Got an update for you

I got picked up from the Glenrose Hospital at seven this morning and taken to the University of Alberta Hospital for x-rays and a follow-up meeting with my surgeon. Everything looks good. No bad news. He is pleased with my progress. 

My stay at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital has been extended into September. I will have more time to get stronger and get better at walking. 

I got to use a four-wheel walker for the first time yesterday. It is harder than it looks. I have a two-wheel walker in my room to practice with under supervision. That means I can use it with a nurse in the room to watch me. More progress being made. 

The United Church in Isabella, Manitoba

The tiny town of Isabella, Manitoba has a few treasures hidden away. One of them is this United Church building.

Built in 1911, it was originally the Presbyterian Church. It became the Isabella United Church after the merger of the Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational and other churches into the United Church in 1925.

Other Isabella attractions include their grain elevator and museum.

Steve Boyko

Traingeekblog

Melville, Saskatchewan

The town of Melville, Saskatchewan was built for the railway, and today it is still pretty railway centered.

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway established Melville as a division point and a railway junction. It had a large roundhouse and turntable, coal tower and other facilities for servicing locomotives. Even today it has engine servicing facilities, although the roundhouse and other steam-era facilities are gone.

The large train station was built in 1908 and is the only one of its kind in Canada. It is under restoration and is looking pretty good.

Melville features some impressive municipal buildings, including the post office and city hall below.

Melville was named for the president of the Grand Trunk Pacific, Charles Melville Hays, who perished on the Titanic.

 

Steve Boyko

Traingeekblog

No! Not the pylons!!

Get off the wheelchair, take the walker around the cones, turn around, sit in the chair, get off the chair, through the cones, turn around and sit in the wheelchair.

I managed to do it three times.

Quick note

Today marks five months from my last surgery to put my legs back together.

Elevator Friday - Legal, Alberta

Dale Redekopp with another contribution.

Last update for the day

Managed to walk three hundred feet with a two-wheeled walker.

New first

Walked around the table twice. I had to  have both hands on the table at all times to support myself. First time I did this.

My balance is good. I can stand without holding on to something. I cannot walk without some means of support.

Actually the rest of my day went better . . .

After some pain and agony the last few days I matched my personal best today of two hundred fifteen feet using a two-wheeled walker. I think I badly sprained a muscle that is getting better.

For those that are curious, if I need painkillers they do give them to me. Many weeks ago I was on Morphine or Dilaudid for pain. The strongest stuff I get in the rehabilitation hospital is Tylenol 3. I have had days where Tylenol 3 does not do much for the pain. For me it usually takes about an hour before I start to feel it helping me.

Well I was doing better . . .

Having to deal with a couple of intensely pain-filled days. I tend to do okay for days at a time then the pain gangs up on me.

Bales

Time for some bales!

Michael Truman

Past Presence Website

Friday update

My therapist is off next week for her holidays. This may be a good thing. I may be able to press the replacement to move forward on some stuff so I can progress further. 

Rather than do one circuit of the room with the walker I broke it up into five walking attempts to get more practice in. I needed some practice on getting up from a sitting position to standing up using the walker. Anyway, add all the distance together and it came to two hundred twenty-nine feet. I am a little miffed that there is no physio on the weekend. On the other hand my body could probably use the rest.

Elevator Friday - Birch Hills, Saskatchewan

Dale Redekopp strikes again with another contribution.

Random notes

My regular physiotherapist has been ill and not at work for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this week. I am grateful that she was off sick as the guy who took her place yesterday let me take the walker and I just kept walking until I made a complete circuit of the physiotherapy room. My regular therapist is cautious and has been slowly easing me into things so I think she would not have let me do that. To be fair, she is wonderful to work with and I was very badly hurt so I understand the caution. Today she was back at work and I duplicated yesterday’s feat for her by walking a little over one hundred fifteen feet.

It is either my imagination or I feel like I am getting stronger. In the not too recent past after a round of physiotherapy I felt like I would lose a fight to a kitten. I had no energy. I have more stamina now.

I will admit to being a bit scared, maybe that is not the word, perhaps apprehensive is better. Or something that is a mix of the two. Trying the two-wheeled walker was major. I could fail badly. People might laugh at me. Then I got mad at myself. If I failed someone would be there to help me dust myself off and try again. I told myself I cannot be the one holding myself back. Anger can be a great motivator. I can deal with the pain, I am learning to deal with the fear.

