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Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Travels Continued

This post begins where my post of  Wednesday, September 13, 2017, left off

Crossing the Threshold from the walkway into the plane was, for me, utterly terrifying!  I had to walk it as my wheelchair was not allowed on, Although Hubby assured me that the walkway and the plane were level to each other and flat, the sunlight reflecting on the metal of the plane, combined with my view through progressive lens glasses,  made it appear to me as if the plane's threshold was concave, plus there was a bit of a gap between the walkway and the plane where I could see the ground some ten or twenty feet below (of course, I'm afraid of heights too).  I was frozen in fear and couldn't to it, so hubby bear-hugged me from the plane and supported me  as I took the step.  I love my guy!  He always knows the way to fix things for me.


Car rental - I found their process interesting. From the airport (Chicago-Midway) we took a shuttle bus to the car rental company,each one is located at the same location with check-in counters similar to the airport for the different airlines; from there we are directed to take the elevator to a specific level, it turns out that we are in a parking garage, which holds the vehicles for each rental company, once on the floor to where we had been directed there is an attendant who greeted us,  checks our papers and directs us to a vehicle of our order type and says “how about this red one here?”  I got the impression that we could choose whatever one suited our taste.  There was no inspection, it’s a take as is and return at end of rental period with no inspection on return.  Hubby informs me that is because he bought the extra coverage called ‘dent & scratch’  The only problem with this is our vehicle wasn’t very clean inside ; otherwise, I like the convenience of it all.
    
Hotel- Our first night was at the Marriott Courtyard, in close proximity to the airport, but even with it being close we still ended up driving in circles before we found it.

Friday's
    This is a Restaurant that we like near home, since there was one in the hotel lobby, we decided to have lunch there.  In comparison,  It’s mostly the same, although this one had no reference to the T.G.I. portion of the restaurant’s name and it had a bit of history printed in the front portion of it’s menu that was news to me… I had thought that it had originated in Boston ( I often went there for lunch in the late 1970’s & early 1980’s, with my very best friend, with whom I have, sadly, lost touch - the restaurant had hand written menus with hand drawn illustrations - written in those old style black and white composition Notebooks, which I found quite fun to look through) but it turns out I was wrong; the first one opened in New York in 1965.
Our Room
    Like most of our hotel stays since becoming a person requiring special needs, there was a slight hiccup  with our bathroom.  We were given a room with a roll-in shower as we requested (because I don’t have balance control to step over the wall of a tub), but there was no bath seat (often, the hotels have a fold-down bench) so, back to the front desk to fix the problem; it was fixed immediately; they delivered a bath chair to our room, much like the one  I use at home.
Nap
We were both so very tired from all the travel and anxiety, that we took a 2-hour nap. Hubby had left his hat and sunglasses at home and since without those protective items, while driving in the sun, usually gives him migraine headaches we thought we should seek out a store suitable to make those purchases.  We started by googling for nearby shopping malls and after driving to 2 of the locations and finding no such suitable store, I decided to google for a nearby Walmart and at the time of my search we were then only a very short distance away...so off to Walmart.
Walmart
    Those of you who know my hubby personally, may find this next part funny: we couldn’t find any fully-brimmed hats. Like the Tilly he usually wears so he had to settle for a ball-cap, what he referred to as a “goofy cap”; however it was a solid color (his favorite, black) without an emblem on it, which made it more to his liking.  He also found clip-on shades to his liking☺.  I know there are many people who are not fans of the Walmart company, but I've always found them useful in a pinch, like we were.

At this point, I wish I had the time and energy to continue my story but I am unable right now.
Hubby and I are driving to the research assessment site, in CT, tomorrow for my 1 week post-op follow-up and MRI.

So, I am unsure how I will continue with this blog but I will tell you now, that I will not write about the procedure here except this...I did not have general anesthesia, I was kept awake for the entire thing! However, if any of my family and friends, reading this, and having knowledge of my cell phone number, wish to hear more of the details, I will welcome your calls and answer any questions you ask.

Based on a number of factors, post-surgery headaches being one, I feel certain that I am one of the recipients of the stem-cells.

Don't know when I'll post again, but I promise I will at some point.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

I Survived

Just aa qoick & short post to assure all my loved ones that I made it through surgery fine and am now back home; I had not been able to post earlier for an assortment of reasons but hope to catch up over the next couple of days.I'm still recovering-healing but also feeling positive that this is going to rake some good changes to my current deficits.

My next post should pick up from where I finished my previous post, with the following bullet list of topics
  • Friday's
  • Room
  • Nap
  • Walmart
  • 9/12
  • Early start
  • Incorrect address
  • Long day of Tests & details of trial & surgery -
  • Whine, whine, no good sleep with propofol
  • Hotel swap
  • Battle of the navigators
  • Nap
  • Dinner

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Notes Thus Far

Going to surgery soon... but wanted to post a bit of stuff ahead of time.
9/11 - travel
Boarding
People needing assistance go first.  I stay in wheelchair to the plane doorway entrance and then, because I am able, I walk from my chair, through the door to my seat (of my choice, as Southwest airlines no longer does assigned seating - and no more separate classes), my cane gets stowed in an overhead storage bin by the flight assistant, then, boarding continues for other passengers.  I was surprised at how tightly my body fit in the seat, I know that I am overweight, but I never imagined that I was so much over that my hips were a bit pinched getting in.

Security checkpoint
  Really very easy process, just time consuming.  A call to tsa the day before, provided a lot of useful info and a number to call upon arrival to request a “personal ---  assistant”.  I was then met by Roger who helped with getting my wheelchair scanned and tagged for the flight and sset me up with a couple of female tsa officers to pat me down in private.
    medications, my wheelchair and I go through 2 scans, xray and 1 extra (laser).

Crossing the threshhold - next post.
Bathroom
    Yep, as I expected, the toilet room on the plane was, uh, awkward.  The total floorspace couldn’t have been more than 2 square feet and not square at all: I was only just barely able to turn around to close and lock the door.  then after doing that, the thought of turning again to check the state of the toilet was too daunting so, I just sat down without looking only to learn that the seat had been left upright (not so comfy) - (my hubby has me spoiled, our house rule is always put the seat down before leaving the bathroom).  Next, hand washing… because of the tight space, the good news is that I didn’t have to go far to do so and everything was reachable ☺; however it took me a rather long time to find the paper towels!  Everything being the same color as the paper towels (walls, etc) made it difficult to notice the hole in the wall that held the paper towels.
Bye for now.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Surgery Confirmed

So far, so good...Flights,car rental, and hotel accommodations have been confirmed, yea!  So, depending on weather (it's stormy in the northeast right now), I should be on my way to Chicago on Monday, next week.  I've never been there before but I doubt I'll have time to explore (maybe, a half day, at best).  Hubby wants to be sure to have a good steak dinner while there and I'm good with that.

I'm starting to look forward to it.  :-)

I had promised some friends that I'd get photos of me with the head piece they attach to the head prior to surgery (halo? cage?) but it doesn't look like that can happen as it's all done in the OR and hubby cannot be there, of course.

I don't expect to post here until after surgery, so see y'all later.