand I was a bit releaved. Talking with Wang Qiang (my brother in Vancouver) I decided that I need to get more food, specially more vegitables (onions, greens). Last night before bed time, with help from David and the wheelchair I
was able to get into the bathroom next to our bedroom. But with all the effort I was not able to get a bowel movement going. We decided that this morning I take a pill which I just did around 8 am.
Around 9 am when I checked emails I found Lei (my son working at Yale University) already booked a trip coming to see me. I was really moved and felt fortunate to have such good son, yet regrated for telling him about my falls. He is a super busy man. All the extra time he spends for me had to come from his free time which he does not have much to begin with. Yesterday on the phone I told him do not come, but he did what he wanted to
do. I know it was all for me and that made me to feel guilty. The physical therepy called and will be here after 10.
The physical therepist showed up at 10:39. First she went over what medications I was taking. That was simple since I only took two proscription drugs and I showed the bottles to her. Then she typed in on her computer and got a person on the phone. She asked about over the counter drugs. I told her I took multiplevitemine daily and calcium tablet. Even I showed her the calcium tablet bottle. But she went on to ask me all the proscriptions over many years when I had been with Kaiser. It was really a useless and wastful procedure that I had put up with, not to mention the cost the Medicare had to pay this nonsense. From previous experience we had during the times after David had few major operations, the physical therepist home visitings were most wastful and least cost/benifit effective procedure that American Medical System ever created. At least the bulk of it.
After almost one hour, can anyone believe it? Whole hour in my case which would be one for the simplest medication patients was spent on checking my medications, even I told her multiple times that what I was taking were just from two bottles with original Kaiser pharmacy labels. Then she breifly told me several simple leg and arm excercises that I
should be doing three times a day. Ah well, I had been doing all along already.
Then she asked me if I could get up and sit. I told her I did what ever I could yersteday and I am going to do more today. But I am not yet be able to sit up without my arms support. After she pushed the wheelchair next to the bed I managed to move myself to the chair in
less than two minutes I sat on the chair with my arm support for a few minutes. Back to bed I went. I thought it will be it. No. She dragged on and on by asking question from a folder while with the attention I could have paid no more. She asked me how I manage some emergency situation like a fire. She reminded we needed a week supply reserved. On an on for all the things every householder was aware. Why do we need home visiting from a Heath insuarance campany to repeat these? Finally she asked me to sign few documents one of which was the termination of more further physical therepist home visitings. I was willingly put my signature there. After such a long time she finally finished.
Thank goodness, it was over. That was a long and tiresome event. I learned that if I have a similar situation next time ( keep fingers crossed, hope not) never to agree for a physical therepy home visit. After David left for his blugguers run I ate an apple as my brother (Wang Qiang in Vancouver Canada).
Right in the middle of the mess I got a call from Wang Qiang's friend who lives in Buena Park and would like to help me in my need. She told me she was going to a 99 Ranch Market somewhere , then get all the food I want then take buses to my home. My golly. I tried to stop her but she made her mind and decided to come. All right. But whole afternoon she did not show. Around 4:30 David got a call from her and was informed that she was on bus and wanted to make sure our street is next to Apricot av. So I thought she was well on the way. After one hour she did not arrive that got me worried so I phoned her cell phone but got no answer. After 30 minutes I tried again and still
no answer. It was close to 6pm and I called her home. Her husband answered the phone. I told him the situation, he said she was experienced with the bus system plus she had phone so there was no need to worry about. I did not know what else I could do but waiting.
Before David headed out I asked him to bring a watermelon into the kitchen sink dincs I was expecting my lady fraind tired, hot and thirsty. One hour later I got her call from which she told me that she had ready walked 6 miles or so; right now she was in Krammer and Orangethorpe crossing which was almost ten miles from our home. What a
bad drama!
I felt so guilty to course such trouble for a kindhearted lady. I told her to call her husband to pick her up but she said it was easy to get back home. In any case I told that she had to head home mo matter what. Then the phone went sialent. I tried to call her back and no
viel. I called her home and told her husband the terrible situation. He said he'll call her right back even after I told her tha lt the phone went dead in the middle of our conversation. It was around 9 I emailed Ge-zhen ( the fraind) to express my concern and gratitude. 9:20 I got phone call from her who just arrived home with pretty upbeat tune. She started talking about what good experience it was for her. What ever. I could be releaved from the guilty feeling.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Fourth day: Sunday
9-18-2011 Sunday
Bad sleep last night. Too much going on in my head and there was no
way to stop, thinking of my late mother, all the relatives who passed
away from their last falls, worry about my own fate and health. Also the
superman actor Christopher Reeve appeared in my mind too. It must had been extreamly hard to live with quadripeligic conditon for so many years. Over all I should feel Ok and do what ever it takes to speed my recoshorten and shorten the bed time. I got a call to informme on Monday a physical
therapist is coming to help me. I'll try my best to cooperate.
Sundays are David's golf days but he stayed at home for me. That is very
nice of him to do. Around 10, before he headed out for his usual blugguers run he said I should do more excercise. I think he was right so after he left I tried to sit up. It was better than yesterday, I could hold myself up by right arm's support.
Strangely the left part of my middle back was hurting badly, while
right side was much less painful, yet I had to use right arm to support my
weight in order to avoid the excuciate pain. I even managed to touch the flour
and stood on the good foot while I stll used my arms to support my body.
But all in all it was better than yesterday and I was encouraged by
the tinny progress. After David came back I gladly reported the good
news. I demonstrated all the procedures to him and he was glad too.
I had grapes for snack. Afternoon under David help I was able to use
the wheelchair to go to the restroom to pee! It was a good step forward.
Lei called and had a good chat. He said he might have a few days free and wanted to come to see me. I stopped his comming since I know he
is always super busy and I don't want him to spend few days for me
while it was not necessary. Of course when the need really rises I
would not hesitate to ask his help. He is a such super son, no need to
mention how great husband and father he is. I am really very proud of
him.
