We're Still Home and Feeling Better

I was just talking to a friend who chastised me for not doing another post so she would know if we were OK. So here goes ...

We've had our trials, but we are OK. It has taken some work to make Ray realize that there are some things he shouldn't do (like lifting things over his head), and that a pain pill goes a long way in relieving what he calls pressure in his chest (I call it pain). So now, he takes one of the pain pills the docs sent home with him every three hours. He had such a bad night last night, he even took two this morning.

As for me, I've been working my you-know-what off, since Ray can't do any of the physical things he usually does, like getting the trash together, washing clothes, shoveling snow, etc.

Friends have been bringing us food that we can reheat, which is really wonderful, because Ray usually cooks for us, and this saves me having to take on still two more tasks (grocery shopping and cooking) in my caretaker role, which I appreciate more than I can say. Besides which, it's such good food.

We did have another day-and-a-half snow storm on Tuesday, and Wednesday about noon, it stopped. I looked out the window and there was Frank, our neighbor, snow-blowing our driveway before even taking care of his own. So I went out and shoveled the 6-8 inches high snow away from our door and from around our SUV, then cleaned off the SUV (no easy task), so we could get out if we had to. I've also taken a couple of turns trying to shovel the snow off our deck, but it's been melting down and is so heavy, which--of course--is why I would like to get it off the deck. But 73-year-old women have to be careful about that stuff, especially if they're taking care of a 73-year-old man who's recovering from surgery.

I had to take Ray to the coumadin clinic last Tuesday to get his coumadin levels checked and he's supposed to return next week for another check. (He was off coumadin for two weeks preceding a colonoscopy and his lung surgery, and was just put back on a couple of days before he was discharged from the hospital.) He's also supposed to go see our family doctor on Monday to have the stitches remove, then he has an appointment on March 2 for a follow-up visit with Dr. Jones in Charlottesville.

I won't be posting as much to this blog in the future, but you can contact us at Ray's blog address by clicking on his picture, then clicking on the Email link under the word "Contact" on the left of that page. I'll answer any emails we receive, so let us hear from you.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and notes and good food, and everything you've done for us. Much love, Kay