Monday, April 22nd
I finished writing last week's weekly blog yesterday, so all I had to do this morning was attach a photo and send it to Brett, who helps me post things. I got to sleep early but then, as I sometimes do, I woke up at 12:45 a.m. And I couldn't get back to sleep until 3:45 a.m. They woke me up for my suppository at 5:30 a.m. So I was tired today. Hopefully, I can get better sleep tonight.
Mom brought my new iPad Pro that my sister had bought yesterday. It was huge and extremely thin. M started to help me set it up, but I am still using the weak, unsecured hospital Wi-Fi, and Apple did not approve. Hopefully my sister will set up the Wi-Fi hotspot under my bed, and I will have loads of strong, secure signal. Won't that be nice! I ordered a case for the iPad and I am really looking forward to watching movies and shows on it! Sweet!
As a small aside, I would just like to say how much I enjoy guava nectar after dinner. I get grape juice in the morning, which I can only drink half of. At lunch, I get apple juice. The guava nectar somehow almost tastes like a dessert! It's the little things...
Tuesday, April 23rd
Jay really liked the essay I started for next month. This is the one about the denial I was talking about last week or whenever. I spit out six paragraphs very quickly, which need to be polished but are 85% done. I hope the essays are as good as I think they are and I'm not just fooling myself. You will see it soon and can give me your opinion!
The technician from Gammie came to make some final adjustments to my power wheelchair. They came and took the chair almost 2 weeks ago to give me a new battery and make various minor repairs to the chair, as it is about five years old. Apparently, I don't use the chair the way it should be used. I only get in it and use it about once a week. It wants to be used at least every other day. Yikes! I guess I need to get out of bed more often. Not such a bad idea...
Wednesday, April 24th
Since the hospital was unable to get me in the chair when the technician was here, he arranged to come this morning at 11 a.m. At first, I thought it would not work out since Wednesday is my shower day and putting me in the chair after the shower takes a few steps. I was going to call and reschedule, but then my CNA arrived and told me that's what we would be doing. Great! I think because the technician arranged it, the hospital knew they needed to get me up.
I am happy to report that the warm water existed for 90% my shower. Yippee! They moved me to my bed and then got me in the chair. I had not sat up for almost 2 weeks and it felt unusual at first. Also, the headrest was not in the right place, but the technician would be here soon to adjust that. He came and moved that into place, made a few other tweaks, and made two short videos to illustrate a couple of important things. Perfect!
Thursday, April 25th
I got up in the wheelchair again today. I was going to really enjoy it until I noticed that I had not charged it last night. Crap! It is difficult to remember to ask them to charge it, especially because when I ask they say later and then they forget to plug it in. I need to talk to the nurse about including charging it in my nightly routine. I hate overcharging it, but maybe I can't. That is something I should know. It probably would have been good to ask the technician when he was here. Oh well…
As you read earlier, I had started writing the next essay, and I wanted to finish it so I could read it to my therapist. Unfortunately, in the course of writing the last paragraphs, I somehow accidentally selected all again. I tried to tap in the middle of the paragraph to move the cursor, but that didn't work, and I got more anxious. I tried saying undo, but that just replaced the entire essay with one word. Great. I have done it again. Erased 10 or so paragraphs of solid gold! I started to cry when my CNA came by to wash my face, and she really gets upset when I cry. I really didn't want to, but I pulled it together. This is when swearing a blue streak is very satisfying. Anyway, you can imagine that...
I tried to rewrite it, but I was trying to remember what I wrote, and I'm sure it would be better if I just started writing from scratch. fsgdf! Sorry! I called AppleCare about this. I just have to email myself what I have written or something so I don't lose everything again. I really miss PCs that save a file of your last saved document. Welcome to Mac!
Friday, April 26th
Pam ordered me a new pillow from my insurance’s over-the-counter bucket. It is meant for people who need to sleep with a CPAP machine strapped on their face. So I am learning that my old pillow, as crappy as I thought it was, is better than this. My neck is sore because the pillow is not as firm and not as big as my old one was. I will get the old pillow back.
My chair got plugged in so it is nice and charged! Sweet! I started working on a picture book through Google Photos for my mom's birthday, which this year falls on Mother's Day. Google Photos has pictures from 2006 until present, and I went to put together a book of photos of my sister, my mom, and me! She will love that! I started making a book by choosing my sister my mom and me, and it picked 80+ photos that I cut down to 48. I will get it down a bit more and have my sister look at it tomorrow. Shhh! Don't tell mom. Maybe you shouldn't write it in your blog then…
My friend E from high school is bringing H to the hospital tomorrow. My sister will come and hang out with me and then bring H back to Mom. Wonderful! I will find someone to help so we can have a third visit, just he and I (and the sitter). But that's great if we can create two regular visits a week minimum.
Saturday, April 27th
I stayed up last night working on the photo book for mom, looking up and writing captions for at least a third of the photos. When my sister came and had a chance to look at it, we got rid of a few more photos and captioned more. She sent me a photo from the trip to Europe two years ago. Now I just need to do some re-ordering of the photos and send it off by the 1st!
E, a friend from high school who lives nearby, picked up H from mom's place and got here at 1 PM. Beautiful! We hung out for what ended up being two more hours until my sister arrived with food from WF. Everyone chatted for a bit and then E left. My sister ended up staying until 6:15 p.m., so H got a nice long visit! My sister set up the Wi-Fi hotspot (see photo) under my bed, nearest the available plug. We had to unplug the wheelchair charger. We will deal with that when we have to charge the chair.
Sunday, April 28th
I have been sleeping soundly lately, which is very nice. For a long time, I went to sleep listening to a podcast on low volume. The sound of someone talking helps my mind rest and drift off. It also helps if I try to listen to the podcast until I get sleepy enough to just drift off. The last two weeks or so, since I got my new phone and have been listening to Apple podcasts, I haven't bothered to find out how to turn on continuous play, so I have been sleeping in silence. It's nice, and I suspect that is why I sleep so soundly.
I requested to talk to the staff guy who knows something about technology. He helped me reposition the Wi-Fi unit on the table next to the bed, which allows it to get much better signal. Now it is the blazingly fast 5G signal it should be. Mom and M will bring Humphrey and the new iPad Pro in its new case that arrived at Mom's place. Yikes, I can't wait! I am curious to do a side-by-side comparison of my old tablet and my new iPad. The new iPad will look gorgeous but I don't think the size of a movie will be very different. My old tablet is almost as wide as the new iPad Pro. That's what makes a difference when watching a movie and keeping the aspect ratio true to the original movie. Just saying…
I applaud you if you are still reading this. You are either a friend of mine or you find my life way too interesting. Scratch that. It has to be the latter because even the former would've dropped off much sooner. This is what you get when I write the days entry on the day or the next morning. I go into way too much detail. My sister interrupts me and says, get to the point when I start to babble. There are no brakes here so I can just keep talking and talking…
Have a great week!
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