With Mr. Grinch scheduled to come home Thursday we thought it would be a good idea to come home for our weekend outings so we could reassure Matt, Sara, and Dr. Sorrel that he could manage the steps just fine. He did great on getting up and down those steps! Better in many ways than he has done for a long time. The PT he has been doing is definitely helping him grow stronger. I intend to see to it that he stays as active as possible, and continues with the PT once he gets home for good. I'm not about to let him fall back on old bad habits, and wind up back in the hospital or nursing home because of that.
Yes, the chemo he is going to have to undergo is going to knock him back. However, until the chemo starts, he is going to continue doing as much as he can so that he is as strong as possible when those chemicals once more start dripping into his bloodstream. And even during chemo, the days that he does feel okay, I'm going to be encouraging him to keep up with any of the PT and activity that he can. Including lots of slow walking. Because breathing correctly is so important because of the COPD, I am going to be rather relentless once he is at home concerning the breathing exercises as well.
With fall now here, one of the things on my To Do list is to take a little trip to Lost Maples State Park to see the turning of the leaves. Even if he can't actually go hiking, there are still lots of places we can park, and even some places he can do a little walking that will give him some good views of the beauty of Lost Maples, as well as a little exercise. Knowing Mr. Grinch as I do, he will no doubt act as if he doesn't appreciate the beauty, and gripe like hell about the exercise. But that's okay because he's going, and doing a little walking anyway.
Speaking of walking, after I had to return him to the nursing facility this afternoon I decided to head over to Joshua Springs Park & Preserve and do a little walking myself. It was a glorious sunny fall afternoon. Every fishing pier had couples or families fishing from it, the playground was buzzing with kids enjoying the warm afternoon. It was truly wonderful to see families with children taking advantage of this glorious afternoon.