I made egg and cucumber sandwich which made a mess by falling apart
all over the bed. Now I don't worry about it since I can wipe it off from the
the bed myself. So writing every step of the recovering and obstacle became one of my important activities every day. It was good for me.
Later afternoon I tried two more times getting up and sit up. Somehow my left part of the back had worse condition than the right side. I guess it was caused due to the fact when I fell, somehow I instantly avoided falling on right side while my right foot was already injured. So landing on the left side of my body produced the heavy injury on the left side of the back. Somehow, doctor and radiology did not mention it in any way. In emergency rooms they don't look at things so closely unless one was really dying. Self awareness was the first step to a speedy recovery. No one could know me better than myself.
I had soup and white chicken meat for dinner. It was a lot.
I was told onions and grapefruit were good source to straiten bones. So I need get more vegetables tomorrow.
Bad sleep last night. Too much going on in my head and there was no
way to stop, thinking of my late mother, all the relatives who passed
away from their last falls, worry about my own fate and health. Also the
superman actor Christopher Reeve appeared in my mind too. It must had been extreamly hard to live with quadripeligic conditon for so many years. Over all I should feel Ok and do what ever it takes to speed my recoshorten and shorten the bed time. I got a call to informme on Monday a physical
therapist is coming to help me. I'll try my best to cooperate.
Sundays are David's golf days but he stayed at home for me. That is very
nice of him to do. Around 10, before he headed out for his usual blugguers run he said I should do more excercise. I think he was right so after he left I tried to sit up. It was better than yesterday, I could hold myself up by right arm's support.
Strangely the left part of my middle back was hurting badly, while
right side was much less painful, yet I had to use right arm to support my
weight in order to avoid the excuciate pain. I even managed to touch the flour
and stood on the good foot while I stll used my arms to support my body.
But all in all it was better than yesterday and I was encouraged by
the tinny progress. After David came back I gladly reported the good
news. I demonstrated all the procedures to him and he was glad too.
I had grapes for snack. Afternoon under David help I was able to use
the wheelchair to go to the restroom to pee! It was a good step forward.
Lei called and had a good chat. He said he might have a few days free and wanted to come to see me. I stopped his comming since I know he
is always super busy and I don't want him to spend few days for me
while it was not necessary. Of course when the need really rises I
would not hesitate to ask his help. He is a such super son, no need to
mention how great husband and father he is. I am really very proud of
him.
I made egg and cucumber sandwich which made a mess by falling apart
all over the bed. Now I don't worry about it since I can wipe it off from the
the bed myself. So writing every step of the recovering and obstacle became one of my important activities every day. It was good for me.
Later afternoon I tried two more times getting up and sit up. Somehow my left part of the back had worse condition than the right side. I guess it was caused due to the fact when I fell, somehow I instantly avoided falling on right side while my right foot was already injured. So landing on the left side of my body produced the heavy injury on the left side of the back. Somehow, doctor and radiology did not mention it in any way. In emergency rooms they don't look at things so closely unless one was really dying. Self awareness was the first step to a speedy recovery. No one could know me better than myself.
I had soup and white chicken meat for dinner. It was a lot.
I was told onions and grapefruit were good source to straiten bones. So I need get more vegetables tomorrow.
Third day: Cope with
9-17-2011
Last night was not too bad. Every thing was on the table now. Who
knows how long I have to be bed bound. Strange, the equipments we
ordered were not delivered as they were promised. Right after 7 am I
called to check it out. Then I was connected with the apparatuses
contract company that was from where the equipments were shipped out. I was not given any reason why they did not deliver, in stead the woman on
the phone said ok we can deliver to you Monday. No, noway. I was
supposed to get them yesterday and I need them right now! Then she
said all right I'll arrange it if it is possible. I insisted on that today
is the day I was going to have them. After 2 hours I called again.
This time I got a definite ansewr: the delivering truck was one stop
away from my home and they'll arrive around noon. So it was.
What for lunch David asked. I remembered there was a cauliflower in
the fridge so I just asked David to boil it then put some olive oil so
a old piece of pizza and cauliflower was my lunch. Somehow after
the lunch my belly started grouching badly. I suspected the culprit was
the pizza.
While I have been in bed I had a strange thought: many eldlies died out
of last falls. Am I an elderly? Will this be my last fall? Better think
something positive and constructive. My arms and legs were fine so that
I can do some sort of exercises to strengthen them. Moving a leg up
and down then altered while I laid on my back. Leg movement was bothersome for my back, but bearable. On the vicinity where I could reach, my ipad was the weight for the arm exercise, not heavy enough though, better than none.
Then I checked the Internet for more info about compression fracture and realized my late mother surffered from severe compression fracture that was why she shrunk at least a couple of inches in height and had sharp pains in her back from time to time. When I asked her doctors many times about her back pain, no one mentioned about the fractures, yet told us that osteoporosis was a silent desease and did not manifest it's symptoms.
Now I realized that this statement definitly was not right, at lease
it was incomplete. 80% of copression fractures occured in osteoporosis
patients gradually who experienced various degrees of discomfort inuding
sharp pain which was my late mothers symptoms. If I knew it I could let
her taking some pain medication to ease her suffering.
It was so frustrating that one could not perform the simple task, such as washing one self, brushing teeth, drinking water. I wonder how long I could last without going insane! I tried moving sideway in bed. It took me five minutes to move a foot or so with so much sweat. Good thing was I have itouch and iPad to keep me entertained and occupied. I use itouch more since it was small and light. When one was bed bound every ounce counts. I have to say my old itouch was one of my best purchase in terms of cost and benefit ratio. But iPad was more fun. I hope soon I can enjoy it more when I get more mobile.
My brother called from his home in Florida since we have weekly short conversation as our routine I told him what happened to me. He told me that a friend of him tripped at his own entry door step, then fell down. The result of the fall was his shin bone broken into three pieces! Then he found out he had osteoporosis!
