It's been over a week since I last posted, so I thought I'd bring everyone up to speed on progress..
At home:
Everybody's starting to settle into a routine. Kids are messing up the house. Jennifer's yelling (but not as loud as before). I'm kidding....she's as loud as ever. Just kidding again. Kids at home all day does wear her out....so much for sick leave. School starts in a month. Hooray? Poor kids haven't had much of a summer. Then there is a battle for Daddy's time...because they used their allotted Mommy time throughout the day. Such is the life of Daddy. (sigh)
At work:
Who am I kidding....Jennifer's not working -- yeah yeah...stay at home mom and stuff...but... (geez, I'm kidding). My job has been good, but hard to stay caught up with everything going on. I hope I'm not letting anybody down. It truly becomes a juggle and a challenge with time management. We can't wait for vacation. Then we can "get away" from it all (sorry for stealing your tag line Southwest Airlines). The mental break will be welcome.
Jennifer plans on returning to work right after we get back, partly because sick leave is running out. I think she's ready for the change. I hope she's physically ready. She does a lot of data entry, so the finger dexterity will get tested.
Hey..everybody at her office go easy on the questions...she'll answer questions in due time....but do ask to see the skin graft, it's pretty cool).
At the Hospital
I know this is what everybody is wanting to hear, not my musings. As I mentioned earlier, Jennifer's very tired. As I type this, she is sitting on the therapists table, sleeping. She was also sleeping while doing the exercycle earlier in the session. She's tired....welcome to my world. I've been tired since the age of 5...
Her arm (graft) is really looking good. Once its fully healed, we're still going to use the Sharpie to create temporary tattoos, but, until then, Jennifer is fine-tuning her shark attack story...that's all the rage now.
Her range of motion is getting better. The strength in her arm is improving, but we have a long way to go to overcome the atrophy that set in her shoulder and hand. It's amazing how quickly the body can deteriorate from lack of use. That's a real concern in the overall healing process. We took it for granted that the process would go well, not realizing that the surgery would impact so many areas of the body: neck, shoulder, arm, hand, fingers.....mentality.
Today's session gave her a hard workout on the arm. She can almost lift the arm out to the side at a 45 degree angle. She's 1/4 of the way there. Rotation is still limited, especially moving the arm behind her. She was worn out. This was the first time, since she was released from the hospital that we did not walk the quarter-mile breezeway from the parking garage to the hospital....she actually wanted to ride the shuttle to and fro....a sure sign she is worn out.
For all of you bad mouthing me for pushing her, I did allow her to take a nap on the way home and once we got there....before she had to pick up Grace in the thunderstorm...the rain hasn't ceased.
I think she is better rested this evening. We started the shopping for our vacation. Can't wait.
I think I have a special treat for those interested -- before and after shots:
3rd night home (June 10th) : Notice the purplish hue....eeewww....and it oozed a lot. Those dark spots are the holes purposefully created to allow blood and fluid to drain from underneath the graft, the pie crust effect. Pretty cool concept.
Once healed, don't you think we can make some cool tattoos with a Sharpie? Let me know your thoughts. We already have: a kite, a family crest, the 12th Man emblem, and more.
I stated in a post a long time ago that the little 2 cm tumor hit us like a truck. This is just a piece of it.
Have a good evening.
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