It has been difficult, very difficult. First, of course was dealing with the pain and the restrictions to activities. My rib cage had been "torn asunder" so I had to be careful while that was mending and every movement was painful. I was in Porter Hospital in Denver and I think I was there about ten days. Every day the surgeon would say, "I think you can go home tomorrow." When tomorrow came it was the same refrain.
Finally, the day came that I was discharged from the hospital and sent home.
While I was in the hospital Jeanne was at our home arranging for me to come home and for Robert to have care, too, in the mean time. She arranged for home health care so that I would have a cook and general light house keeping person to keep things going. This was 8 hours/day 6 days a week, at first. Within a couple of weeks I had cut that back to 8hours 4 days a week. And Mary, the cook was great at leaving packages in the frig with labels such as: enchilada, Ann LST and another with enchilada, Robert. Mine was without salt.
In addition to the cook, a Physical therapist came twice a week; an Occupational therapist came once. She checked the house and found we already had a chair in the shower for me and that in one bathroom
the toilet was raised, such that I shouldn't need additional accessories were needed. Robyn had been busy installing a grab bar in the shower and switching the European shower from the other bathroom to the one I should be using. In addition she added a button-key entry to the back door. A different number for us, the home health people, and various other important people. It is very useful and easy to use. The nice thing was that I erased the key-pad entry of the home health care people when they were no longer needed.
Gradually, I have become stronger. Robert and I walk every day. First, with a walker to hold the oxygen bottle. The first day I made it to our gate and only a few feet up Maureen's driveway. Maureen lives next door and has a very large property; ours is one acre, her's must be at least two. Day by day and week by week I grew stronger and by the time the oxygen was gone, I was walking Maureen's driveway loop twice. Then we started walking in the neighborhood to the north of us. Again, at first I could only go a little way, but now I'm walking the whole loop which is a little more than a mile. With the garden walking and other trips in our yard I have managed to chalk up 2 miles/day for the last week. What a milestone!
I am adding pictures of our "work in progress." A small garden patio to the north of our driveway. It is designed to have the sun dial displayed and a cannon ball dating from the American Revolution against the British. It is assumed to be a British cannon ball since it was found in the Boston area some many, many years ago. It's been in the barn in Salina for the last 63 years....and now it shall soon have a place of honor in our new garden.
Most of the work in the garden has been done by granddaughter, Gabby. This includes planting all the bushes and mixing cement with Robert and helping pour it around the base of the granite stone pedestal.
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