Trying Something New
I can hardly believe how long it has been since I have posted. There is a reason for the delay. I have been very busy working on getting some items added to my RedBubble shop (designergrrl). These are mostly Christmas themed designs. I hope to be able to make some sales in the fourth quarter for the Christmas shopping season.
I am also currently in the rehab center again to receive skilled nursing and physical and occupational therapy. A couple of weeks ago, I had re-injured my right knee, the one with the torn meniscus. Evidently I slightly twisted the knee when I was walking with a walker to the bathroom. The bathroom area is very small, and there two sharp turns followed by a pivot. It is fairly easy to twist the knee if you aren’t very careful. After I injured it, I put some ice on the knee. The ice helped for a while, but in the middle of the night, the knee was bothering me again. I tried to get “easy” by rolling over but I couldn’t. So I decided to roll the opposite direction. I didn’t realize how close I was to the edge of the bed, and I rolled right off the bed onto the floor. I landed in a kneeling position on both arthritic knees. This was definitely not a comfortable position for me to be in. I managed to get off my knees and on my side. Guy couldn’t hear me calling for me. The AI Alexa was no help either in notifying Guy. So I prayed and waited an hour or two until Guy finally woke up, came closer to the bedroom, and could finally hear my pleas for help. He called “911” and the EMTs showed up, helped me get to their gurney, and took me via ambulance to the hospital. I was there Tuesday through Sunday, and then finally I went home. They did several tests on me, including blood labwork, an MRI on my brain to check for another stroke and/or for TIAs since I continue have stroke symptoms, CT scans, and an echocardiogram. They also x-rayed my knees and found nothing broken. Fortunately I also was “negative” for another stroke and for TIAs. I was also evaluated by physical therapy and occupational therapy, and the therapists recommended I go to a skilled nursing rehab facility. Since my facility of choice, however, didn’t have any openings (and I was told by the hospital’s case worker that they wouldn’t have for the foreseeable future), and the other facilities on my insurance “approved” list had poor reviews, I decided to go home. I had caught a bad cold in the hospital and wasn’t feeling well anyway. At this point all I could think was that I would not be getting any better with no one to help me. Home health is useful to a degree, but the assistance they have offered me in the past has been somewhat limited. It is, however, what my insurance policy will cover. I was so depressed that I cried. Unfortunately I also passed on my hospital “bug” to Guy who began running over 101 degree fever.
The day after I came home someone from the admissions department of my facility of choice called to say they had an opening. They would seek the necessary approval from my insurance company so that I could be admitted to their facility that Wednesday. God has been so good to me! Yes, praise God! The insurance approved my admission, and here I am.
I have now been here for almost two weeks. I hope to be allowed to stay a month. I will find out from the insurance this week if they will allow that.
In the meantime, I do physical and occupational therapy and continue to do designs for products in my RedBubble store. So even if I am not creating art per se, I am doing something creative. Guy came to see me on Thanksgiving, and we ate dinner together. So that was fun. Plus I have seen several old friends from my previous stays here at this facility. It has been really good to see them.
The “something new” I mentioned in the blog post title is that I have recently started using an AI generator to create art. I will write more about it later. Also I may make a video about it. For right you can go to my new gallery to see my AI art.
Blessings to you and happy holidays!