Old Habits, New Tricks

31Jul

Carman has slipped back into his old habit of sleeping until 11 or later each day. This puts a lot of pressure on him on physio days. Getting dressed is a process of one step at a time, with a rest between steps, and adding a shave (about 30 min including rest breaks) or a shower (about 45 -60 min including rest breaks) to that, puts a lot of pressure on his lungs. A shower on its own, now includes a switch from cannula at 8L flow (the getting wet part) to Venturi mask with 50% flow (the drying off part), as drying expends so much more energy.  We leave for phsyio around 12:30 so in 90 minutes he has to get dressed, get his gear ready, fill his stroller and eat (with rests in between). Needless to say, he is baffed when he finally gets to physio (but hasn’t seemed to connect this feeling with the sleeping in).

I’ve taken a new approach to this habit of sleeping in. When his alarm goes each morning around 9:15 I’ve been bringing him an Ensure & a granola bar to eat so he can take his meds. He often gets up to the bathroom then climbs back into bed and goes back to sleep. Last week I started bringing his full breakfast instead of the granola bar, as he is essentially skipping a meal (think more weight loss) when he sleeps in. On Saturday, I noticed he went to the living room to sit in a chair instead and turned on the Olympics...On Sunday I put his juice and cereal on the table by his chair and went to the bedroom to let him know it was ready. Then when he sat down to eat it,  I went to the bedroom and made the bed. Ha!

So today, when he got up at 9 to go to the bathroom, I snuck in and made the bed - ha, ha...so he had breakfast in his chair and stayed up! Heaven help him if he gets up at 6am to go to the bathroom...that bed will be made pronto (cause I’m awake then anyway)!

Off to Physio...I dropped Carman at the entrance of TGH for physio, then headed to park the Tiguan around the corner. I was stopped by a powerful semi driver, who was making a delivery to the construction site at the north end of the hospital building. I say powerful because a) he had pedestrians stopped  in their tracks (and trust me pedestrians here stop for nothing including red lights, cars and bikes) b) he had traffic backed up on University Ave... all the way to the lake I’m sure and c) he squeezed that tractor and trailer thru the construction gate and into a spot made for a Smart Car!

It was quite something to see...as was the sky as a storm front started rolling in. By the time I got out of the traffic circle onto the street, Queen’s Park was under a big black cloud (and the politicians weren’t even sitting today) and the rumbles had started. I just made it from the parking garage around the corner into the hosptial entrance when the heavens opened and Rain!  It poured for a good half hour, eased up for a little while, then poured again. The light show from the windows in the treadmill room was quite something. Our friends Gary and Ruth live in the building where I park and got caught in the middle of the storm. Ruth had an umbrella, but Gary was pushing her wheelchair so got the brunt of the soaking. My turn came when I went back to get the car...it was barely raining when I left Carman in the atrium and started to pour when I got half way to LuCliff. Oh well, I’m no sugar baby, so I didn’t melt!

As promised, our PT had Carman try a new O2 delivery mask today, for use on the endurance equipment (bike & tread). Using the re-breather on 15L flow, Carman was able to do his full 20 minutes on both the treadmill and bike and keep his O2 sats well within the 92-96% range. We switched back to the Venturi mask for all of the other activities in his program. 

Today was the scheduled date for our building BBQ, so we were worried that it would be rained out. Our concierge Ulke, told us they were going to decide by 5pm as to whether or not they’d be able to have it, so we went up to our apartment and hoped for the best. By 5:30 the skies had started to clear off, by 6 it was a blue sky evening and the BBQ started promptly as planned, at 6:30. The Blake House catered (burgers, ribs, corn, chicken brochettes, salad, yummy) and we were able to get all the way thru the meal and get the ice cream cones scooped and served before the rain started again. We got to meet a few more of our neighbours (including Shawn, a UNB grad) and the big bonus was the holder of the first ticket drawn for the 50/50 had left and the 2nd ticket drawn matched mine! Wahoo!

I gave some of the money back (toward the Christmas charity fund) and still came home way richer than when I’d arrived with no money in my pocket (bought the tickets with Carman’s coin; which is more than fair because I’ve paid his debts to the Toonies for Talking Tin on more than one occasion)!

So today, Carman was out of bed early; did better at physio (absolutely earned his c-m-f-crappa treat); attended the Building BBQ and didn’t have a nap!  Guess who will be up early again tomorrow...

Three more cranes for you Dad, these are by Women’s College Hospital on Grenville St. just north of TGH and the building behind is a triangular shape, so looks like a lone wall rising from the street below since the other sides aren’t visible from that spot.