//----------------------------\\ Adventures With Grandpa (tm) \\----------------------------// Friday, February 18, 2005 Edition #003 ____________________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 003.1: Current Condition in Brief A quick summary of Grandpa's current condition 003.2: Marc Gets Fatter Grandpa insists on three meals a day... 003.3: Getting Stuck Grandpa loves to get in a predicament 003.4: First Journey Grandpa gets out of the house 003.5: Question of the Week "What kind of medical care does Grandpa need?" 003.6: Colophon ____________________________________________________________ 003.1: Current Condition in Brief A quick summary of Grandpa's current condition As readers of Life With Grandpa know, Grandpa underwent hip replacement surgery on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2005. Most of this newsletter was written before Grandpa went into the hospital on Saturday, so keep that in mind as you read it. On Wednesday Grandpa actually walked a little and seemed much better, but Wednesday night he apparently had a restless night and had to be sedated. When I visited him on Thursday, he was really out of it, mumbling incoherent phrases and nonsense. "Abbersuss," he muttered. "Applesauce?" I asked. "You want some applesauce?" "Albatross." "Oh, albatross! What about it?" "Albatross. It's a very nice bird." There was more like that, with him drifting in and out of sleep. He rarely opened his eyes, though he talked a lot. He did perk up once, when I mentioned that his daughter, Phyllis, was flying up from California on Friday. "Why is she flying up?" he asked. "To see you! She's coming up to see you." "Oh, that is so nice of her!" he cried, his voice filled with the joyful enthusiasm of a child at Christmas. Later, the nurse brought him dinner, but he wouldn't eat much beyond a few bites of Jell-O. Even chocolate pudding didn't interest him. The nurse said had hadn't eaten much the previous night, either. She wasn't on duty earlier so it was unclear how he'd done at breakfast or lunch, but I suspect he didn't eat then either. Grandpa was complaining his leg was hurting. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It's natural there be some residual pain after a procedure like a hip replacement, so perhaps it's just normal. He did seem to have normal feeling. I touched the toes of his right foot through the blanket and asked him if he could feel it. "Toes," he said. The next step in Grandpa's recovery is uncertain. He's supposed to go to a care facility where he'll undergo therapy and learn to walk on his new hip, but we aren't sure where or when: he could go on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. Originally the doctor had thought he'd stay at the hospital through the weekend, but now that appears to be in question. I guess we'll find out when they deign to tell us! Photo: "Grandpa, back when he could walk." ____________________________________________________________ 003.2: Marc Gets Fatter Grandpa insists on three meals a day... I knew accepting Grandpa into my home would mean some changes in my lifestyle. For instance, no more eating breakfast at two o'clock in the afternoon. However, I figured that was probably a good thing. Grandpa's belly operates on traditional time. At eight a.m. he's ready for breakfast. At noon he wants lunch. Dinner's a five, though sometimes he's okay with waiting until six. He doesn't eat much at each meal, but he does want regular meals. If I give him a half a sandwich at lunch he'll only eat half of it. This from the man who taught me to eat every bite on my plate! (If I didn't, I'd face a depressing lecture about the horrors of the Great Depression when people didn't have food to throw away.) But Marc? Well, Marc's eating good. Too good. Marc actually eats three meals a day now. Good meals. Swiss steak, baked chicken, stuffed green peppers, chicken fajitas, taco salad, pizza, more. Lots of vegetables and greens, since that's good for Grandpa. But Marc's used to eating once or twice per day. He's used to each meal being large, since it'll be twenty-fours before another one. This business of eating all the time is foreign. Time for some exercise. ____________________________________________________________ 003.3: Getting Stuck Grandpa loves to get in a predicament In most ways, my house is ideally suited for wheelchair access. It's flat, there's not much furniture, and the layout is open and spacious. The kitchen is wide with plenty of room for a wheelchair. Getting in and out of the bedrooms and bath is a little difficult, however. The wheelchair itself just fits, but there isn't enough room for your hands on the wheels (your fingers will be pinched between the chair and the door frame). There's certainly no room to turn around in the bathroom -- you have to roll out backwards. The biggest problem, however, is that coming out of the bathroom (backwards) you are in a narrow hallway and across the way is a wall. You must exit the bathroom at an angle and immediately begin turning so that you can escape. Otherwise the back wheel hits the wall on the other side and you can't go back any farther but your feet are still in the bathroom so you can't turn. You're stuck! Grandpa has a knack for getting himself into a real pickle. When the back wheel hits the wall on other side, he keeps going back and forth, eventually either getting himself free or somehow trapping