Dear So and So

[alexis_the_tiny]

Dear Indysteel

PLEASE don't eat the toilet paper.

ROFLMAO at the mental image...

[Reesha]

Dear Hamstrings,

You've been stiff for a week. I've been trying to stretch you, but it's time for some professional help. We're going to see a therapist tomorrow to see if we can't work out our differences. A massage therapist *WINK*. Yayyyyy.

[goride]

Mimi - such good news! I hope you both find Don being at home to be restful.

[laura*]

Dear janitorial staff everywhere:
When you replenish the toilet seat covers, please make sure to load the dispenser in the correct way. Much too often, the seat cover packages are inserted backwards. They won't pull out nicely from the back side of the packaging.

Dear toilet seat cover manufacturers:
Why do you include a faux dispensing slot on the back of each package? Is it just in case you fill the packaging backwards? If you must have the faux slot, could you at least print instructions, in a variety of languages, to TURN THE PACKAGE AROUND!

[Sky King]

Dear foot, ankle, tendon

you can successfully handle today's annual hike to the Trinket Tree - honest. Placing our lucky rabbits foot on the tree will surely guarantee a great 2012 ;0

[Biciclista]

To whom it may concerned.
RESTFUL??? ARGGGGHHHH!!

To TE ladies. At 7pm I finally got Donald home. Thank goodness my older son Josiah came home with us too. We got in the door, D greeted the cats. Then the visiting nurse came and stayed for almost 2 hours!!! She was only there for one thing, to teach us how to give him his IV antibiotics.
We have to somehow scale back pain meds, and somehow help him be a little less wakeful at night and more wakeful in the morning.

Dear TE ladies, if there's someone here that knows about that, please let me know.

[NbyNW]

Mimi, I got my pain med tapering strategy from a friend who also had a cancer-related surgery. I don't remember what I was on when I fractured my sacrum, but this worked for me:

- don't take pain meds first thing upon waking up -- get dressed, have breakfast, etc. and take a little time to assess how you feel.

- (subjective part) when the pain is just around or beyond what you can bear in order to function (depends what you plan/need to do that day!), that's when you take your first dose for the day.

- gradually take that first dose later and later each day.

- at some point the Rx med will be a bit more than you need -- either you are taking it so late in the day or the pain is dull enough that it's not worth taking ... carefully switch over to your OTC pain reliever of choice ... I'm an ibuprofen person but extra-strength Tylenol was recommended to me at this stage. Check with Dr. &/or pharmacist about potential interactions, as in how long ago should your last dose of Rx be, before it's safe to take OTC.

The other thing I would add to this is to find ways to focus the brain on things other than the pain. TV is too passive for me, I couldn't watch TV all day. Thankfully I was still in grad school so I had a few papers to write, and a thesis topic to come up with. And I was getting ready for a quarter in Italy, so I spent a half hour in the morning and a half hour in the evening practicing my Italian with language tapes.

Some people can really get absorbed in crosswords and Sudoku. There's lots of ways to distract yourself while resting up.

Sounds like Donald's being in the hospital for such a long time may have messed with his sleep patterns ... hopefully things will settle down over the weekend!