Later afternoon I thought it had been more then two days I did not
have a bowel movement, in case I needed I sould be ready. So I asked for
David's assistance to see if I could move into the wheelchair or the
canoe. My attemp failled and I realized I was not ready.
I had tomato basil soup with cauliflower for dinner and the gas
problem did not ease up at all. I talked with hannah ( my daughter in law in east coast) and she felt sorry for me since she thought I had been super active all the time, laying in bed was a punishment for poor me. That was all right. I knew life is not fair. We just have to make most of it. Good thing was finally David located my iPad charger which was so important to me.
Last night was not too bad. Every thing was on the table now. Who
knows how long I have to be bed bound. Strange, the equipments we
ordered were not delivered as they were promised. Right after 7 am I
called to check it out. Then I was connected with the apparatuses
contract company that was from where the equipments were shipped out. I was not given any reason why they did not deliver, in stead the woman on
the phone said ok we can deliver to you Monday. No, noway. I was
supposed to get them yesterday and I need them right now! Then she
said all right I'll arrange it if it is possible. I insisted on that today
is the day I was going to have them. After 2 hours I called again.
This time I got a definite ansewr: the delivering truck was one stop
away from my home and they'll arrive around noon. So it was.
What for lunch David asked. I remembered there was a cauliflower in
the fridge so I just asked David to boil it then put some olive oil so
a old piece of pizza and cauliflower was my lunch. Somehow after
the lunch my belly started grouching badly. I suspected the culprit was
the pizza.
While I have been in bed I had a strange thought: many eldlies died out
of last falls. Am I an elderly? Will this be my last fall? Better think
something positive and constructive. My arms and legs were fine so that
I can do some sort of exercises to strengthen them. Moving a leg up
and down then altered while I laid on my back. Leg movement was bothersome for my back, but bearable. On the vicinity where I could reach, my ipad was the weight for the arm exercise, not heavy enough though, better than none.
Then I checked the Internet for more info about compression fracture and realized my late mother surffered from severe compression fracture that was why she shrunk at least a couple of inches in height and had sharp pains in her back from time to time. When I asked her doctors many times about her back pain, no one mentioned about the fractures, yet told us that osteoporosis was a silent desease and did not manifest it's symptoms.
Now I realized that this statement definitly was not right, at lease
it was incomplete. 80% of copression fractures occured in osteoporosis
patients gradually who experienced various degrees of discomfort inuding
sharp pain which was my late mothers symptoms. If I knew it I could let
her taking some pain medication to ease her suffering.
It was so frustrating that one could not perform the simple task, such as washing one self, brushing teeth, drinking water. I wonder how long I could last without going insane! I tried moving sideway in bed. It took me five minutes to move a foot or so with so much sweat. Good thing was I have itouch and iPad to keep me entertained and occupied. I use itouch more since it was small and light. When one was bed bound every ounce counts. I have to say my old itouch was one of my best purchase in terms of cost and benefit ratio. But iPad was more fun. I hope soon I can enjoy it more when I get more mobile.
My brother called from his home in Florida since we have weekly short conversation as our routine I told him what happened to me. He told me that a friend of him tripped at his own entry door step, then fell down. The result of the fall was his shin bone broken into three pieces! Then he found out he had osteoporosis!
Later afternoon I thought it had been more then two days I did not
have a bowel movement, in case I needed I sould be ready. So I asked for
David's assistance to see if I could move into the wheelchair or the
canoe. My attemp failled and I realized I was not ready.
I had tomato basil soup with cauliflower for dinner and the gas
problem did not ease up at all. I talked with hannah ( my daughter in law in east coast) and she felt sorry for me since she thought I had been super active all the time, laying in bed was a punishment for poor me. That was all right. I knew life is not fair. We just have to make most of it. Good thing was finally David located my iPad charger which was so important to me.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Second day: emergency room
9-16-2011
In the morning what first I asked my husband David to help was to bring my purse and phone to me. I called my health insurance Kaiser Permanente and asked for a stretcher and van to bring me to the hospital.
the woman in the phone asked all the usual questions. Finally she
asked if I had hard time to breath. I said no. Then she asked if I
could stand up, I answered no and told her again I could not even sit
up, let alone stand up. Then she suggested me to call 911. I told her
it was not a life threaterning situation, I just needed to get medical
attention to see how bad the situation was and get a proper treatment.
She emphersized to me that was her suggestion to call 911 and I needed to understand the risks and all of that. I told her that I understood perfectly. Finally she told me she will talk to someone and see if they could make some transportation arrangement for me. Shortly she called back and told me a medical van and two people will come and take me to lake view center kp emergincy room. I said urgent care will do, but she said definitely to the emergency room. Well I guess it was their policy.
Less than 30 minutes the van arrived. Two personals helped me turn on my side and slid a very thin stretcher under me. It was awful when they carried me dowstairs when they could not keep the stretcher leveled. Then I was heading to Anaheim Lake View medical center of kp. The stretcher was very uncomfortable: hard and lumpy; it seemed there was no cushion at all. How does it accomadate any really sick patients? The guy who took my blood pressure and pause did not seem to know how.
Anyway I was in the emergency room shortly. After all the standard
procedures I had an armband on my wrist. The room was very cold, I was
given a couple of blankets. After about 20 minutes a woman doctor came
and asked all the usual questions what happened? How painful from
1-10? where is the most pain from? Then she said as I expected: we
need to take X Ray before to make diagnosis. Of course. Then she left.
I felt the room was getting colder, that my left foot started the cramp.
Then the cramp extended to the shin the pain from the cramp was almost
as bad as my back. Trying to ease the pain and warm the left foot I
put it on my right leg. Nobody was here to help.
