Graham suddenly lost strength in his legs yesterday. He woke up wobbly but able to walk. But by the end of the day, he couldn't even stand for more than a couple of seconds. Amazingly, Graham was in good spirits, certain that this was just a temporary setback. His determination (some would say denial) is working for him. It keeps him in a good frame of mind.
His brother Gary came over. We hung out with Graham in the bedroom and had a "picnic" in bed. And after chatting for a while, we watched a DVD - the Parrots of Telegraph Hill. There were some poignant moments, because the film talks about some of the birds who had become incapacited but still enjoyed life, about some birds who had lost their mates and were sad...
In a surreal sort of way, it was overall a pleasant evening.
Today we tried to get to Stanford for his appointment with the doctor. Even with a walker and a wheelchair, it was just impossible to get down the two stairs to get outside. The steps are too short for the walker to provide any support. And the stairs are too steep to be able to bounce the wheelchair down them.
The visiting nurse was there to show me how to do it, and she said it couldn't safely be done without a ramp. At one point, Graham insisted on trying to walk down and it just wasn't possible. He came so close to falling and cracking his head open. He was so frustrated. He just kept saying, "two days ago, I rode two miles on the exercise bike and was walking fine."
A resource person is coming from the nursing agency tomorrow. Hopefully he can tell me who to contact to build a ramp or if it's something that can be bought somewhere.
If anybody local has the name of a carpenter or handyman who can build a ramp, please let me know! leegreenmo@aol.com
THANKS: A big thank you to Lisa H for making Graham an early Thanksgiving feast, and to Dale L for stocking up our fridge with delicious organic meals for the rest of the week!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment