Beautiful downtown Paradise

Las Vegas the city that never sleeps. We flew in last night arriving at a reasonable Las Vegas time. The hotel is beautiful and room is spacious. Our mini bar is fully stocked with some very valuable snacks. Water is $8 a bottle beating any Disney prices, proving that adult playgrounds are more expensive than children's. I can't post pictures from my IPad on blogger - a serious failure. The hotel provided a wheel chair - that was worse for the wear - and afte a few short trips pushing over the carpet Bruce graciously, while reluctantly, rented a scooter. Now he has the power1 I have been amazed at the accomodations by the airport and the hotel for people needing wheel chairs. When we landed in Vegas we were met with a flottila of wheel chairs parked on the ramp waiting for passengers. Our pusher got him up the ramp and into the airport, he waited while we got luggage, helped wrestle it off the carousel and arranged for a mini-van cab. The hotel has a fleet of scooters and wheelchairs. The company events start at 4:30 this afternoon so I am off exploring while sweetie puts his leg up and tries to get the swelling down.

I am not moving

Several weeks ago in response to a challenge by my sister in law to post a response in support of breast cancer awareness. Based on the month and day you were born you said "I am moving to somewhere for x months". It prompted a side bar conference of my daughters and a call to my husband to ask when I was leaving. The simple answer was no and why. The longer conversation with my wee tots was that I don't communicate and that in fact they thought it totally plausible they would find out something life changing on Facebook or my blog. I promised to try harder and remember to call when something happened that I would want to know about them. So here goes. Last Friday on the way to meet friends for dinner I was rear ended at a traffic light. It was a dark and rainy night and we were at the light a half block to the restaurant when wham. Luckily she was slowing down. All is well. My boat of a car absorbed the shock with little visible damage. Th other driver buckled her hood but could drive away. Car goes in to the shop next Friday and will be repaired. Her insurance had been great. I am pretty sure she felt slightly faint when our friends walked down to help us and I leveraged my handicapped spouse with both legs in braces out of the car and our friend got the wheel chair out to drive him to the restaurant while the police filled out the report. Maybe that is why their medical claims person calls me every other day to see how we are feeling! Other great news. Bruce is out of one leg brace and can bend the other leg. It gives him a huge amount of freedom. We leave Saturday for a 5 day sales conference in Las Vegas. I get to go along as his health aide and add my two cents during the data center migration session as a project manager. Great visibility for me that will hopefully add more work to my dance card. I will also be scouting out a great massage during the day hours when the poor therapists are hoping for work from people who are sober. Now for the promo of Charlotte news. It has been wonderful. Very few cold days. The jonquils are blooming and the mocking birds doing their "ain't I cute" dances in hopes of attracting mates. Children who move closer to their parents have doting Nana's ready to spoil the wee ones. And this is a wonderful place to work. Keep it your thoughts. Move South!

Road trip

Big excitement in our house! After many false starts and lots and lots of luggage and equipment we set out from Charlotte to Wilmington. We came down to work with a new client on a project. It is a test trip - can we navigate a hotel, what about a pit stop? We did pretty well. We are in a large handicapped accessible room at a Hampton Inn. Walk in shower with handrails. Next big test is getting to the client site and then the conference room. The wheel chair is coming in - no other way to keep his leg up all day, so we will see how that goes. More tomorrow.

Starting week four

Three weeks ago Bruce had his emergency surgery to repair his legs. Three weeks ago I was still in a haze, how had we gone from planning for two weeks in the mountains to waiting . Waiting for news from the surgeon, waiting for him to wake up from the anesthesia, waiting for someone wise to predict the future. What would recovery be like, how long. No one can tell you how complicated it will be. When the doctor came to check him out he asked if I loved my husband and then said you are going to find out how much.

We are getting in to a rhythm. He is able to do much more, we have equipment on both floors, I can get out to run errands and am planning to be gone overnight this coming weekend to go to Madison's first birthday. We have been very lucky.

Patience people

We are now into our third week of our new standard operating procedure at Casa Cardos. I have gone from stunned, numb hour by hour operation to a relatively smooth system. The patient has been patient, it is not a natural act on his part, but he is trying. (No Mom that is not a pun.) We have wheel chairs and walkers on both floors for the commuter, he can now lah de dah down the stairs to breakfast and then saunter back up to the office at will. Major victories included getting in and out of bed and in and out of a chair by himself.

Now he is bored (or rather more bored) and sure that he can spur this healing process along by pushing himself. I am having a hard time helping him understand that tendon's heal at their own rate and it is too early for physical therapy or testing his limits. This is not like getting his should back into functioning order by keeping up with his exercises.

Last night was our first big outing - he put on his big boy pants and shoes, we loaded him into the backseat of the car along with walker and wheel chair and met our friends for dinner. Riding sideways in the car is uncomfortable so we will have to find an alternate solution for longer drives, but Mike and I were able to manhandle the equipment and he was willing to follow the rules. Our next big adventure is a trip into the office on Friday.

This has been a lesson in patience. I know that I am a creature of habit, but didn't realize how changes to my routines can really throw me for a loop. I always prided myself in being flexible. Or as my children would say scatter brained. But I guess I am much less flexible than I thought. Mess drives me crazy, I can put up with it for a while and then -- well and then I try to bring some order and develop a tolerance for what I can't change. It is silly things like my bed looking unmade because he can't tolerate the weight of a comforter or heavy cover on his feet and he has to throw it off both feet before he can start to get out of bed. This results in the sheets being untucked and a lightweight down comforter replacing the much heavier one. So now I am trying out new ideas like a top sheet to keep the down comforter clean, it is still a work in progress. Silly things in the big picture but the harmony in my visible world is very important to the harmony in my little brain. I'll keep you posted on my sanity! and the patient's progress.