Man's best friend

Thursday, Feb 8   As we settle into life back at home there are ups and downs. It is hard to summarize all of it. Gary is getting competently along inside the home. He continues to try to do everything possible for himself, but gets frustrated at how much time it takes. His general health seems Ok but there are lots of days he just doesn't feel well. His leg spasms are getting worse so we are hoping for more meds to help that out. Also a new apparatus arrived and was put together yesterday. It is called a standing frame and it has a hydraulic lift to raise Gary and hold him in a standing position. When used regularly it should help the leg spasms. These spasms are painful, not to mention disruptive. They are so strong that they can jerk Gary's body into precarious positions. We have heard stories of folks being thrown out of their wheelchairs - thankfully this has not happened to Gary (yet). Unfortunately we have not been able to get Gary outside very often. Our house is on bumpy, unlevel ground and the driveway is gravel. The wheelchair is not able to negotiate the terrain. We will eventually figure out some solutions to this but right now the only way to get him out is to drag him over the bumps....Bax is able to do this, but I am not strong enough. Our friends Randy and Susie visited and insisted he go all over the property. They took him as Gary would say "over Hell's half acre". It was great to see friends and they really helped Gary feel better!!! Bax has been terrific trying to do the yard maintenance, but NO ONE could follow in Gary's shoes as far as that goes. This is discourging to Gary and he keeps saying that we need to move because it is too much work.   Anyway I'll finish with a typical Gary story. When we discharged from the Tampa VA two very efficient nurse types came in with a computer to do the final interview. They asked Gary lots of questions carefuly noting each answer in their computer...Questions like "Do you know which medicines to take?" "Have you been warned how to prevent bedsores?" Then they get to "Who will be your primary caregiver?" He answers "My wife, Judi." Next question - "Is there someone else you can count on to help you in an emergency?" Gary says "Trevor"....and they question the spelling and carefully type in T-R-E-V-O-R. Nurse - "Who is Trevor?"  Gary - "My best friend" Nurses - "Where does Trevor live?" Gary - "He lives in the house with us". Nurses - "Can you get hold of him easily?" Gary - "Yes, I just call him." On they go with the rest of the questions....never realizing Trevor is the dog.   We do miss our friends and I hope that soon Gary will be ready to see them.    Thank you for caring, Judi and Gary