Another long waiting, finally a guy showed up in front of me. I knew what he was going todo, but before he opened his mouth, I said to him about the cramp of my left foot and very painful, because it was too cold. He was not deternned: I need to take X Ray pictures for you first, right after I'll find warm blankets for you. Fortunately the X Ray room was much better and my
cramp was pretty much releaved. After many X-Ray exporsions I was
pushed back to the station number 15. There were many stations in the
facility. The X Ray guy got me two warm blanket to ease my suffering.
David showed up not long after my x Ray procedure. He had an
appointment for dental procedure which was not pleasant either. We
were waiting for the verdict from reading of the x Ray. David felt the
room was way too cold so he went back to his car to fatch an overcoat.
Soon the doctor showed up and informed me there was a fracture where my
back pain was. I asked which bone, she said t11. I guess it was the
one right in the middle of the back where was my pain located. Soon a
nurse came in with bunch of injection equipments and said to me you
need some medication. I asked what were they for? Pain medication. I
said wait minute, I don't need pain medication. She said yes you do.
That time David came back and asked what pain medication she was going
to give to me. one was morphine. David said ah , no she can take that.
Why? She does not have much of tolerance for pretty much anything let
alone morphine. Ok, the nurse said and put away all the injection
stuff. I was given a couple of tylonone. Nurse told us what I was
going to need, wheelchair, walker, komod, bedpan.... I said no walker,
and I don't know when I could use wheelchair. Right now I could
hardly wiggle my body in bed with great effort and bearable pain, but
there is no way I could sit up, let alone stand. Any treatment for
this sort of injuries? None, other than paill killers. Worst fradcture
might require surgeries but outcomes were not faverable at all. My
situation requires long time of recovery based on the fact that I have osteoporosis.
Now I was going to be discharged. A case manager was going to talk to us about options we had. Waiting again.
The emergency place was quite and orderly. People walked on the
corredor, all the paitients were in their own stations. The nurse was
very kind that she printed out one page of the x Ray report and
showed us where and how the fracture looked like. It was t12 the spine
bone was crashed so the space of the bones was about a third narrower
than other t bone spaces. I read the discription : the compression fracture.
Finally the case manager came. She explained that kp does not provide
patient transportation, if we wanted she cod make arrangement for us
and we had to pay from our porket. David sId fine. Then she arranged a
physical thereapy for me and I will be contacted. After all the
arrangements were made David left for groceries and blugguers while I
was waiting for the trsnpotation. Before long two guys came in the
room. One looked as he was in charge, and he took many pairs of gloves from a glove box on the wall and handdled quite few to other guy. Don't they need
gloves? Do they have their own equipments? I wondered but kept silent.
They tried to use the bedsheet I layed on to scoop me from the
hospital bed into their stretcher then I said it is hospital sheet, the
guy in charge said it was ok, so they just lift me with the sheet and
laied me on their bed. Before leaving the emergency room one guy
grabbed a white sheet from a desk to cover me. What was going on I was
totally lost.
In fact the stretcher was much more comfortable than the one took me to the hospital. The van looked cleaner and roommer than the early one.
One surprise I got from the station 15 was the nurse told us the medical trasportation costs $600! Wow. It was only about 12 miles. The one took me back which was non emergency transportation was much cheaper, if only wheelchair was requrired in stead of stretcher then it could be half of what we were charged for, since I was not able to sit, the stretcher was necessary.
Funny thig was that they did not have stretcher after all and only have the moble bed, so when we arrived our home they wanted scoop me by the sheet to upstairs since they did not want to carry the heavy bed upstairs. I
rejected their bad idea and asked why they did not have a normal
stretcher, the answer was a stretcher was used in another vehicle.
What kind of reasons it was. Well, I needed to be carried upstair to my
own bed on this moble bed that was what we paied for. Luckly I was so
light, even with the heavy bed they were able to do.
I layed in my bed with agany and was very sad.
Meanwhile I had to do certain things. First checking compression
fracture on the internet I found t11 and t12 were the most common bones
to get the fractures. When David came back I was starving.l gabbled down yourgut an orange a piece of bread and felt better.
All I could do was laying in bed. I asked the doctor in the emergency
room how long to recover from such injuries, she said don't know. So after I finished my food I went back to check the info about the fracture on Internet. 80% of the compression fracture occured in people with osteoporosis gradually. There were usually several t bones involved, the cosequency of which not only coursed pain in the back also the patients hieght and posture will be affected due to thecalapes of the spine bones. Time to rest since9-16-2011
First I asked David to help is to bring my purse and phone to me. I
called kp and asked for a stachur and van to bring me to the hospital.
the woman in the phone asked all the usual questions. Finally she
asked if I have hard time to breath. I said no. Then she asked if I
can stand up, I answered no and told her again I could not even sit
up, let alone stand up. Then she suggested me to call 911. I told her
it is not life threaterning situation, I just need to get medical
attention to see how bad the situation was and get a proper treatment.
She emphersized to me that was her suggestion and I need to understand
the risks and all of that. Finally she told me she will talk to
someone and see if they can make some transportation for me. Shortly
she called back and told me a medical van and two people will come and
take me to lake view center kp emergincy room. I said regent care will
do, but she said definitely to the emergency room. Less than 30
minutes the van arrived. Two personals helped me turn on my side and
slid a very thin strachuer under me. It was awful when they carried
the stacher dowstairs when they could not keep the stechur leveled.
Then I was heading to Anaheim Lake View medical center of kp. The
Strachey was very uncomfortable: hard and lumpy; it seemed there was
no cushion at all. How does it accomadate any really sick patients?
The guy who took my blood pressure and pause did not seem to know how.
Anyway I was in the emergency room shortly. After all the standard
procedue I had an armband on my wrist. The room was very cold, I was
given a coupe of blankets. After about 20 minutes woman doctor came
and asked all the usual questions what happened? How painful from
1-10? where is the most pain from? Then she said as I expected: we
need to take X Ray before to make diagnosis. Of course. Then she left.
Ifrlt the room was getting cold, that my left foot started cramp.
