I have decided to use my blog as a means of passing along news of Arend's progress.
Our 122-year-old home has 17 steps connecting upstairs and downstairs. On December 2nd, Arend fell down 10 or 11 of them as he was on his way upstairs. Over a year ago he was diagnosed with paraplegia but he has continued to be able to walk with the assistance of a cane or rollator as well as climb stairs. Most of the time, however, he uses a power wheelchair in the house and a manual one when we go anywhere. On this particular day his legs wouldn't hold him and he rolled down the stairs.
As I was caring for him immediately after his fall, I realized that he had a fever. He said he had had it for several days. Eventually I called 9-1-1 for an ambulance (Arend didn't really want to go to the hospital but finally agreed). We got to the hospital at 10:40 and finally about 5:40 in the morning they decided to admit him for a urinary tract infection. Apparently the infection had weakened his legs even more than they normal are and that is why they wouldn't support him.
He was placed on an saline IV drip plus a Cipro IV drip and he remained on those until yesterday, a total of seven days. We are wondering whether he should still be on the antibiotic in pill form since the infection was so bad. Usually, I think, antibiotics are prescribed for ten days for severe infections.
Miraculously, Arend suffered no broken bones or even bruising! He has been on the medicine floor of the hospital ever since he was admitted, but he is supposed to be moved to the rehab floor soon. We will be glad for that because he is not getting enough physiotherapy on the fourth floor to improve his mobility and general ability to the point that he can return home.
We had already changed our family room into a bedroom to accommodate my dad when he moved in with us. When he moved into a retirement home we kept the family room set up as a bedroom. There is also a bathroom on the main floor, so Arend really shouldn't have to go upstairs at all any more. Still, there are times when he will have to climb a couple of stairs (like getting into our house). There are also a few things which he needs to be able to do that he will have to work on while he is on the rehab floor.
Yesterday when I got to the hospital he was sitting in a wheelchair in the hall. I thought that meant they were getting ready to transfer him to the third floor (rehab), but I was wrong. He had been sitting there for quite some time waiting for the physiotherapists to help him on the stairs. Eventually he went down eight stairs with the physiotherapists and then came back up them. As far as I could tell, there was no change in his ability to climb stairs as compared to what he could do prior to his fall. I was surprised and thankful to see that.
Today I didn't go to see him but I talked to him several times on the phone. He remains in good spirits, even sharing laughs about the antics of his roommate, an 86-year-old Hungarian man.
We are so thankful that the Lord spared Arend's life and kept him from serious injury in the fall. And now we are continually reminded of His care as we see Arend progress toward the day he may return home.
So many people have called, visited, sent cards and e-mails, offered help and sent up myriads of prayers. We can never begin to thank everyone for their support. The communion of saints is alive and well!
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
A Pleasant Surprise
Today (Monday) was as normal a day as days ever are at the Smid household. Then about 5 PM the phone rang. Seeing it was from someone at Monsanto, I quickly looked forward to talking to our son Matt who began a new job with Monsanto in Belmont ON this morning.
For the last several years he has been working in Monsanto's soybean program in Guelph ON and today he began his new job as a TOM in Monsanto's corn program. TOM stands for Technical Operations Manager. Moving to Belmont (which is near London ON) means Matt will be only an hour away from home.
When I answered the phone Matt said, "Hi, Mom! What's for dinner?" I asked what he would like for dinner and he said that whatever we were having would be fine. So 90 minutes later Matt pulled in, just as dinner was coming out of the oven.
We had a nice dinner together and then went to see Granddaddy at the Village. Daddy was really surprised to see Matt on a Monday night. Usually when our sons come to visit it is on the weekends, so a Monday night was completely "off the radar" as far as Daddy was concerned. We had a good visit and the aides were nice enough to wait about Daddy's bath until we left since "his grandson doesn't come to visit that often". That was really nice.
We had a chuckle with one of the aides. On Daddy's dresser is a picture of our family 13 years ago when we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. I asked Donna if she could tell from the picture which one of the young men in the picture was sitting beside his grandfather now. She looked and then picked William in the anniversary photo. That was funny because people always mixed Will and Matt up. I don't think they would do so now, but when they were growing up it happened quite often.
Matt spent the night here and then drove to Belmont to work in the morning. It is an hour's drive from Belmont to Ridgetown and an hour and ten minutes from Belmont to Guelph. Right now Matt doesn't have anywhere to live in London or Belmont, so he will be commuting to either Guelph or Ridgetown every day. Hopefully that means we will see more of him, at least for a while. However, he is hoping to finish up some projects he has on the go in his house in Guelph before he puts it on the market, so he will probably try to spend as much time as possible in Guelph for the time being.
For the last several years he has been working in Monsanto's soybean program in Guelph ON and today he began his new job as a TOM in Monsanto's corn program. TOM stands for Technical Operations Manager. Moving to Belmont (which is near London ON) means Matt will be only an hour away from home.
When I answered the phone Matt said, "Hi, Mom! What's for dinner?" I asked what he would like for dinner and he said that whatever we were having would be fine. So 90 minutes later Matt pulled in, just as dinner was coming out of the oven.
We had a nice dinner together and then went to see Granddaddy at the Village. Daddy was really surprised to see Matt on a Monday night. Usually when our sons come to visit it is on the weekends, so a Monday night was completely "off the radar" as far as Daddy was concerned. We had a good visit and the aides were nice enough to wait about Daddy's bath until we left since "his grandson doesn't come to visit that often". That was really nice.
We had a chuckle with one of the aides. On Daddy's dresser is a picture of our family 13 years ago when we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. I asked Donna if she could tell from the picture which one of the young men in the picture was sitting beside his grandfather now. She looked and then picked William in the anniversary photo. That was funny because people always mixed Will and Matt up. I don't think they would do so now, but when they were growing up it happened quite often.
Matt spent the night here and then drove to Belmont to work in the morning. It is an hour's drive from Belmont to Ridgetown and an hour and ten minutes from Belmont to Guelph. Right now Matt doesn't have anywhere to live in London or Belmont, so he will be commuting to either Guelph or Ridgetown every day. Hopefully that means we will see more of him, at least for a while. However, he is hoping to finish up some projects he has on the go in his house in Guelph before he puts it on the market, so he will probably try to spend as much time as possible in Guelph for the time being.
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