Happy Halloween!

I picked K up from dialysis in Aurora, and brought her home for a few hours, so she could be here for the trick-or-treaters. We grabbed dinner from the Sub Shop across the parking lot from the Aurora DaVita dialysis center. Ken and Freddie came over to share the experience. Ken had helped me setup our Halloween decorations last weekend, so we had everything up -- Norbert the eight foot dragon was out front, with some witch/skeletons hanging from the outside lights, and the grim reaper was waiting just inside the door, with a ghost and a huge black spider for company, and some Halloween themed hangings draped around. After all that, we had a pretty quiet night, with maybe just a half dozen groups of kids this time. Mandy didn't even speak up very much. She was very happy to be surrounded by "her pack". I'm guessing maybe only half the kids showed up this time. I took pics of all but one pair of kids with the trusty old digital camera, but I ran out of energy, before I found the time to download them to the computer. [ Finally got the pics online! Let me know if you have any difficult seeing them. ] Around 8:30, Ken helped Freddie take K back to Life Care. They stopped back at DaVita, to pick up a bag she had packed for the home visit, but then forgot. I stayed home, in case any of the usual late-visiting teens showed up.

Nice sunset

We have a nice sunset developing, it appears, from the reflection we can see from K's room at Life Care. See Facebook for the pic.

DaVita on Sable

Visiting K for the first time here. As she described with overflowing praise, it is a nice clean futuristic looking place! Pic on Facebook. — at Davita Dialysis Center Aurora Sable.

Tired

Mandy and I spent the night with K last night. I kept waking up and reminding her it would be a good idea to get to bed before sunrise. After all the interruptions, we didn't get a very good night's sleep, but there was no hurry getting up, so it worked out ok, except I've been tired all day. I took Mandy for a long walk through the surrounding neighborhoods and a nearby park, and enjoyed all the fall colors. We got back just in time to watch the last half of her OT session. Her OT is really working hard, to help her get control of some of the biggest issues, like letting go of one thing, and moving on to something else.

Walking around Life Care

We're out on a brisk morning walk, after spending the night with K. Nice Fall colors everywhere. We're stopped by a creek that's filled with cattails, very pretty, in a Fall-ish kind of way. And Mandy has her Jack-O-Lantern coat on. She's been the talk of the town, as we walk through Life Care on our way in and out. Pic on Facebook. — with Mandy Hushing at Life Care Center of Aurora.

Chilly morning

It's our coldest morning yet, at 25°F. Mandy's waiting out in the car, all bundled up in her bed in the back seat. I hope it warms up a bit, before we start our walk! — at Le Peep Restaurant.

Quesadillas!

Oh, this could be bad... I just reminded myself, that I don't have to starve, when I'm home alone. I remember this (cooking alone stuff) now! I just finished making my best quesadilla ever, fried in olive oil, until the toasty brown highlights came out, and loaded with fresh roasted peppers from the farmers market, with fresh cut strawberries for accent. Then again, I lost an hour, prepping, cooking, and cleaning up. Pic on Facebook.

Breakfast at OPH and a walk

The OPH Cinnamon Almond French toast sounds wonderful right now. We're splitting that, and a side of scrambled eggs and bacon. Then it's off to walk around deKoevend Park nearby. Pics on Facebook. - At The Original Pancake House

Snowy drive

There was a pretty layer of snow everywhere this morning. The drive home from Life Care last night was quite a challenge. Lots of huge wet snowflakes were coming down, which made it nearly impossible to see the road, and the headlights were covered within a few minutes, with a thick frosting of slush, diffusing the light everywhere except on the road. I meant to leave earlier, with snow in the forecast, and me driving K's car today, but was having too much fun watching Cowboys and Aliens with her, on her new iPad. I was glad to finally be home safe and warm, enjoying a hot mug of tea.

We were using the HBO2GO app to watch the movie. I've heard there are other choices for watching TV (Hulu+ and network sponsored apps) and movies (Netflix), but haven't explored them yet.

This was the first time, in my almost 18 years in Colorado, that the headlights have gotten coated in a half inch thick layer of slush. Go figure. Just one of those freak things. We've had a lot of those, this year... And NOW I finally appreciate, why the Swedish put those little bitty wipers on their headlights. It's not just for comic relief...

Pretty in pink

Such a gorgeous rosy mountain sunrise this morning, trimmed with subtle Autumn colors... Pic on Facebook.

Happy big Birthday!

K had her big decade birthday today (Sunday). I've been feeling overwhelmed with everything for months, if not the entire year, but this felt like a good opportunity to summon the energy and courage, and commit to doing something extra nice for her. So I spent some time at the local Apple store, and finally settled on getting her the New iPad. She chose a nice bright lime green Smart Case, that should be pretty easy to find. I think it's the first time in years, that I've seen her giggle at how much fun she's having with her new toy.

