Transitioning

Well, I'm home. Left the hospital about 11:15 or so Friday morning and it has definitely seemed a bit strange not to have dinner at 4:30 or to be able to actually press the numbers on the remote (the hospital call light/remote combo only lets you go up and down). I've had to stop myself from dialing 9 to get an outside line. When you do all these things for two+ months, it takes a while to get re-acclimated.

I will say the whole therapy situation was so much better than I ever thought it could be. There wasn't too much overall pain, the people were great, and the nurses really did try to help you out as much as possible. So to Paul, Damon and Chassity, plus any of the nurses that might stumble by, I want to say thank you very much for making what could have been a terrible experience one that was worlds better than I thought it could be.

I'm walking pretty well with the walker right now. We're actually using a "traditional" walker most of the time, since it's easier to manuever into bathrooms, etc. and can be taken on the go easier as well. My rolling walker will be used whenever I feel I may be going somewhere that I may need a seat, since it has one built into it.

My church had a nice "welcome back" reception for me this morning. They had even designed a "Daniel-opoly" board as a oversized card. If I can get our digital camera hooked up to the computer, I'll see if I can't add a picture to this post. It was really amazing to have all that done for me and I'm more appreciative than they know. Thanks, guys! It meant a lot!

Actually did make it to the poker game Friday night, for all the good it did me. Finished 11 out of 12, though I didn't go out until 11:15. I went all in with A-Q and got called by pocket aces. And to finish my luck, I went to the river with a chance for a flush, but it didn't come up. Still, it was nice to be at a full-fledged PPT event. The Wednesday games were great, though, and I'm glad that we played them. It was definitely something to look forward to.

Got to play on the floor with Benjamin today after church. It's been way too long since I've been able to do that! I think he's starting to get used to his father being back as well.

I start my outpatient therapy tomorrow at River Valley Therapy and Sports Medicine (Gabe's establishment). I'm hoping we'll progress quickly and I'll be back to 100% (or as much as I ever was) within a month or two. But who knows?

Hopefully my blogging will be still 3-4 times a week, but we'll have to see as things go by. But the best part is I can get back to the boring stuff like DVDs, baseball and the family instead of reporting how far out my leg can kick!

EDIT: Here's a picture of the Daniel-opoly board.....