himself sideways in the corridor! Then he's really stuck. Like a ship in a bottle, you wonder how he got there. It's really not especially difficult to angle out of the bathroom correctly, but unfortunately Grandpa has a memory problem. Though I explain it over and over to come out at an angle and turn, he cannot remember and comes out straight, hitting the opposite wall. Several times a day he manages to get himself locked in the hallway, astonished at his unexpected predicament. Another odd experience is when I fold the "feet" of the wheelchair (the footrests) off to the sides to give him more room to get in and out of the chair. When these legs are wrapped to the sides the chair is wider and won't fit through a doorway. Of course Grandpa can't figure out what is wrong and keeps pushing, jamming the chair into the doorframe requiring an adventure to get him unstuck. ____________________________________________________________ 003.4: First Journey Grandpa gets out of the house The other day I finally convinced Grandpa to get out of the house. It was a beautiful sunny day, not cold, and I needed to go to the post office. I mentioned to Grandpa he ought to go with me and he seemed to think it was a good idea. But later, when I was ready to go, he was on the sofa and didn't want to move. I really thought it would be good to get him out, both so he could get some fresh air and also to test the process of getting him in and out of my car just in case we had an emergency someday and needed to do it, but Grandpa was comfortable on the sofa and didn't want to go. I kept at it and finally managed to convince him when I told him he wouldn't have to get out of the car. I gathered that the idea of driving somewhere didn't bother him, but getting in and out of the car multiple times did not sound like fun. I rolled him in his wheelchair to the car where he got in with his usual struggle and grimaces of pain, then I put his wheelchair in the garage. Since he wasn't going to get out there was no point taking it with us, and I saved time by not trying to figure out how to get the chair into my tiny car. Once in the car, we went to the post office. Then I drove him through the massive town of Lafayette. He seemed to enjoy the ride, so I took him up the road a bit thinking I'd turn at the Highway 18 by-pass and come back up to town on the Lafayette Highway. But once on Highway 18 he saw the sign for the Air Museum in McMinnville, just 4.5 miles away. When I told him that's where the Spruce Goose was kept, he wanted to go, telling me he'd seen it years earlier in California. So we drove to the museum, actually getting off the highway and driving through the parking lot and seeing everything through the huge main windows. It really is a neat-looking plane. Afterward, he wasn't ready to go home, so we headed to McMinnville proper, going through the historic downtown route and passing Marion Ravan's Assembly of God church. Back on 99W, we passed Wendy's and since it was noon, decided to go through the drive-through for some take-home lunch. We got fries, a chili, and some $1 burgers and headed home. Grandpa seemed to really enjoy the drive, the scenery, and didn't have any trouble except for getting in and out of the car. It was a good day, but later he didn't remember much about it. I guess that's to be expected in his condition. ____________________________________________________________ 003.5: Question of the Week "What kind of medical care does Grandpa need?" Generally Grandpa doesn't need much medical care. He has a half-dozen pills he takes every day, but Marc hasn't learned which pills are what: he lets him mother set up two weeks of Grandpa's medications in advance in pill boxes so he doesn't have to clog his brain with inane medical jargon. Grandpa's in decent physical shape overall, he's just weak and old. He does have a bedsore which we're worried about because he's had it for a long time and it doesn't seem to be getting better. We may have to seek medical treatment for that. We are looking into having someone come once or twice a week to help him bathe, trim his toenails (with his low-level diabetes, it requires an expert), and other stuff. His main health problem is his right leg, the knee and hip pain him greatly, and he can't put much weight on it. At one time I think something could have been done about it, but he always refused surgery. Unfortunately, he might be too old for anything to be done now. [ Wow, talk about eerie! I wrote this a week or so _before_ I had to take Grandpa to the hospital and we decided on a hip replacement surgery! -- Marc ] Photo: "Grandpa, on the deck of his home last year." ____________________________________________________________ 003.6: Colophon Publication Title: Adventures With Grandpa (tm) Frequency: Weekly Price: $1,000,000 per issue Publisher: Marc Zeedar Author: Marc Zeedar Photographer: Marc Zeedar Copyright: Contents (photos and text) (C) 2005 by Marc Zeedar All Rights Reserved Telephone: 877-364-5922 Website: http://www.zeedar.com/grandpa/ To add, remove, or change your subscription details; make suggestions or complaints; report typos or errors; send millions of dollars; or send Grandpa or Marc a comment, send email to . If you'd like to telephone Grandpa (he loves to hear from people and he'll chat like the wind though he won't remember the call ten minutes later), you may call him toll-free at 877-364-5922. ###