Then, what to do for a birthday dinner? We struggled with logistics, the last time I took her anywhere, and I was still pretty shell-shocked from that. But again, this felt like the time to step up, and do something regardless. She'd been talking about wanting to try the Texas Roadhouse restaurant, just down the street from Life Care Aurora. The food was delicious! We invited just enough people to fill up a booth, and that worked out just fine. We brought our own dessert, a Blackout cake from the Cheesecake Factory, that was amazing. Nobody could eat more than half a slice, which was later easily explained by the nutritional info on the side of the box -- 1200 calories per slice. Omigod.

Toe finally healing

It's starting to feel reasonable to say that my toe is finally really healing from that surgery back in August. And even then, I immediately find myself hoping I'm not jinxing it by saying that. God, this has been a long year.

Home Helpers

I rushed over to Life Care for a meeting just after lunch, and no one was there :-( but at least there was a nice view from K's room. The trees are turning to Fall colors everywhere, and the patio outside her room was no exception. One Maple tree was half green and red, kind of Christmassy, and another was full-on bright red, really pretty.

It turned out that K was enroute back from an appointment at IPOP, the prosthetic company, on Humboldt Street in downtown Denver, and the other person walked in moments after I got there. K arrived a few minutes later.

We had a pleasant meeting with Rick, the CEO of Home Helpers, a company that provides caregivers. K's OT at Life Care recommended them. They sound like they can also do the job that we had LivHome trying to do, and of course they're eager to get our business, so they can show us what a good job they can do. We may give LivHome another try first.

Soft collar

K saw Dr Prall today. He's the neurosurgeon who fused her C1-C2 vertebrae. This was her first follow up appointment since the surgery on August 13. He was unable to see her at Kindred, the Long Term Acute Care facility, but Life Care transported her to Prall's office with no problem. He told her the neck looks good, and it's time to move on from the hard plastic neck collar she's been wearing, to a soft one. Finally! I picked one up at Walgreens this afternoon, on the way here.

Fall Pics on RunKeeper

I've been recording the tracks from my walks at RunKeeper.com, using their iPhone app. I recently discovered that the app will let me take pictures along the walk, and it will GPS-reference each picture to the spot where I took it. To get an idea of how that works, follow this link to our walk Friday morning along the river. I snapped a bunch of pretty "Fall colors" pictures that I hope you'll enjoy.Click on the little picture icons along the walking route. Once you're into one of the pictures, you can use the right arrow cursor key to quickly move to the next picture.

Lots O'Visitors

K had an impromptu party at Life Care last night. Mandy and I brought her some helpings of chicken Tikka Masala, pot roast, and Caesar salad from the Whole Foods steam tables. Then Karen and the kids showed up with an Anthony's white pizza. Then Amy came, and spent some time experimenting with the loaner Mobility power chair. K has been saying that two visitors is often too much, so this was quite a challenge for her, but I think she handled it well.

Flu Shot

Our company had our health fair today. While waiting for my Flu shot, I got on Facebook and shared a nice pic of the subtle pink sunrise hues that were illuminating our neighborhood this morning.

Snow!

The NOAA says it's snowing out there! I haven't looked yet. I overslept, so now I'm soaking my foot (the morning part of the "two soaks per day" prescription), instead of leaving for work. I'm trying to be good, and follow the doc's orders, but it's so NOT what I want to be doing right now.

Yet another surgery

I'm hoping the follow up toe surgery yesterday will finally allow some healing to occur. I'm so tired of the pain and hassle.

I had emailed a picture of my toe to my podiatrist on Friday, and told him I was starting the backup antibiotics they ordered for me two weeks ago, back when I complained it wasn't looking right. It didn't seem to be getting worse at the time, so I held off on the antibiotics, but Friday I realized it was swelling, red, and painful, and decided to start them. On Monday, the doc's office said to come on down, and he'll probably take something out, meaning there's probably a contaminant in there. Sure enough, on Tuesday I went to visit, he went in, and found a piece of toenail inside the toe, wreaking havoc. He said, with that removed, my toe ought to heal up a whole lot better. I am *SO* hoping he is right about that.

Outing to Rosie's

Freddie and Ken and me and Mandy met up with Kristan today for an afternoon visit. Then we kidnapped her (legally) and took her over to Rosie's Diner nearby for dinner. Not much of an outing, but better than staying in the Life Care facility all the time. K was alert and interactive, which I really enjoyed. Amy took a side trip to Innomax to get more bed info, then met us at Rosie's for a slice of pie. Then after we got back to her room, they started chatting about bedroom furniture, but I got sleepy and had to head home.

I am *NOT* looking forward to having the presidential debate here on Wednesday evening. They're closing I-25, *THE* major North-South interstate highway through Denver, from 5-10pm, in the name of security. Unbelievable. Seems likely that traffic is going to be miserable around here that evening, so I'll probably just skip going to see K after work that day.

The challenge of choices

Stopped by the Apple Store last night, before going to see K. They're sold out of new phones, of course, for the foreseeable future. When I asked about getting a MacBook for K, they steered me toward the iPad. Seems like a reasonable alternative, since it's smaller and lighter, and especially considering the new apps available that allow access to Flash-enabled websites. I got through the first of the choices ok, then ran screaming, when faced with the choice of carrier and data plan. Aaaiiieee! My experiences with Verizon, T-Mobile, and now AT&T have been less than stellar. I can only imagine Sprint has their own troubles. What to do...

