{"id":8358,"date":"2019-06-05T20:26:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T00:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=8358"},"modified":"2019-06-11T07:35:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T11:35:54","slug":"while-i-was-making-other-plans-part-deux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=8358","title":{"rendered":"While I was making other plans, part deux"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to everyone who joined my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/esr\">Patreon feed<\/a> or upped their contributions.  I&#8217;m still worried, but a little less so now.<\/p>\n<p>Some good news.  The post-op pain has stabilized at a level where the occasional Tylenol will handle it nicely.  If Dr. Wilson the anesthesiologist is listening, damn!  You are <em>good at your job.<\/em>  The timing of the fadeout on the nerve block spared me agony without overdoing intrusive chemicals. This means I will not have to touch the opiates, an outcome for which I am deeply thankful.<\/p>\n<p>The kneepads I ordered yesterday arrived this morning.  Big win &#8211; crawling doesn&#8217;t <em>hurt<\/em> now, which improves my options. Also helps with dismounting to the floor off a toilet, which is one of those things you will never realize is a big deal until you have to do it.<\/p>\n<p>But the biggest win is the real wheelchair. My mother is connected to a neighborhood non-profit in West Chester that loans out this kind of equipment.  When she first went there the only visible option was a service chair, a wheeled chair designed to be moved by a nurse or assistant rather than to enable the user to self-propel, so that&#8217;s what she brought back.<\/p>\n<p>It was awful. A service chair doesn&#8217;t cope well with rugs or doorsills. The caster-like wheels on the front are perverse; any kind of turning or backing motion inevitably leaves them in a twisted state that make maneuvering nigh-impossible unless the person moving the chair can brute-muscle it around, which Cathy can&#8217;t do. <\/p>\n<p>Mom went back and found out about the basement where they keep the good stuff, and now I have a real wheelchair &#8211; that is, the kind designed to be driven by the user&#8217;s arms. Massive improvement!  The lesser part of it is that the big wheels cope better with sills and rugs; the much greater part is that I can move myself around. Having some autonomy back is, for someone with a psychology like mine, as precious as jewels.<\/p>\n<p>Reduces the burden on Cathy, too. Hoicking my 245lbs around in that service chair was barely within the limits of her strength,  hard work. I feel better because I can take that load off her now.<\/p>\n<p>Excuse me while I wheel myself out to the kitchen for a ribeye steak from the Outback.  And if, dear reader, you fail to comprehend that this, too, is therapy, you are certainly not qualified to take care of the likes o&#8217; <em>me.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Still trying to get my hands on a knee scooter.<\/p>\n<p>EDIT: Tale continued in next post&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to everyone who joined my Patreon feed or upped their contributions. I&#8217;m still worried, but a little less so now. Some good news. The post-op pain has stabilized at a level where the occasional Tylenol will handle it nicely. If Dr. Wilson the anesthesiologist is listening, damn! You are good at your job. The&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=8358\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">While I was making other plans, part deux<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8358"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8371,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8358\/revisions\/8371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}