The first thing that astounded me reading your post was that Bruce was able to make coffee himself. Wow! Go Bruce! I cannot imagine Larry doing that. He can't even get himself up in the a.m.

I'm glad PT is keeping him. Usually they will discharge as soon as they can. Sounds like your PT is willing to get more improvement from Bruce.

We will go to exercise this morning as Larry wants to go. Of course, conditions have to be almost perfect but I will take it when I can. lol

Larry is still struggling with CPap machine. He wears it faithfully but doesn't sleep much. I tried giving him the small dose of Ambien but that didn't help much. Everything seems to be a struggle with him. I just wish he could get a decent nights sleep with the thing.

You have a lot of changes to adjust to with Bruce and caregivers. I would hate that too. The good thing is Bruce is improving.

The road is long and winding and uphill at times for us all.

Have a good weekend.

Julie

Debbie:

I am so happy Bruce is doing more for himself which helps the family. more he will do it, easier it will get, this is the line I repeat to my concerned caregiver who always wanted me to be safe & not do anything around the house. My argument was until I try it, how would I know it & I know more I try doing things easier it gets & it becomes second nature.

Asha

Debbie,

I was wondering if the insurance pay for ALL the therapies for Bruce?? I think I remember you saying you pay for the in home help he gets each week. Here in Texas that would cost quite a bit. Even the Wounded Warriors can't get in home care unless the VA is involved like in my case. Then the VA is not involved until you are out the service and become a Veteran. Some of these guys and ladies meet the requirements to get VA benefits and not retired for years of service which is 20 years or more!

So many of the still active duty status soldiers are getting scooters and chairs. The still wear their uniforms too!

Fred!

Debbie, Yea rah for Bruce doing the coffee but...standing for the coffee cups!! How exciting for both of you! Dan does hardly anything for himself.

MJ

Thank you all. Fred: we now are on co-pay for the OT-PT. Bruce's Rehab throws in free pool during the therapy time, after that we pay $35.00 a month.

We paid privately for all of his Speech therapy. You all know why and since Insurance only pays for so many "therapy sessions-regardless of what they are" this freed up time for PT. And Home OT decerted him early, because she knew he needed more aggressive therapy that only Out Patient therapy could give him. Again freeing up more time for PT. Outpatient he was allowed 30 sessions, and then we paid privately for an additional 8 months.

Bruce qualified for Medicare in November 2011, after a year of just swimming, and then Botox was again partly paid for and the therapies are a co-pay, pool is free.

I always paid privately for the caregivers. He never qualified. I pay for them out of my paycheck and what little is left I have recently started stashing away. I recently found two charities who often provide inexpensive or donated time to caregiver. They are not CNAs. It is sitting and light housework only. I plan on donating the money to them. If I pre-decease Bruce, it is in the trust. I have come to realize how even just an hour or two away, for the caregiver is important.

I can do all this because of Bruce. It is really his money. He spent his whole life scrimping and saving, looking for the best deal, going without. This is certainly not the way he expected to enjoy all his hard work and I try to make the best decisions for him, based on my experience as a nurse.

I try not to dwell too much on the poor decisions I feel I have made since Stroke took our lives almost three years ago. I hyperventilate and then the anxiety sets in. It is a horrible thing to be responsible for another person. Bruce has always been so accepting and flexible. One of his co-workers of 20 years said she has never heard him say anything degrading about me. Nor would he say it to me. He always felt he needed to protect and care for me. I am only trying to do that for him.

And Julie: the coffee pot is set up by me before I go to work. He just needs to hit the on switch-lol. Debbie