Lousy night

K reported that she'd had a lousy Thursday night. She seemed somewhat recovered, when Mandy and I visited her this evening.

Field Trip and Status

I'm not sure whether to categorize K's first field trip out with me (to Innomax), as a partial success, or a flat-out disaster. The goal was to let her try out the power lift bed, that Amy and I found on Saturday, and then to look at some of their headboard designs, to see if we could agree on one for home.

Her PT started and ended late. Then she spent a lot of time getting her boot on the left foot, and trying to get the prosthetic on the right leg. She thinks her right leg is too swollen, for the fitting to get to that final "click" that indicates it's safely attached. So we took the facility's wheelchair

We finally left her room at 4pm. With the store closing at 5pm, there wasn't much time. We got her, the wheelchair, and Mandy into the car, and to the store OK, but she was so tired from lack of sleep, that she was pretty useless once we got there. She kept asking questions, then falling asleep when the salesman would try to answer her. She didn't want to leave when the store closed, so three of the employees stayed around, as I tried to whisk her around to the various headboard displays, as she continued to ask questions and fall asleep during the answers. I finally convinced her we had to leave at 6pm, but she wasn't happy about it.

Getting her back into the car was problematic, as she had a hard time waking up to transfer herself from the wheelchair to the car, but we finally got it done.

Then we ran into awful (standstill) traffic on both I-70 and I-25 -- on Sunday afternoon, would would've expected that? -- so it took almost an hour to get back to Life Care.

She was really knocked out, after all that time riding (sleeping) quietly in the car, so it was another big challenge, transferring her from car to wheelchair, to the room, into bed, and undressed for the night. Her CNA had saved her 5pm dinner for her, so she perked up a little, and wanted to stay up to check that out. By that time, I needed to leave for home, so I asked her CNA to stay with her until she laid down.

Within an hour of arriving home, K called to say she had fallen off her bed, and hit her head hard on the floor. She had trouble understanding me, with us talking on two cell phones, and called back from the room phone, but still had trouble understanding me, and hung up. I called her back at both phones, and got no answer, nor from the nurse's station. After a few more minutes, the nurse called with a summary of the event. She had fallen asleep sitting up, and went over onto the floor, but she had no new pain, and all her fingers and lower appendages were working as expected. They called the doctor, who ordered an X-Ray, but she appeared to be fine.

Overnight visit

Mandy and I packed up an overnight kit, and came to spend the night with K. She had a miserable night (not our fault!), and only got to bed around 6am. She graciously shared her breakfast with us, and then I took Mandy for a short walk around the block. Our plan for a short field trip to Innomax may be thwarted by her everyday schedule here. I don't want her to miss her OT at 10am, and PT at 1pm. — at Life Care Center of Aurora.

Outing complete

She's back. And she's tired. Long day. The ENT thinks the ear pain may be related to a TMJ problem. The good news is, the Neurosurgeon says she can start sleeping without the collar, IF (big if) she promises not to fall out of bed overnight. He also thinks the ear pain could be neck related, need to wait and see.

Out and about!

K called me from the van just now. She's out and about for the first time in 6 weeks, and very excited about it. "I'm on I-25, passing your office right now!" as they passed by the new Ikea store near us. They're running her around to two doctor's appointments -- the neurosurgeon to follow up on the neck surgery, and an ENT to investigate the sharp pain she's had in her right ear the past few weeks, that Kindred's doc did virtually nothing to resolve.

Fell but OK

Got a call this morning from a nurse at Life Care. K slipped off her bed and fell at 4:30am this morning, ended up sitting on the floor. She was perched on the edge of her bed, not sleeping well, took a sleeping pill, and it seems she delayed too long getting safely into bed. No apparent injury, but they have a protocol to check regularly and call the Dr after an event like this.

K at Life Care

Mandy and I met K at the Life Care Aurora SNF this afternoon. The goal is to have PTs and OTs help her get stronger, while RNs and CNAs are making sure she gets the right meds, all under the watchful eye of the staff MD, so she can come home and be as safe as possible.

K moving

I just heard from Leslie, backup case mgr at Kindred. K will transfer to Life Care Aurora Skilled Nursing Facility at 2pm. 14101 East Evans Ave, Aurora, CO, (303) 751-2000. Getting ever closer to you, Karen! She's in dialysis now. I have to put together a pkg of clothes for her to wear for her xfer.

iPhone 5

I'll be wanting one of them iPhone 5 devices they announced on Wednesday. Our 3GS models, which were snappy when they were new, are excruciatingly slow these days, like 20 seconds to wake up from screen lock mode. Probably due to the "extras" in the OS updates since we got them three years ago. Glad to see they upsized the battery, since battery life alone would tip the balance for me. The new CPU is many times faster than the ones we have, which seems like a great thing. And the camera, while about the same as the 4S model, is way better than ours.