Day 177 – Fox Hunting and Use It or Lose It

Jeff and I were driving up our street around 11 p.m. last night, returning from a night at Rider’s theatre, when we saw a large animal in the intersection at the beginning of our block.  It was too large to be a groundhog and differently shaped.  It had to be a fox!  In 30 years at this address, we have seen opossums, skunks, raccoons, groundhogs, albino squirrels and the ordinary variety.  One time we had a couple of turkeys in our back yard that had escaped from Snipes Farm.  We have never seen a fox in our neighborhood.  I put the high beams on to illuminate the stranger and we watched as he went up our neighbor’s driveway.  As I took the foot off the brake and coasted toward our own driveway, Jeff said, “That makes two foxes on our block.”  Hmmm…  He’s a charmer, that one! 

In yesterday’s mail we received another well-timed packet from the National Marrow Donor Program.  Jeff flipped immediately to the section in the booklet entitled “Sexual Health” and, after confirming we are doing as well as can be expected – and maybe better than some, we began to read the thing cover-to-cover.  Reading the potential emotional issues that can result from BMT, we could see that Jeff is doing very, very well in terms of adjustment to his forever-changed body.  In the section on “Expectations During Recovery,” there is a description of the patient’s independence alternating with dependence for certain tasks or if the patient has had a setback.  It says, “It is not unusual for words of encouragement to sound like nagging if you are not up to the task.”  This provided an opportunity for us to discuss my changing duties as caregiver.

Jeff has been feigning (maybe, maybe not) annoyance at my suggestion that he perform his PT exercises twice a day.  Left on his own, Jeff would not do his exercises – they’re too uncomfortable - yet he has a strong desire to improve his mobility.  He is supposed to do them three times a day so I think I’m going easy on him.  I have heard him tell other people that I “get on him” about it.  Well, it’s my job, and I do it well.

Jeff was asked by PT Mike what his goal was for physical therapy.  Mike asked, “Would you like to get back to work?”  Jeff said, "I would like to be able to tuck in my shirt."  I’m glad that he doesn’t feel any pressure about returning to work although he refers to his volunteer work and the small projects he has done at my parents’ house as “work.”  He’ll say, “I’m working on Monday.”  This means he’ll have a couple of hours of useful activity with periodic breaks followed by extended rest.  And, as he says, when he gets tired of resting, he rests some more. 

The neighborhood fox(es) also brought to mind a goofy commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb0kiiB3O-o

Enjoy!