Something over a year later...

....so, it's been something over a year.  I had all these grand notions for a one-year observance, with photographs and pithy observations.  Didn't happen.  Lots of other things going on.

So, a brief summary:  Michelle has said that she feels like she's 100%.  Me, I'd call it more like 98.5% most of the time.  Since the big-talk entry about circling the block, we've done it maybe four times.  Got out of the habit, mostly.  It's a fairly good stroll.  We'll get back to it.

Any pictures that I could add at this point would just duplicate what's already on here.  We talk about drawing designs on her surgery scars, but none of that has happened yet.

Won't say that this little journey has ended, but there are competing priorities.  A more extensive update will eventually occur.  Until then, all my best regards, and thanks again for all the kind wishes for Michelle's recovery.  There has been SO MUCH kindness.  

In the New Year

...so now it's the New Year, and all these many things have been going on.  Early in December, there was a strep diagnosis, and treatment.  Michelle sang in the Christmas Concert rehearsal, but couldn't sing in the concert.  Later on (or maybe it was during the concert part of time), a strep recurrence, symptoms, treatment, and more symptoms during the annual family seasonal gathering.  There was some coughing, but she managed.

Not so well the next morning.  The coughing became more intense, and we decided to seek emergency care.  The hospital doctor, after an x-ray and various other tests, diagnosed pneumonia.  That was early on the 23rd.

Then, Christmas.  Michelle didn't go to Christmas Eve Mass.  Went by myself, didn't really feel celebratory, but it was mostly for the singing.

Then, as I wrote above, Christmas.  It was agreeable, but not super-maximal on all the relevant vectors.  We didn't get up until on into the morning.  I don't remember if we opened presents before or after breakfast, but I defintely remember pecan waffles and sausage, with maple syrup. 

and then, as I started this post, it's the New Year.  We're working towards recovery, and making choices about medical care.  

Her ankles, well, they're better, they're healing.  There's some self-therapy.  It's ongoing.

Milestone, the latest

The short version:  yesterday (Saturday), for the first time since Friday, 18 May, Michelle and I circled the block.

I've been told that it's a third of a mile around our block.  The green part is about how far we've been going, although recent trips have found us a bit further around counter-clockwise, maybe to about the 11:30 position.  Interpret as you will. 

Anyway, we walked the dog around the block.  It's been some months since the last time.   A rough calculation, counting weeks and converting, is 168 days. 

We would have walked it again today, but it was too in-temperate for us, what with the wind and blustery temps.  Maybe we'll make the entire block tomorrow.  Probably before dark, though. 

The PT Routine

This is from a recent message Michelle sent to me about her Physical Therapy routine.

1 Ride bike 8 minutes

2 Slanted board leaning into wall hold count of 15 three times

3 Sled; three different exercises

4 Stand on board with a half ball on other side and keep it from tipping from side to side

5 Throw ball onto trampoline while standing on one foot facing front, then sideways on each foot

6 Blue band around ankle stretching facing in four different directions for each ankle

7 Plunging foot into a bucket of rice and moving it in all directions for a minute per foot

8 Picking up marbles with toes, hold for count of three, then place in container

9 Deep massage of ankles - ouch!

10 Ice around both ankles for 20 minutes (think pins and needles); ankles are red when finished, and stiff.

I think that she's doing more stuff, now.  The above, plus somewhat more, over an hour, twice a week.

Many thanks to everyone for their kind wishes.

"have a wonderful life..."

Michelle provided me with notes from today's doctor visit, and they are reproduced below.

Looks really good, especially where he did the surgery.

scar looks good.

very happy with it

good mobility

have a wonderful life

keep the brace in case you do anything on uneven ground

HAPPY LABOR DAY, EVERYONE !!

Short version:  she’s doing well, and getting better, but not as quickly as she would like.

The longer version:  so, now, what is it, 19 May – June – July – August makes how many days? Something over 100. Here we are, on a very nice day in these parts, after an agreeable Labor Day Morning breakfast with Susan (our annual during-DragonCon breakfast event) and just enjoying the weather and the leisure.

Michelle is upstairs, working on a project that I could go into a bit, but there might just actually be some peripheral contact by those personally impacted with the project and, thus, no word of it here, not today.  The 411 on that will come at a later time, and with a much more limited audience.

So, anyway, how’s it going?  I’ll tell you how it’s going.  She’s having a lot of good days, with some of them being better days.  She still only seems to have X number of steps in a day, and we don’t know what that number is.  Some days, it’s a bigger number.  We’re still a long way from making the entire block, but I have high hopes for October with that.

Haven’t written anything in a couple of weeks because there’s not really anything new going on.  She’s got physical therapy twice a week (except for next week because of resource scheduling issues) and does exercises at home every night (most every night). 

We walk the dog together at least once every day, most of the time.  This morning was especially pleasant.  I’d like to think that we’ll do that again at least once today. 

With summer officially and figuratively behind us, it’s in the archives, with some of them preserved here. Not a lot of options for Michelle Summer-just past, but there are high hopes for next summer. 

Our oncoming 30^th wedding anniversary looks less likely to involve locational options, what with her burning through all her vacation time to deal with recovery, but I’m hoping that we can work something out to make it a special day.  Still not sure what that could be, but hoping that a unique option will present itself for consideration.  I welcome suggestions from the audience.  As nice as it would be to wake up somewhere special and different on our anniversary, a day trip of some sort might be our only opportunity.  We’ll just have to wait and see how it works out.  She might not be up for a lot of walking around, anyway.  That’s a bit of a damper on revelries.

92nd Day-ish

Michelle is doing better, almost every day.  We’re walking further, not every time, but most times, sometimes multiple times in a day.

She’s not going this whole green-line distance every time, but usually going uphill (that's to the right, or counter-clockwise if your brain operates better with those parameters) and back home, unless we go the other way.  Short version:  a lot of the time, she’s going about twice as far as she was before, and at a faster pace. 

The whole circle (sort of a squared circle, maybe more of a block) is the distance we used to walk (with the  dog) almost every evening before we went to bed.  Well, except if it was raining.  I got the dog-walking prize on the majority of those nights, and didn't ever make the block on those occasions.  Angel wasn't so cheerful about it, and he wasn't alone in that.  Doggie raincoats and umbrellas just aren't enough.

The physical therapy side of it continues.  Part of it is going into the PT facility, the rest of it happens at home, every day.  I get to help with the at-home part.