March 5, 2011

Panera, M&M's and shower chairs

     So here it is Saturday evening at Brooks Rehab.  Due to it's high standard you do have Therapy sessions on Saturday just not as intense, so instead of 3 hours you get 1.5.  And thank the Lord these sessions do not start at 8:00 in the morning.  Not that they let you sleep much, but there wasn't anyone coming in at 5:45 today to dress me for early therapy.  So I got to chill this morning while awaiting therapy and my family coming.  I've been feeling pretty guilty as last night I missed Miss M in Youth Quake Live's March show.  You are supposed to be able to view it online but I couldn't :0(  Hope the pictures post soon.  Then today Son's ROTC had state.  I haven't talked to him yet but I believe they placed and are going to Nationals!!
So Hubby and Miss M showed up around 2:00 with Panera and a Route44 unsweet light ice peach tea from Sonic.  Two of my favorites.  I am supposed to watch the caffeine but boy did I need that tea!  Hubby brought my favorite soup from Panera ~ Broccoli Cheddar.   I am still on a soft mechanical diet but figured soup is soup so we're good to go.  And of course Panera serves their soup with a piece of sourdough bread~ definitely not on my approved foods list.  Had a great visit with the two of them.  We played Risk for almost 2 hours and they accompanied me to OT where we discovered there's a rec room here.  While I worked my butt off the two of them enjoyed a couple games of air hockey.  I learned how to get in and out of a car...the mini van will definitely be easier than the Malibu.  I also learned how to get in and out of a shower.  Now I bet you don't even think about that little activity every day do you?? No, don't lie, you don't.  You just take it for granted that you can get in and out of your shower/tub no questions asked.  Well kiddos I'm here to impress on you how easy you have it :0)  Now the shower stall here has about a 6 inch clearance, thank heavens the one at home isn't that high.  Also I was in sneakers and there was no hold bar.(Please note and acknowledge my submitted excuses, Thank you)  Yesterday we started working on my lifting the left leg onto a 3" block and that is while I'm holding onto the parallel bars and my PT is helping so you can imagine how stressful the 6" lift was..mind you Hubby and Miss M never broke stride with their game until they were done, so glad my therapy and minor panic moments didn't interfere.  So next we tried the tub....I will be using the kids' bathroom tub for the next few weeks as what a breeze that was.  From wheelchair to shower chair..zing!

    Hubby and Miss M left at 445 as she had Wildlyfe tonight.(if you were in Jr high wouldn't you want to go to something called wildlyfe...oh they have it so rough)  That was perfect timing as I was wiped and also hungry for my soup.  Up til now I have pretty much only had hospital food.  I have to admit it hasn't all been that bad.  I am just really getting bored with variations of the same theme....chicken salad or chopped chicken in a sauce with pasta of some sort. I do have soup for lunch and Brooks can make a soup let me tell you.  What I didn't even think about until today is that their soups are thin soups.  Sure they are very flavorful and filled with veggies and such but thin just the same.  Panera's Broccoli Cheddar soup---Not thin.  And they don't cook the  veggies until they are limp, there's still a bit of bite to them.  Well it took me over an hour to finish my bowl of soup and I am very very disappointed to announce that no amount of soaking the Panera Sourdough Baguette made it easy for me to swallow...I'd appreciate a moment of sorrowful pity please.

When I was in college the Boynton characters were huge...do you remember them?  I think they're big in nursery sets now.  Anyway back in the day they were everywhere on mugs, stationary, cards and such.  In fact I still have my mug with the birds sitting on music lines and I buy the Boynton Busy Mom's Calendar every year.  Moving along, There was one pin that I really loved.  It had a hippo who looked downtrodden with the saying "if wearer is found depressed administer chocolate immediately".  I loved this so much that I used it on my senior recital posters with this twist:  If recitalist is found nervous please administer chocolate immediately.  Instead of bouquets of flowers I received chocolate.  So needless to say I am definitely in chocolate withdrawals here.  Last night I asked Michael to bring me up some M&M's.  Are you ready..... unless I let them melt in my mouth I have trouble swallowing them!! Really M&M's.  I mean hey I am swallowing pills..OK they are very small.  But we're talking M&M's.  Then my nurse came in and was truly unhappy to find that I had these little treasures of love.  She said (and you know you just can't make these things up) you really need to be careful you could choke on one. REALLY.!!! So I had to promise to eat no more than a handful over an hour period :0( ~~ define handful hee hee.

So in addition to my body turning on me two of my faithfuls....Paenra and M&M's have fled as well....
Maybe I can get chocolate IVs


3.5 days and counting

2 comments:

  1. WOW..M&M's!!! atleast you can eat them, very slowly!
    I had a shower chair when I had my back surgery, let me just say GOD SEND!!! Walker, check, shower chair, check, and M7M's check, and your fav soup Check, and just think you are going to put the rest of us to shame by the weight you loose!!!

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  2. Kimmy, you are so sweet posting on my blogs so faithfully. I really find it to be therapeutic. But whatever will I do once this journey is over...nah no worries as my life (as is yours i believe) is never boring!

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