Then the cramp extended to the shin the pain fom the cramp was almost
as bad as my back. Trying to ease the pain and warm the left foot I
put it on my right leg. Nobody was here to help. Another long waiing,
finally a guy showed up in front of me. I knew what he was going to
do, but before he opened his mouth, I said to him my left foot cramped
and very painful, because it is too cold. He was not detered: I need
to take X Ray pictures for you first, right after I'll find warm
blankets for you. Fortunately the X Ray roomwas much better and my
cramp was pretty much releaved. After many X-Ray exporsion I was
pushed back to the station number 15. There were many stations in the
facility. The X Ray guy got me two warm blanket to ease my suffering.
David showed up not long after my x Ray procedure. He had an
appointment for dental procedure which was not pleasant either. We
were waiting for the verdict from reading of the x Ray. David felt the
room was way too cold so he went back tohis car to fatch a overcoat.
Soon the doctor showed up and informed me there is fracture where my
back pain was. I asked which born, she said t11. I guess it was the
one right in the middle of the back where was my pain located. Soon a
nurse came in with bunch of injection equipments and said to me you
need some medication. I asked what were they for? Pain medication. I
said wait minute, I don't need pain medication. She said yes you do.
That time david came back and asked what pain medication she was going
to give to me. one was morphine. David said ah , no she can take that.
Why? She does not have much of tolerance for pretty much anything let
alone morphing. Ok, the nurse said and put away all the injection
stuff. I was given a couple of tylonone. Nurse told us what I was
going to need, wheelchair, walker, komod, bedpan.... I said no walker,
and I don't know when I can use the wheelchair. Right now I could
hardly giggle my body in bed with great effort and bearable pain, but
there is no way I could sit up, let alone stand. Any treatment for
this sort of injuries? None, other than paill killers. Worst fradcture
might require surgeries but outcomes were not faverable at all. My
situation requires long time. Now I was going to be discharged. A
case manager was going to talk to us about options we had. Waiting
again.
The emergency place was quite and orderly. People walked on the
corredor, all the paitients were in their own station. The nurse was
very kind that sh printed one page of the x Ray report for us and
showed us where and how the fracture looked like. It was t12 the spine
bone was crashed so the space of the bone is about a third narrower
than other t bones. I read the discription : the compression fracture.
Finally the case manager came. She explained that kp does not provide
patient transportation, if we wanted she cod make arrangement for us
and we had to pay from our porket. David sId fine. Then she arranged a
pgysicaly thereapy for me and I will be contacted. After all the
arrangements were made David left for groceries and blugguers while I
was waiting for thetrsnpotation. Before long two guys came in the
room. One looked as in charge took many pairs of gloves from a glove
box on the wall and hassled quite few to other guy? Don't they need
gloves? Do they have their own equipments? I wondered bu kept silent.
They tried to use the bedsheet I layed on to scoop me from the
hospital bed into their Strachey then I said it is hospital sheet, the
guy in charge said it was ok, so they just lift me withe sheet and
layer me on their bed. Before leaving the emergency room one guy
grabbed a white sheet from a desk to cover me. What was going on I was
totally lost.
In fact the stretcher was much more comfortable than the one took me to
the hospital. The van looked cleaner and roommer than the early one.
In the station 15 the nursextold us the medical trasportation costs
$600! Wow. It was only about 12 miles. The one took me back which was
non emergency transportation was much cheaper, if only wheelchair was
requrirex in stead of Strachey then it could be half of what we were
charged for, since I was not able to sit, the strachyecwas neseccery.
Funny thig was that they did not have stra hey and only have the noble
bed, so when we arrived our home theyvwant scoop me by the sheet to
upstairs since theyvdid not want to carry the heave bed upstairs. I
rejected their such bad idea and asked why they did not have a normal
Strachey, the answer was the Strachey was used in another vihecle.
What kind of reasons it was. Well, I need to be carried upstair to my
own bed on this moble bed that was why wevpaied for. Luckly I was so
light, even with the heavy bed ther were able to do.
I layed in my bed with agany and was very sad.
Meanwhile I had to do certain things. First checking compression
fracture on line. I found t11 and t12 were the was most common bones
to get the fractures.
When David came back I was starving.l gobbled down a cup of yogurt, an orange, a piece of bread and felt better.
All I could do was laying in bed. I asked the doctor in the emergincy
room she said don't know. So after I finished my food I went back to
check the info about the fracture on the Internet. 80% of the compression
fracture occured in people with osteoporosis gradually. There were
usually several t bones involved the cosequency of which not only
coursed pain in the back also the patients hieght and posture will be
affected due to thecalapes of the spine bones. Time to rest since I
was so exhusted by all the things going on in addition of the pain
which ate away my energy fast. in the afternoon I had an on off nap. It was very painful to turn around in bed. But I had to do it frequently to make me to feel better. Dinner time I had two piecec of toasts with sunflower seed butter and a home grown tomato. Even eating became a challenge when very limited movements were granted. It had been a long day.
In the morning what first I asked my husband David to help was to bring my purse and phone to me. I called my health insurance Kaiser Permanente and asked for a stretcher and van to bring me to the hospital.
the woman in the phone asked all the usual questions. Finally she
asked if I had hard time to breath. I said no. Then she asked if I
could stand up, I answered no and told her again I could not even sit
up, let alone stand up. Then she suggested me to call 911. I told her
it was not a life threaterning situation, I just needed to get medical
attention to see how bad the situation was and get a proper treatment.
She emphersized to me that was her suggestion to call 911 and I needed to understand the risks and all of that. I told her that I understood perfectly. Finally she told me she will talk to someone and see if they could make some transportation arrangement for me. Shortly she called back and told me a medical van and two people will come and take me to lake view center kp emergincy room. I said urgent care will do, but she said definitely to the emergency room. Well I guess it was their policy.
