Beautiful Wednesday in San Antonio

Sally's making good progress....

Last Thursday Sally, Peggy and our daughter Pamela had an outing. They went to Panera Bread which Sally found that she loves and had a good lunch. After lunch, they went to a nearby HEB Supermarket and picked up a few items. After that they came home and Sally had a nap, being worn out from all the good activity. When she awoke, she suddenly realized that her "stash" was missing! She had an unmarked envelope with $100 in cash for her Texas trip that she had slipped into her pants pocket before they left for lunch. After her nap, she checked and it was gone! She and Peggy called Panera Bread and HEB and inquired whether anyone had found the money and turned it in. When those inquiries proved futile, Peggy called me and asked that I come by those two locations and scour the ground for this envelope. I did that again with no results. After a couple of days, Sally said that she had decided that it was meant for someone else with a greater need to find that money. That gave her some peace.

Fast forward to this afternoon. Peggy and Sally went again to HEB for some grocery items. After they checked out, Sally said that they should check and see if anyone had found her money. They stood in line at Customer Service to ask about the lost money. The lady that they spoke to said she remembered Peggy calling last week and that she would check with the store manager. She went to his office and came out waving a $100 bill! It turns out that the store manager had personally found the money and placed it aside. Sally's day was made!

Today, we started the new cardiac rehab therapy at St. Luke's Baptist hospital. The physical therapists are quite knowledgeable and have great "bedside manner". Sally's pleased. She will go 3 days a week for an hour of one-on-one therapy.

Today she wore the new white compression hose for the first time. The compression hose have been a start and stop proposition since we started. The first ones that were prescribed were "firm" at 30-40 mm/Hg. The DME provider in Arab then gave us a second pair at 20-30 mm/Hg. Those we got on successfully twice but they were really gave Sally a good bit of pain going on. So yesterday, we got another pair at Walgreen's that are 18 mm/Hg. We think that we can work with these. Then, as her legs' circulation improves and the swelling perhaps goes down, we can graduate to the tighter compressions.

Sally's blood sugars are beginning to settle down in a consistent pattern of good numbers. Only once in the last two weeks have we had to adjust her insulin by adding 1 unit for higher blood glucose readings.

The weather is beautiful in San Antonio these days. Today's low is 55 and the high was in the mid 80s. What's not to like about that?

Sally's a little homesick for family and friends but she's working at enjoying herself. We're trying to work on her recovery and keep her well-fed and busy.

Rainy Tuesday

Sally got her new glasses this morning and is thrilled! There is still a little blurring, but she said that they are miles better than the first pair they made two weeks ago.

She's gone to Bible Study this morning with Peggy.

We are set to begin the cardiac rehab here in San Antonio next Monday, the 23rd.

San Antonio in time for President's Day....

I'll catch you up on the last week for Sally...

Last Monday, Sally was tired from attending Anna's Baby Shower the day before, but she had a good morning at cardiac rehab. The folks at Therapy Plus in Arab are great and worked well with Sally. We called Dr. Holcomb's office about the vision difficulty. They advised us to go back to where we purchased the glasses. The optical shop agreed to re-make the glasses just in case that was the problem.

On Monday afternoon, Sally went to see Dr. Hargraves, but he was away for an emergency, so she saw his Nurse Practitioner, Pam. She was very up-to-date on Sally's progress and asked lots of good questions. She took care of Sally's prescription needs and recommended compression hose for her leg circulation difficulties that continued to cause swelling.

Tuesday, we had rehab again. They agreed to copy all of Sally's charts for these first 4 weeks of rehab for us to take to San Antonio for rehab continuation. I appreciate this level of patient care!

Wednesday and Thursday saw us wrap up rehab at Therapy Plus and prepare for our road trip.

Friday morning we left Arab and headed west. We covered about 450 miles on Friday, even though we stopped at least every two hours to stretch our legs, get gas, eat, etc. Weather was good. We encountered rain only a couple of times. We stopped for the night at Denham Springs, just east of Baton Rouge.

Saturday morning we had a traditional Southern breakfast (egg, grits & raisin toast for Sally, waffle for me) and miraculously located a Starbucks right across the street from our hotel! Sally suggested that I had likely chosen our hotel based on its proximity to a Starbucks. Hmm.

Another good day of driving Saturday. We reached Houston about 3 in the afternoon and arrived home in San Antonio about 7 PM. Sally traveled very comfortably and we listened to an audio book ("Under the Banner of Heaven" : a history of the Mormon Church in the U.S.) most of the entire trip.

Sunday and today, we have recuperated and begun settling into a new routine. Peggy has been preparing and measuring food calculated to please Sally and to conform to her diabetic diet. I have obtained fresh refills of her insulin here in San Antonio and her blood sugar is right on target!

Good Sunday in Arab Alabama

I arrived Thursday night to find Sally greatly improved just like Conrad had told me.  Her color and mobility is much better even than she was when we visited her last Summer.  Her blood glucose readings are much more consistent; the peaks and valleys are smoothing out.  She's running mostly in the 120s to 140s.  120 is the ideal.

Sally went to Sunday School this morning for the first time since her heart attack in November.  She said she got lots of hugs and a few tears.  She stumbled and fell in the entrance hall and bruised her knee but she was still exhilarated by her visit.

Lisa picked her up at Noon to drive her to a baby shower in Albertville for her granddaughter Anna.  She was glad to have sort of a reunion with many of her "grands" and "great-grands" before setting off to Texas in a few days.

She got her new glasses on Friday and was disappointed that she still has some vision difficulty.  We'll contact the ophthalmologist tomorrow to get over and make sure the glasses were correctly made.

Tomorrow is cardiac rehab and an appointment with Dr. Hargraves, her family doctor.  She hasn't seen him since the night of her heart attack.  We'll get any medications issues ironed out before leaving for Texas.

Chilly Tuesday in San Antonio

Conrad just called to give a good update from Arab. Sally's leg tests at Dr. Drenning's office last Thursday revealed nothing that would be restricting blood flow in either the veins or the arteries. There was some "plaque" seen but nothing that should seriously restrict blood flow. The nurse hasn't called back yet with the results of the blood work that they did.

Dr. Holcomb, the eye doctor that so thoroughly examined Sally called to ask that she return in six months for a follow-up, so an appointment was set for July.

Sally's back pain is "much much better" to quote Conrad. This is less troublesome for her and she's cut back to half of a pain pill to help her sleep.

All in all Conrad reports that Sally seems to have really turned a corner! Isn't it amazing what lots of prayer and excellent medical care can do for our sister!! Once again, we are so grateful!

The cardiac rehab folks did check and found that her cardiac rehab can be transferred to another city and continued, so I'll get busy and find a good place here in San Antonio. Then, we can pick right up when she comes with me in a week or two.