I will not miss having my blood taken every Monday. I do not know why this irritates me but it does. With I have been through this should not bother me as much as it does. I have complained to the nurses and the  doctor. The weekly taking of my blood will continue. I will also not miss the nightly injections of blood thinner in my stomach. I have literally been jabbed well over one hundred times during my hospital stay.

Thank you to all with your encouraging thoughts and prayers. It truly means a lot.

Gooder than yesterday

Yesterday I did about thirty uninterrupted feet in the two wheel walker. Today I did one hundred fifteen feet. I just might recover.

One step closer

Used a walker for the first time today and managed about thirty feet.

Progress!

An update of sorts

I have not felt like posting much about myself lately.

This has been damn hard. The summer weather is wonderful here and I cannot enjoy it as I am still recovering from injuries stuck in a hospital. That is hard on a person.

I had a few nasty pain-filled days. Pain on a level that I have not experienced in weeks.

There have been roommate issues. At this point I could write a slim book on some of the bizarre stuff I have encountered. Definitely a post, or a series of posts, for a later date.

I have been doing some walking on the parallel bars. About fifteen steps forward, then reversing the process. It ain’t pretty but I can do it.

Onward.

Elevator Friday - Bremen, Saskatchewan

Contributed by Dale Redekopp.

Play the game

I have made an unlikely friend.

Pat is a very nice eighty year old lady. I believe she is in the hospital for a stroke and she has Parkinson’s.

Many many years ago when I was not even in my teenage years I got stuck visiting my paternal grandmother by myself for a few days on a few occasions. My maternal grandmother was a wonderful person who I miss to this day. My paternal grandmother not so much. She had her favourites in the family and our branch were not it. Visiting her was a chore. She did teach me how to play crib. She played daily for some reason. It is not one of my favourite games.

Pat loves to play crib and I like Pat so I play crib with Pat. She is good company. I have met her husband Jim and he still works at eighty years of age refinishing hardwood floors. He prepares food for her from home and visits frequently. I have not so much won the large majority of the games so much as I have dominated them. For some reason I am on a bit of a hot streak. Sometimes the cards just go your way. Pat has taken it as a challenge to beat me. Her husband has enjoyed watching me win as he has suffered numerous defeats to her. We have some entertaining games.

She has speech therapy sessions here and I have gone over some of her word lists to help her out. I have listened to her say the words, marked down some of the ones she had trouble with, and gone over them with her later. I check in on her a few times a day to see if she is doing okay. Be nice to people. It usually costs you nothing.

Random late night post

All true.

Years ago I was in a co-op education program at an insurance company. It was common for Chinese people who moved to Canada to use a different first name. For example I have a friend named John Liew. I did not know for years that his actual name was, if I remember correctly, Sin Tam Liew. He just went by John Liew. Sometimes things got lost in translation as it were and you would run across an purely unintentional hilarious name solely because the person choosing the name did not know any better.

Which brings me back to the insurance company. Back in the day before the internet and fax machines all companies had mailrooms. Insurance applications would arrive from the brokers via mail or courier. One of my tasks was to record, stamp, and number new applications before they were handed out to the designated underwriter.

One of the applications caught my eye. The last name was Ho. The first name was Heidi.

I have never forgot that one.

Progress is slow

Still alive.

Incrementally getting better. Still using a large upright walker and slowly getting better at it.

I have not felt much like posting. I have not been in the mood.

June 26 I had updated x-rays taken for a follow up with my surgeon. There was no bad news. Everything is healing as it should and progressing as it should. Progress will unfortunately be slow. 

Emotional support chicken

Spotted at the Glenrose Hospital.

Elevator Friday

Dale Redekopp was kind enough to send me these photos of the long abandoned grain elevator on private land at Rex, Saskatchewan. There is not much left of this place.

Cpt Mo Wednesday

 

The Former Residential School at Birtle

 

High on the hill above the town of Birtle, Manitoba, the former residential school slowly crumbles.

A residential school for the local Indigenous communities operated in Birtle from 1889 to 1972. The tragedy of the residential schools across Canada is well documented.

This three story brick building was completed in 1931. The federal government sold it in 1975, and the owner started to reconfigure the building but stopped. It was sold again in 2016 and so far it continues to stand derelict. It is private property.

Opinions are divided as to whether it should be demolished or preserved. Until then, it will continue to rot . . . maybe that is for the best.

Steve Boyko

Traingeekblog

Canada Day!

I would take the day off but since I am in the hospital I am not working anyway. 

Happy Birthday Canada!