Saturday, February 11, 2006

Another California Update 18th of January

Dear all,

We went to see Graham's new apartment yesterday. It is just perfect for him. The main room is very large and the attached kitchen has an alcove for the appliances around the corner but an open space for a table as part of the main room. There will be plenty of space for him to live in that room. He is thinking about using that for his bed, rather than a bedroom. I have to agree it makes sense. The bathroom is going to take some modification and I am told a wet room could be Very Expensive so if any of you are plumbers/bathroom experts, or know someone who is, could you let me know so we can get a quotation for the work? The two bedrooms are a good size and I believe one will be for his caregiver and the other will be for his computer/study. I am going to prevail upon him to put a sofa-bed in that bedroom for visitors. My thought is that he would be in the main room where is bed, television, chairs for visitors, table for eating and so forth will have plenty of room. We have been discussing using a ceiling hoist rather than a moveable hoist -- this would take up less space and save his caregiver's back as well. The room I think would be his office/guest room has an angled door I am sure he will be able to get through and the hallway is not long and narrow but instead is and odd shape but basically I think he could turn his chair around in it.


When I come back later this spring, my intent is to come the last two days he is in the Rehab Inst. of Santa Barbara (RISB) and then the first two weeks he is in his own apartment. If he has a sofa-bed there I will be able to stay right with him and his caregiver and be of more help then if I am staying elsewhere. I will be able to go out with him in the neighborhood and so forth. If any of you have a sofabed you were thinking of getting rid of that still has some good in it, please let me know.

I also chose the carpet for Graham's new apartment. It will be a tight weave in dark blue and brown mottled. It should be easy for him to roll around and will be warmer. The managers are going to renew the whole place for him so it will be freshly painted and ready when he is ready. They are being so extremely helpful and kind. I asked both Flora (manager) and Marvin (caretaker/handyman of the apartments) if they would help Graham during the day if he needed help. They both readily said yes. We are going to get him an alert button he can wear around his neck that will alert the office or Marvin so that Graham will feel secure when he does not have someone with him. He won't have someone there 24/7 so this is important for his safety, security and peace of mind.

The logistics of him moving in depend on the apartment being finished and furnished before he goes to RISB so that the two intense weeks (or so) he spends there will be immediately followed by him moving to his apartment. So there is a lot of perfect planning and accomplishements to be done!

Yesterday was a Good Day. I went to the apartment, and then I went to Paperback Alley where Graham has worked and even was tempted and succumbed to buying a book! Louise was there as Ruta was already on her way to Graham with a nice Mexican burrito for lunch. I also stopped in at the local bank and discovered that unfortunately it would NOT be an easy thing to change to a nice friendly bank who would help him. The change is really difficult and he would have to be able to sign things or have someone on his account who could. So after that very productive interview I decided that for now I will do Graham's banking from England as it is already all set up online. I do my own banking this way and feel that until Graham has all his fancy computer and software I can do this for now. Once he gets the computer, software and mouse being provided by the Cal. State Dept of Rehab, it won't take long for him to find his own way to do these things. I know eventually it is his desire to do as much for himself as possible, so I expect to turn this over to him when I visit in the spring.

I then took the bus back to BVCC and found out how relatively simple it will be for Graham to use the buses and it will only cost him 60 cents as a disabled user. The bus will put out its ramp and he will go in and the driver will fasten his chair in the right postion and then later let him out wherever he is going. I still hope to do this while I am here but there seem to be so many other things to do as well!

When I got to BVCC it was only a few minutes before Ruta showed up and we feasted on Mexican food. Yummy. Thank you Ruta! Ruta also agreed to help with the payment transfers to secure the new apartment as she is right around the corner and she can get the necessary money orders for the holding deposit and security deposit. Thank you again, Ruta, for this help.

Betty Davis came along to visit and after a while of sitting in the sun and chatting, I said to Graham how about going for a new pair of shoes as there is a place just across the road. He accepted the offer and as we were wheeling out of BVCC Marilyn Gross showed up. We bid Betty farewell and Marilyn accompanied us to the Footlocker. It was a scary trip for Graham -- the furthest he had been before was the post office next door. The pathways are not all that easy to negotiate in some places -- narrow in some areas so he had to take care not to go off the path, and steep inclines for the exits and entrances to the crosswalks, with various other bumps along the way. I think whoever makes these pathways for people in wheelchairs ought to go on them in a wheel chair themselves and see how it feels.

However, Graham did very well and we went to the footlocker where a lovely young man helped us to find a pair of Converse Allstars in black and white with the low heal. They are slightly larger and easier to put on his foot than the pair he got in England so hopefully this will help those who are dressing him and also when his toenails get so long waiting for the podiatrist to come every 2 months, they won't be pushed into the end of the shoes. Also they are just canvas rather than all that padding in most tennis shoes. We were feeling so chuffed we went on to the post office as well and got 3 pieces of mail there.

This is one thing visitors can do with Graham now, take a stroll to the post office with him. He can get there, of course, but he can't put the key in the lock and get out the post. This is a nice thing to do with him, so perhaps when you visit you can ask if he would like to go over to the post office.

You can see it was a busy day and after we had a meeting with visitor Vera about money things I think I left him quite tired and ready to watch the 5 o'clock news on KCET!

I came home to the laptop being hopefully prepared to go online when I take it in today. There was a problem with it hooking up to the internet for some reason on Monday but Jim did a checkdisk and defrag and it appears ready to be hooked up there. Of course he won't be able to keep it there with him as it would be tempting for someone to take. We have not figured out yet how to accomplish him having it there but for now I will take it home with me every night and bring it back every day. He has bought an extra keyboard so that anyone working with him can sit next to him with the laptop on the tray table and both see it and then type on the keyboard away from having to be right in front of Graham.

We will hopefully be doing a Graham update today!! Stand by (as Bill P says!)!

I know Graham is a bit frightened of moving to his apartment as it is a big unknown. He is also a bit intimidated about going out, but the more he does that the easier it will get. His power chair is a marvel and I am so grateful that he has that. Once he is in RISB he will re-learn how to feed himself and do some other rehab. He will quickly learn (with a special tutor from CDofR as well) to use the computer again. We also hope to have his voice activated telephone in place.
So you can see things are moving along.


Thank you again to all of you who visit Graham and who write to him. Soon you will be corresponding with him by email!

We are set to go to Church again on Sunday so will see many of you there.

Kind regards to all from sunny California,
Linda

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