No Easy Battles

My working out continues to be rehab for my left shoulder, and walking several thousand steps a day going to the hospital to see my dad.  This weak-well, actually week, but weak is true too-my physical therapist added four new exercises to those I already have been doing.

 

All of the exercises are in a prone position, and involve a small pole.  At home I have been using a broom.  The first exercise is basically bench pressing the pole or broom.  Back in December I was bench pressing 85 pounds-I am not lifting for contests, I lift to build muscle, and five months later it hurts to bench press something that doesn’t way a pound.  Same weigh dumb bell curls.  In December I was curling 25 pounds, now I do 3 pounds.

 

The other new exercises include lifting the pole over my head and trying to touch it to the exercise table, and two that involve side stretching.  All three of these exercises are a real pain, real, not literal.  I ice down every time I complete these routines.

 

I am still sleeping on my recliner.  I tried to go back to bed last Thursday and it just didn’t work out.  I am going to try again tonight, and hopefully I will find a comfortable position, unlike last week.

 

I still subscribe to the motto “no pain, no gain,” so I figure I am improving each week.  I can’t wait for the day it will be “no pain, no pain.”

 

Below is the latest on my dad, originally posted earlier today on Ron Speaks Out.

 

It appears nothing is going to come easy in my father’s battle to survive.  After seeing a fever that spiked at 106.4 and blood pressure that dropped to a critically low reading on Tuesday, I thought the worst was over, and we would say gradual day to day progress.  Actually, we did Wednesday-Saturday.

 

On Sunday my wife and I arrived early so my mother could attend church.  We immediately noticed a change in my dad.  He was totally unresponsive to our voices, and simply did not open his eyes at all.  The ICU nurse stated that doctors were afraid he might have suffered a stroke, and that all that had happened to him this week might have been an indicator a stroke was on the horizon.

 

I really do not know how I kept my composure on hearing of his latest possible malady.  To go through all he had been through, to fight and fight and fight to survive, and then for him to have possibly suffered a stroke seemed like a cruel joke. Where was his guardian angel that so many people felt he was blessed with?

 

Doctors ordered a CT scan, but things seem to move slowly in a hospital on weekends.  It was several hours before he was wheeled to radiology.  I watched from the ICU waiting room to see when they brought him back, and we waited for a half hour so nurses could hook him to the myriad of wires and tubes that are connected to dad.

 

When we finally went to his room, we were in for a shock.  There he was with eyes open, and once again he was responsive to our voices.  I have no idea what happened.  Maybe the movement from the ICU to radiology and back to ICU jump started him.  Maybe his guardian angel had been on a long coffee break and finally returned.  Whatever happened, he was like he had been the past few days.

 

When we arrived at the hospital today he was again alert and his eyes tracked movement of people in the room.  The TV was on in his room, and from time to time he watched a little of whatever was on.  Doctors are talking of removing him from the ventilator permanently tomorrow, and to see how well he could breathe on his own, they decided to take him off the ventilator for four hours this afternoon.  He had no difficulty at all breathing, a very good sign.

 

I guess progress is measured in tiny steps, and sometimes dad has taken a giant step backward.  He continues to fight, and refuses to lose to any problem that arises.  This week has been an amazing roller coaster ride, but I never have like roller coasters.  A nice smooth flight in the coming week would be fine with me.

 

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for my dad and expressed such kind thoughts.  Your prayers and thoughts really helped when my family has struggled with all the health problems my dad has faced.

~ by Ron Meyer on May 26, 2009.