Less than 30 minutes the van arrived. Two personals helped me turn on my side and slid a very thin stretcher under me. It was awful when they carried me dowstairs when they could not keep the stretcher leveled. Then I was heading to Anaheim Lake View medical center of kp. The stretcher was very uncomfortable: hard and lumpy; it seemed there was no cushion at all. How does it accomadate any really sick patients? The guy who took my blood pressure and pause did not seem to know how.
Anyway I was in the emergency room shortly. After all the standard
procedures I had an armband on my wrist. The room was very cold, I was
given a couple of blankets. After about 20 minutes a woman doctor came
and asked all the usual questions what happened? How painful from
1-10? where is the most pain from? Then she said as I expected: we
need to take X Ray before to make diagnosis. Of course. Then she left.
I felt the room was getting colder, that my left foot started the cramp.
Then the cramp extended to the shin the pain from the cramp was almost
as bad as my back. Trying to ease the pain and warm the left foot I
put it on my right leg. Nobody was here to help.
Another long waiting, finally a guy showed up in front of me. I knew what he was going todo, but before he opened his mouth, I said to him about the cramp of my left foot and very painful, because it was too cold. He was not deternned: I need to take X Ray pictures for you first, right after I'll find warm blankets for you. Fortunately the X Ray room was much better and my
cramp was pretty much releaved. After many X-Ray exporsions I was
pushed back to the station number 15. There were many stations in the
facility. The X Ray guy got me two warm blanket to ease my suffering.
David showed up not long after my x Ray procedure. He had an
appointment for dental procedure which was not pleasant either. We
were waiting for the verdict from reading of the x Ray. David felt the
room was way too cold so he went back to his car to fatch an overcoat.
Soon the doctor showed up and informed me there was a fracture where my
back pain was. I asked which bone, she said t11. I guess it was the
one right in the middle of the back where was my pain located. Soon a
nurse came in with bunch of injection equipments and said to me you
need some medication. I asked what were they for? Pain medication. I
said wait minute, I don't need pain medication. She said yes you do.
That time David came back and asked what pain medication she was going
to give to me. one was morphine. David said ah , no she can take that.
Why? She does not have much of tolerance for pretty much anything let
alone morphine. Ok, the nurse said and put away all the injection
stuff. I was given a couple of tylonone. Nurse told us what I was
going to need, wheelchair, walker, komod, bedpan.... I said no walker,
and I don't know when I could use wheelchair. Right now I could
hardly wiggle my body in bed with great effort and bearable pain, but
there is no way I could sit up, let alone stand. Any treatment for
this sort of injuries? None, other than paill killers. Worst fradcture
might require surgeries but outcomes were not faverable at all. My
situation requires long time of recovery based on the fact that I have osteoporosis.
Now I was going to be discharged. A case manager was going to talk to us about options we had. Waiting again.
The emergency place was quite and orderly. People walked on the
corredor, all the paitients were in their own stations. The nurse was
very kind that she printed out one page of the x Ray report and
showed us where and how the fracture looked like. It was t12 the spine
bone was crashed so the space of the bones was about a third narrower
than other t bone spaces. I read the discription : the compression fracture.
Finally the case manager came. She explained that kp does not provide
patient transportation, if we wanted she cod make arrangement for us
and we had to pay from our porket. David sId fine. Then she arranged a
physical thereapy for me and I will be contacted. After all the
arrangements were made David left for groceries and blugguers while I
was waiting for the trsnpotation. Before long two guys came in the
room. One looked as he was in charge, and he took many pairs of gloves from a glove box on the wall and handdled quite few to other guy. Don't they need
gloves? Do they have their own equipments? I wondered but kept silent.
They tried to use the bedsheet I layed on to scoop me from the
hospital bed into their stretcher then I said it is hospital sheet, the
guy in charge said it was ok, so they just lift me with the sheet and
laied me on their bed. Before leaving the emergency room one guy
grabbed a white sheet from a desk to cover me. What was going on I was
totally lost.
In fact the stretcher was much more comfortable than the one took me to the hospital. The van looked cleaner and roommer than the early one.
One surprise I got from the station 15 was the nurse told us the medical trasportation costs $600! Wow. It was only about 12 miles. The one took me back which was non emergency transportation was much cheaper, if only wheelchair was requrired in stead of stretcher then it could be half of what we were charged for, since I was not able to sit, the stretcher was necessary.
Funny thig was that they did not have stretcher after all and only have the moble bed, so when we arrived our home they wanted scoop me by the sheet to upstairs since they did not want to carry the heavy bed upstairs. I
rejected their bad idea and asked why they did not have a normal
stretcher, the answer was a stretcher was used in another vehicle.
What kind of reasons it was. Well, I needed to be carried upstair to my
own bed on this moble bed that was what we paied for. Luckly I was so
light, even with the heavy bed they were able to do.
I layed in my bed with agany and was very sad.
Meanwhile I had to do certain things. First checking compression
fracture on the internet I found t11 and t12 were the most common bones
to get the fractures. When David came back I was starving.l gabbled down yourgut an orange a piece of bread and felt better.
All I could do was laying in bed. I asked the doctor in the emergency
room how long to recover from such injuries, she said don't know. So after I finished my food I went back to check the info about the fracture on Internet. 80% of the compression fracture occured in people with osteoporosis gradually. There were usually several t bones involved, the cosequency of which not only coursed pain in the back also the patients hieght and posture will be affected due to thecalapes of the spine bones. Time to rest since9-16-2011
First I asked David to help is to bring my purse and phone to me. I
called kp and asked for a stachur and van to bring me to the hospital.
the woman in the phone asked all the usual questions. Finally she
asked if I have hard time to breath. I said no. Then she asked if I
can stand up, I answered no and told her again I could not even sit
up, let alone stand up. Then she suggested me to call 911. I told her
it is not life threaterning situation, I just need to get medical
attention to see how bad the situation was and get a proper treatment.
