Day 100 - Very Busy Day.

08:00
I slept well. The new pill schedule seems to work well.

Maddie's Nephew is coming over soon to help with the house modifications. We need to coffee, and eat quick.
--
12:30
The Nephew was great. He went to the steel place and got our steel makings we ordered yesterday, Then drilled and installed the two brackets. The main pipe is a tiny bit to long. He has a grinder at his house. He is taking it home. We will collect it later.
 He also installed a new grab rail, and removed the old shower doors and door frame. That was a big deal. That alone would have taken me days.
Big Thanks Johan!
--
14:00
I just spent over an hour figuring out how to retrieve the keys from inside the locked beetle. That is a skill I hope to never use again.
--
13:00
Maddie just zoomed off for last minute shopping. She did so much today with the shower remodeling. I figured she would nap. She wants to buy shower curtain and rail, and an office chair with wheels for me. It should be more comfortable, and allow me to move around a bit.
--
20:00
I just took a 100% unassisted shower :-) Yea!!
That new bar is the answer. We way over designed it. It could hold a gorilla.
With the shower door gone, I can now put my crutches leaning on the sink.  I grab the new overhead bar with my left hand, and a grab bar with my right hand, then just pick me up, and float to where I want to be, and lower me down.
 It isn't easy, or fun, but I feel very safe. No fear of falling. :-)
We got the new shower curtain installed. The curtain is a bit too long, and we need to shorten it. We need a corner shelf for the shampoo and razor.

Slowly but surely we are making the house more "one leg" friendly. My new office chair is great. I can roll all over the living area, and the kitchen. Zoom Zoom.
This chair also makes the need for a table on wheels less urgent. I can use both hands to hold stuff, while pushing on the floor with my one leg. I just rolled over to the refrigerator, and got some cold water. That is a first since the amputation. It feels so good to be a bit more self sufficient. I just rolled up the two rugs that were on the floor, and put them behind the big chair out of the way. Now I can zoom from the front door to the kitchen sink. :-)
How cool is that?

One thing I have neglected to mention is the great benefit from the stationary cycle machine I have. It has large handlebars. They can swivel to point forward. Useless for cycling, but they give a good, strong, assist for me standing or sitting at the computer. The weight of the cycle machine makes the bars very secure.

What a long day. But a very fruitful one. We are both very tired, but I have a glass of warm soya Horlicks and Maddie has a glass of chilled Chardonay in her hand .......
--

Day 99 - A Nominal day, except for my boo boo.

08:30
Today is day 99 since my angiosarcoma diagnosis. I didn't think I would live this long.

We both slept well...except...at 02:30 I started feeling cold, and realized the bed was wet. I had peed in a bottle about 20 minutes earlier, and I had made a big mess. I used half a box of Kleenexes trying to blot up the wet, and then decided to wake Maddie up.
She did all the proper stuff like using towels and cleaning me and the bedding as best as she could. This morning she is washing all the bedding, and doing a vinegar and baking soda repair on the mattress. All the web sites for how to remove urine from a mattress, are for mothers with small children. I bet that is how Maddie feels about now.
--
10:00
Maddie is in a curtain cleaning mood. She asked when the kitchen curtain was last washed. I told her it was actually a dogs blanket, and was probably washed when Kgwedi died in 1998. Now she thinks I am a lousy house keeper. Duh!
--
12:00
I just did my first "project" since amputation. I bolted an ax handle to the side of my bed. It is standing straight up, to be used as an aid in getting out of bed, and standing up.
I used to get out of bed by raising my legs, and moving them to the side of the bed. The weight of them would help me sit up. Now my one leg doesn't weigh enough to do that.  The ax handle is something strong I can pull on to sit up in bed, and to hold onto while getting in, and out, of bed.
 I like strong things to grab. I seem to always feel insecure, and unbalanced.
--
14:00
We drove around shopping for a good office chair with rollers. We didn't find a good one. We then went to a steel manufacturing place. The people there were nice and helped design and build a bar for the shower. It will be a steel plate that screws onto the wall of the shower. Welded onto it will be a square pipe with the top surface cut off. Then another square bar can fit into it. giving me a strong bar from side to side in my shower. Hopefully with this I can lift myself over the lip around the shower. This shower problem needs to be fixed once and for all!
--
20:00
I crutched .5 kilometers again this evening. I have to keep my leg bent. I am so afraid of hurting the knee.
The original Die Hard movie is on tonight.
--