The 2005 Travels of Richard n Shirley

We are fulltime RV's. This means we have no other home but our motor home. We joined the Escapees RV Club and use their mail forwarding service and forum. In addition to Escapees forum, you can find us on rv.net and lrv2.com. We are Richard n Shirley on all of them. We access the internet with a Direcway satellite dish mounted on a tripod. We do set up the dish at every place we stop for the night or more. We are #2321 on datastormusers.com. Click us and you will find our current location.

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Update on the recovery of Richard

I’m progressing along lines to be considered “normal”. For me this means the pain level is down and the healing level is up. I have good days and bad days. To day was a 50-50, yesterday was a 50-50 and I guess most of the days in the week ahead will be 50-50. This means that half of the day was good and the other half was a downer. We are going to change our pain pill intake from 2 per 6 am, 1 per 10 am, 1 per 2 pm, 2 per 6 pm, 2 per 10pm to 2 per 2 am and 2 per 2 pm. I’m having a higher than expected pain level by 5 pm. We will try this and see what happens. We are trying to work to 8 pills a day which is what the pharmacy looks at regardless of the Dr orders. Its government folks, what can I say. And I will run out of pills before my next appointment on Jan 6.

We will finish this blog today. We will not continue on with 2006 on this blog. Instead, we have a new blog for 2006 and its located at http://2006richardnshirley.blogspot.com/. Here you will find all of our new travels and adventures once we finally get started. Its been a fine year.

As we were discussing earlier, 2005 was a good year and we hope that 2006 is just as fun. With my better health and a ready to go spirit, lets go west and see what is there. That’s our plan, go west. We will start on a day in the future when all is healed and can take the rigors of bouncing, twisting and travel in general.

Thanks for coming along with us in 2005 and now its on to 2006.

Have a Happy Near Year everybody as we sure will.

Later.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Update on the recovery of Richard

He is progressing along lines to be considered “normal”. For him this means his pain level is down and is healing level is up. He has good days and bad days. To day was a 50-50, yesterday was a 50-50 and I guess most of the days in the week ahead will be 50-50. This means that half of the day was good and the other half was a downer. We are going to change our pain pill intake from 2 per 10pm, 2 per 2 am, 1 per 6 am, 1 per 10 am, 1 per 2 pm and 1 per 6 pm to 2 per 2 am. I’m having a higher than expected pain level by 5 pm. We eill try this and see what happens. We are trying to work to 8 pills a day which is what the pharmacy looks at regardless of the Dr orders. Its government folks, what can I say.

Busy day today. We started at 9am with chores. But first, I slept like a baby. Got in 7 hours with only the 2 am interruption. I moved to the bed last night from the coach and slept well. Shirley got up and moved to the coach to get some sleep. She said I moaned all night and talked some in my sleep. It was the moaning that kept her awake. I’m on a shower every other day since it’s a lot of work for me. And last night was shower night.

We unhooked and dumped tanks. This unhooking to re hooking takes about an hour. The dump is close by which helps. Just lots for Shirley to do by herself. After we finished that, I invited myself to Weatherford to get out of the house. I got cabin fever, bad! We weren’t there more than 15 minutes and we cam back. It’s the little thing that count. Once we were back it was lunch time and the laundry this afternoon. Shirley finally got back around 3:30 pm. This included a trip to Albertson’s and shop for that still missing wedge pillow.

We pickup that mail that was there and brought it back. I got 2 get well cards and they were so nice. Will go on to the escapee.com web site to give thanks. There are some really nice people there that we have met.

We are now 2 weeks past our operation. Next week should show improvement in my pain level. Right now my “hurt” is a 6 of 10. At 4 pm today it was a 7 of 10. So far, my left arm at the wrist was a 10 which is the highest level of pain I have experienced.

Later.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

More on the recovery of Richard

I am now using both hands to type this. First time ever. Since Shirley was unable to get my rx yesterday, another trip is to be made this morning. She left about 10 am and will not be back till she gets back. I look for 4 hours. I will nap and rest my tired boes and achy body.

It's about 2:30 pm and hopefully with rx. Opps, we been bad. When we left the hospital and came home, Shirley sat in on all the instructions from the nurse. The nurse did her job but the Dr failed to pass on his instructions. This is where things go astray a bit.

First off lets cover the meds.
  • Pain meds-
We are ok on the ones being prescribed that we are already taking at home. The new pain killer, hydrocodone, 5/acetaminophen 500 mg has instructions os 2 every 4 hours as needed for pain. This is more or less what we have need doing. This is wrong. We are suppose to be taking them at an 8 per day limit. Big difference. We will now work with 8 per day and schedule our day accordingly with 2 at bed time and 2 up on rising We have 60 tabs this time vs 45 the last time.
  • Stool softner-
We will continue our stool softner, docusate na 100 mg, along with the pain meds to help re-start our potty trips. We have some milk of mag to help in theis process. Sure makes you feel better when your body is working. We finally "got to go" after missing 2 days.

  • Blood pressure
We are taking a new new med, felodipine 2.5 mg sa. I remember asking about it when I first go it but will have to researce/ask again what it specifically is to do. I am on blood pressure med as it is. I see no problem since it was added after surgery along with the other pre-exisiting meds.

I have most of my left arm and hand back and still have some numbness with the left forearm to the ends of the fingers as described earlier. Hopefully this will come back with some arm exercise and hand excerise.

Generally I feel better, still caughing some but up walking more to help with the cough and the legs. The legs are doing well, still some ossing yet. No sign of infection or inflamation. so far so good.

We are now sleeping 3 hours from the 2-2.5 we were getting. Sure like the extra sleep. Our trips to the potty are down to the 2 am call. We do make this trip prior to and immediately upon rising, Its a "have to thing"

And we have a followup on the 30th. We will have a chest xray at that time. We will walk and do the breating to get ready. The food there is so bad! And its not a heart healthy diet.

Later tomorrow as time permits.

And its my Birthday.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

New update on the recovery of Richard

He is progressing along lines to be considered “normal”. For him this means his pain level is down and is healing level is up. He is out of pain pills but has lots of others yet to take. He received 45 pills on Thursday afternoon, took one when he hit his arm so now he only has 45. The bottle reads 2 ever 4 hours. Well, 4 divided into 24 =6 and 2 times six = 12 twelve pills a day. 45 divided x 12 equals 48 hours less 2 pills, 4 hours and 1 pill , 2 hours. Hope you got that cause I’m to confused to start over. IE, we run out of pills before the paper work for a follow up visit is printed. As I told DW, time is not on our side.

She called the hospital after lunch and got a new supply going. In the car she went and got over there 60 minutes later, called me and guess what? Yep. On the way back she comes and we will discuss the next trip to Dallas. Your right, I should not complain as it was a “free operation” and it is a government agency we are dealing with. Just what the heck do I expect? She just drove up. Yea!

I’m healing nicely and have less pain each day. I expect this to be 6 weeks to travel, 8 weeks to drive either and 10-12 weeks to be able to dump tanks and due some of the outside activities. When we actually move is up to the follow up appointments. Once we have them, we can make plans. I think it is a given for us to go south this winter.

Not much else to add. I’m not fussy yet, thought about it but as DW said, “there not line up at the door!” So, I better keep my mouth closed. Yep! I did get my shower by myself today. It took a bit of doing but it was done.

Later