She emphersized to me that was her suggestion and I need to understand
the risks and all of that. Finally she told me she will talk to
someone and see if they can make some transportation for me. Shortly
she called back and told me a medical van and two people will come and
take me to lake view center kp emergincy room. I said regent care will
do, but she said definitely to the emergency room. Less than 30
minutes the van arrived. Two personals helped me turn on my side and
slid a very thin strachuer under me. It was awful when they carried
the stacher dowstairs when they could not keep the stechur leveled.
Then I was heading to Anaheim Lake View medical center of kp. The
Strachey was very uncomfortable: hard and lumpy; it seemed there was
no cushion at all. How does it accomadate any really sick patients?
The guy who took my blood pressure and pause did not seem to know how.
Anyway I was in the emergency room shortly. After all the standard
procedue I had an armband on my wrist. The room was very cold, I was
given a coupe of blankets. After about 20 minutes woman doctor came
and asked all the usual questions what happened? How painful from
1-10? where is the most pain from? Then she said as I expected: we
need to take X Ray before to make diagnosis. Of course. Then she left.
Ifrlt the room was getting cold, that my left foot started cramp.
Then the cramp extended to the shin the pain fom the cramp was almost
as bad as my back. Trying to ease the pain and warm the left foot I
put it on my right leg. Nobody was here to help. Another long waiing,
finally a guy showed up in front of me. I knew what he was going to
do, but before he opened his mouth, I said to him my left foot cramped
and very painful, because it is too cold. He was not detered: I need
to take X Ray pictures for you first, right after I'll find warm
blankets for you. Fortunately the X Ray roomwas much better and my
cramp was pretty much releaved. After many X-Ray exporsion I was
pushed back to the station number 15. There were many stations in the
facility. The X Ray guy got me two warm blanket to ease my suffering.
David showed up not long after my x Ray procedure. He had an
appointment for dental procedure which was not pleasant either. We
were waiting for the verdict from reading of the x Ray. David felt the
room was way too cold so he went back tohis car to fatch a overcoat.
Soon the doctor showed up and informed me there is fracture where my
back pain was. I asked which born, she said t11. I guess it was the
one right in the middle of the back where was my pain located. Soon a
nurse came in with bunch of injection equipments and said to me you
need some medication. I asked what were they for? Pain medication. I
said wait minute, I don't need pain medication. She said yes you do.
That time david came back and asked what pain medication she was going
to give to me. one was morphine. David said ah , no she can take that.
Why? She does not have much of tolerance for pretty much anything let
alone morphing. Ok, the nurse said and put away all the injection
stuff. I was given a couple of tylonone. Nurse told us what I was
going to need, wheelchair, walker, komod, bedpan.... I said no walker,
and I don't know when I can use the wheelchair. Right now I could
hardly giggle my body in bed with great effort and bearable pain, but
there is no way I could sit up, let alone stand. Any treatment for
this sort of injuries? None, other than paill killers. Worst fradcture
might require surgeries but outcomes were not faverable at all. My
situation requires long time. Now I was going to be discharged. A
case manager was going to talk to us about options we had. Waiting
again.
The emergency place was quite and orderly. People walked on the
corredor, all the paitients were in their own station. The nurse was
very kind that sh printed one page of the x Ray report for us and
showed us where and how the fracture looked like. It was t12 the spine
bone was crashed so the space of the bone is about a third narrower
than other t bones. I read the discription : the compression fracture.
Finally the case manager came. She explained that kp does not provide
patient transportation, if we wanted she cod make arrangement for us
and we had to pay from our porket. David sId fine. Then she arranged a
pgysicaly thereapy for me and I will be contacted. After all the
arrangements were made David left for groceries and blugguers while I
was waiting for thetrsnpotation. Before long two guys came in the
room. One looked as in charge took many pairs of gloves from a glove
box on the wall and hassled quite few to other guy? Don't they need
gloves? Do they have their own equipments? I wondered bu kept silent.
They tried to use the bedsheet I layed on to scoop me from the
hospital bed into their Strachey then I said it is hospital sheet, the
guy in charge said it was ok, so they just lift me withe sheet and
layer me on their bed. Before leaving the emergency room one guy
grabbed a white sheet from a desk to cover me. What was going on I was
totally lost.
In fact the stretcher was much more comfortable than the one took me to
the hospital. The van looked cleaner and roommer than the early one.
In the station 15 the nursextold us the medical trasportation costs
$600! Wow. It was only about 12 miles. The one took me back which was
non emergency transportation was much cheaper, if only wheelchair was
requrirex in stead of Strachey then it could be half of what we were
charged for, since I was not able to sit, the strachyecwas neseccery.
Funny thig was that they did not have stra hey and only have the noble
bed, so when we arrived our home theyvwant scoop me by the sheet to
upstairs since theyvdid not want to carry the heave bed upstairs. I
rejected their such bad idea and asked why they did not have a normal
Strachey, the answer was the Strachey was used in another vihecle.
What kind of reasons it was. Well, I need to be carried upstair to my
own bed on this moble bed that was why wevpaied for. Luckly I was so
light, even with the heavy bed ther were able to do.
I layed in my bed with agany and was very sad.
Meanwhile I had to do certain things. First checking compression
fracture on line. I found t11 and t12 were the was most common bones
to get the fractures.
When David came back I was starving.l gobbled down a cup of yogurt, an orange, a piece of bread and felt better.
All I could do was laying in bed. I asked the doctor in the emergincy
room she said don't know. So after I finished my food I went back to
check the info about the fracture on the Internet. 80% of the compression
fracture occured in people with osteoporosis gradually. There were
usually several t bones involved the cosequency of which not only
coursed pain in the back also the patients hieght and posture will be
affected due to thecalapes of the spine bones. Time to rest since I
was so exhusted by all the things going on in addition of the pain
which ate away my energy fast. in the afternoon I had an on off nap. It was very painful to turn around in bed. But I had to do it frequently to make me to feel better. Dinner time I had two piecec of toasts with sunflower seed butter and a home grown tomato. Even eating became a challenge when very limited movements were granted. It had been a long day.
First day of the fall at home
9-15-2011
It was a bad fall, even it was not a hard fall, indded it was a very
bad fall.
The pain was so server that I felt I could pass out any moment so
I had to lay on the wet shower flour for a long time before David helpped me to move to bed which was only few feet away. I cried out loudly due to
the unbearable pain. When in the bed I was heavily sweeting and
panting as if I just finished a long running race.
I was motionless in bed and thought through what happened to me. I had
a heel fracture two days ago due to my own stupidity. With crutches
sure it was inconvenient but I could manage prety much everything.
Tonight before bed time I took a shower and thought I should have washed
my hair if I put a plastic chair on the shower pan; well I did not
think beforehand so I need to do tomorrow. After shower I put my
nightgown on then took the crutches and open the door. Somehow the door
swan more than I had expected, with instinct I naturally stepped back
without realizing that I was in the crutches. Down I went!
It was late, almost 10 pm. David was in a sound sleep. I could not
move. What should I do? I could not even reach the telephone which was
right on the night stand next to the bed. I guess I had to bear till
tomorrow morning. The pain was excruciate when I tried to move even a
bit. It was a sleepless night allright. Funny thing was I did not need
to pee whole night. Usually I had to pee once sometimes twice in
nights. I guess I sweated too much.
It was a bad fall, even it was not a hard fall, indded it was a very
bad fall.
The pain was so server that I felt I could pass out any moment so
I had to lay on the wet shower flour for a long time before David helpped me to move to bed which was only few feet away. I cried out loudly due to
the unbearable pain. When in the bed I was heavily sweeting and
panting as if I just finished a long running race.
I was motionless in bed and thought through what happened to me. I had
a heel fracture two days ago due to my own stupidity. With crutches
sure it was inconvenient but I could manage prety much everything.
Tonight before bed time I took a shower and thought I should have washed
my hair if I put a plastic chair on the shower pan; well I did not
think beforehand so I need to do tomorrow. After shower I put my
nightgown on then took the crutches and open the door. Somehow the door
swan more than I had expected, with instinct I naturally stepped back
without realizing that I was in the crutches. Down I went!
It was late, almost 10 pm. David was in a sound sleep. I could not
move. What should I do? I could not even reach the telephone which was
right on the night stand next to the bed. I guess I had to bear till
tomorrow morning. The pain was excruciate when I tried to move even a
bit. It was a sleepless night allright. Funny thing was I did not need
to pee whole night. Usually I had to pee once sometimes twice in
nights. I guess I sweated too much.
The ordeal from a trauma fracture
It was a sad accident and worst one among all I had before.
I use the blog to discipline and encourage myself to archievs a speedy recovery. At the same time, I hope to raise the wariness of osteoporosis.
I use the blog to discipline and encourage myself to archievs a speedy recovery. At the same time, I hope to raise the wariness of osteoporosis.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Sedona, Arozona
Sedona, Arizona
 |
| Figure 1 Rocks in Sedona |
Sedona is a desert resort town in Arizona.
We heard about Sedona from friends and decided to take a side trip to check it out on our trip to Grand Canyon.
On the way from South Rim of the Grand Canyon to Sedona is about 100 miles via Flagstaff. It was a clear spring day. The clean and crisp air made everything looked so clear and close. Most part of our drive was along the Oak Ridge Creek which feeds the area and there were woods close to the road and distinguished them from the surrounding desert landscape. Even Flagstaff looked very inviting. It was a aquatint and pretty town. There were modest houses with well maintained yards. And stores, restaurants and other commercials were sparsely located throughout the area.. After leaving Flagstaff soon we could see red rocks on the both sides of the road and we knew we were approaching Sedona. It was famous for red rock formation there.
 |
Figure 2 our hotel |
 |
Figure 3 flowers from red rocks |
We arrived at Sedona late afternoon and checked in the Best Western Inn in Sedona. The hotel situated on a slopped ground so the building was built such that the floors were layers in the shifted ground and made a staircase. Our room was on the first row of the building. The building has an adobe style and fits into the surrounding very well indeed. There was a veranda outside of the slide door of our room. There were patio tables and chairs for guests to enjoy the outdoors. We just sat in the patio to relax after the long drive and enjoyed the openness and the view.
It was pretty hot and we just rested for the day. Next morning we aroused early and took a walk on a trail next to our hotel. The trial goes through the resident neighborhood. It was a quite morning. On the trail we only met a couple. We could see various rock formations on the hills around the area. Some rocks were bright red and others were dark gray. the hump of red rocks rolled on each other and formed very unique pattern of the landscape. On the way back to our hotel I enjoyed to take pictures of the exotic desert flowers, they were so pretty.
 |
| Figure 4 Vortex-energy source? |
Around 10 O’clock we were on the way to check out the interesting spots in the area. Not far from a small airport there was a interesting place for tourist: vortex. We tried hard and finally found a parking place. There were many people on the vortex. It was said that the vortex is a source of energy, people could obtain energy being there and rejuvenate their bodies and minds. The vortex was not supposed to be altered so on the trail we saw piles of rocks hosted in wire cages which were used as markers for trail as well as for holding signs. The site was higher than the surrounding area and shaped as a volcanic cone. The rocks there looked they were forming a spire shape so it was named as vortex. I liked the fork lord tale of energy source and liked to experience it; also I liked to view the formation and the views in the area and the surrounding. It was an interesting and unique place.
 |
| Figure 5 a sign on the vortex |
 |
| Figure 6 the best burgers in town |
 |
| Downtown of Jerome |
After the lunch we walked to the edge of the cliff and were told there was an very expensive lot belong to a celebrity. I wonder who that was and why who on Earth chosen this place for a mansion!
It was a nice side trip and we enjoyed the scenery on the road and in Sedona, also we liked the funky town of Jerome.
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