April

P.S. When you are told that your husband will be walking at graduation and will wear an “academic regalia”, you gotta do happy jump. I’m super excited for him!  It’s gonna happen on Saturday, May 14, 2022. 

Entry#38.  4/30/2022
At the beginning phase of our new-normal journey, I searched many YouTube videos and looked up many paraplegia YouTubers. These are informative, helpful and inspiring very much. There are many books by paraplegia authors which are really inspiring, too. Then at some point, I stopped to devour these kind of videos. Nowadays, I go back to search when I need information again. I guess it was just too much information all at once and I was overwhelmed. I just wanted to focus on “how to live” without comparing to other “famous” YouTubers.  Well, however there were several videos I still love to look back. And of course there are several favorite paraplegia YouTubers. I put two on here just for your information, only if you have plenty of free time. These two are top top athletes, I cannot compare them to others. However their mental process after injury made me agree with a nod hugely.   

Entry#37.  4/29/2022
After our wheelchair life has started, there have been many eye-popping things/facts to myself. I didn’t think that wheelchair users could fall to the ground or trip or tumble over. I wouldn’t believe it until I saw it. And I saw my husband fell with a wheelchair in public place. You never know how you react in that situation. It was sweet that people around us just wanted to help my husband somehow, telling him “Do you need any help?” “How can I help?”. Fortunately there was a kind of staircase railing just beside. So he managed to get on a wheelchair using the railing by himself. I guess I was more shocked than my husband. And I was relieved much more than he was.  And my lesson was knowing the truth that wheelchair users fall just like I do. Once I know it, I could act usefully and efficiently. That’s what I hope.

photo: I love taking closeup photos of flowers. Dandelion's puff on the rainy day is very interesting. I love the mechanism of energy-efficient spreading-seeds method. The pink Christmas cactus bloomed today. It looks mighty pink. 

Entry#36.  4/28/2022
When my husband came home from the hospital for the first time since the accident, I was so relieved and happy. Everyone was so happy. I haven’t had solved everything in our house yet, but he has his secured entrance, he can access each rooms at downstairs, he has his own roll in shower room with heat lamp (heat light) and he has his special bed, these are at the very least necessaries of life. I still have many things to think about though.  I do hard things slowly. I haven’t noticed that his daily-wheelchair isn’t good for wandering around backyard at that time. (It’s still a loaner wheelchair even right now.) At first, I thought “Wait, you cannot move on the lawn yard easily? Oh, it’s too hard? The wheels are caught and stuck?”  Never thought about those things. That’s why it was so grateful when he made it riding on the other wheelchair at backyard. I’ve heard something about paraplegia’s mowing. Paraplegic person could ride on a riding mower and still can do mow by himself. Have you imagined like that?  I’m not sure if it’s a bit risky or a possible activity, not sure. But it sounds there are still some possibilities out there somewhere for sure. (Well, we don’t have a riding mower. I push mine.)  My future-to-do-list got long now, it’s almost an “impossible” wish list. That sounds more realistic. Re-do long driveway with a great water drainage system. Front and back entrance. Brick patio. Accessible kitchen counter. And so on. Someday in future, someday. 

Entry#35.  4/27/2022
I have a long-time friend in KS. We’ve been friends since 2001. (Our son was born in Manhattan, KS in 2002.) She was my mail carrier at that time. She is an artist, an editor, a bow Hunter, a gardener, a baker, a hummingbird whisperer (many many hummingbirds visit her place, amazing). I love our connection very much. She surprised me the day before yesterday, sending me a package. It was her handmade quilt, special version.
Story started like this. My husband, our son and I went on a Colorado trip in summer 2021. My boys go to Colorado almost every summer. We always do one night stay in Manhattan, KS; our old home town. I visited my friend’s house at this time. I brought a fabric for her. A fabric from Charley Harper store. 

https://www.charleyharperartstudio.com/products/fabrics/poplin.html

I wanted to introduce “Charley Harper” to her because he is a Cincinnati based artist and my husband loves his art, so as I. I was imagining that she would enjoy using this fabric for her some project somehow with her style. We hugged tight at her house.

Then I got a package from her 2 days ago. When I saw her handmade quilt in the box, my eyes were wide open. She used a fabric I gave her in Summer 2021. Further to that, she collected about 10 more designs of fabrics from Charley Harper online store and made quilt patterns. How amazing the idea is!! I love the whole quilt, whole process and her thoughtfulness.  We’ve talked about our each gardens, deer, birds, coneflowers and more for years. These are all in this quilt. I can see our special bounding in this quilt very much. Yes, I feel her “hugs” when I snuggle! She made my day brighter.  I showed off my special quilt to my boys until they rolled their eyes. I was so proud. So I’m gonna show off here, too. Yay. 

Entry#34.  4/26/2022
Our February was a tough month. It started with ER visits twice. I was scared because my husband thought there was a possibility of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). It wasn’t after all so we were relieved. He noticed his right thigh’s swelling. ER doctor gave him several tests/scans; ultrasound, blood test and cat scan. Unfortunately they couldn’t say what the exact reason for the swelling is. Because my husband doesn’t have any feeling (pain) from the waist down.  And this makes things harder.  Doctors usually can diagnose from the pain’s place and pain-level.  Without these information, we just need to guess from the swelling condition. Probably it might have been a muscle strain.  We know that muscle strain will need 4-6 weeks to be healed. This fact is familiar with runners (like us).  We had to watch it carefully and stayed home with no activities. As you know, generally, muscle strain usually could be self-diagnosable and self-treatable if you have sensation. At least, Doctor was generous and discussed with my husband enough. Uncertainty from no-sensation is tricky indeed and makes us feel scared and down. However I learned something again from this experience. 1) Now I know how to use ER for my husband. I can take him there without any hesitation. 2) We just need to remind doctors, nurses and people of the fact about my husband’s no-sensation from the waist down repeatedly. Sometimes it’s important to let people know about our “standard” to solve some problems. It will take times but we keep trying that. After this long healing phase, it seems my husband’s right leg is fine. Hopefully it won’t happen again. But if you are a sports-mom (hockey mom, soccer mom, baseball mom and so on), you know it might happen again. And yes, a good part is “we know what to do now”. 

Entry#33.  4/25/2022
Musical shows, public speeches and High school Mock trial competition and graduation speeches always attract me and fascinate me deeply. (I LOVE musical shows.) These are things I never accomplish no matter how much I’m curious about. (Plus I’m not young anymore. It’s true.) That’s why they capture my mind strongly. I do admire these “performers”. They make me feel big, hopeful and satisfied. In my mind, I guess I’m wishing for what I cannot have. But I always get so much energy from them. When I searched YouTube video of Ohio high school Mock trial at the first time, I was shocked thinking “Are they really high school students? They sound like professional.” Then I’ve learned that this program is great at developing hard memorization skills, improvisation techniques, and comfort with public speaking. Wow. “Improvise” is one of my favorite terms in these days. “Play by ear” also. It’s challenging to me to improvise or to play by ear for any occasions most of the time, but it’s like my magic word.  It was fantastic when our local high school Mock trial team WON and became a State Champion. They are my heroes and I’m proud of them even though I’ve not seen them in person much. I want to say to them “thank you for letting me cheer you and making me feel so joyful.” I’m sending a tiny cheer to them for the National competition coming on 5/5-5/7.  P.S. “Yes, your honor.” sounds so unreachable to me. I’ve never used it before. 

Entry#32.  4/24/2022
It was 83F this afternoon with sunshine. It was a gorgeous day indeed. We went for 10 mile biking with some uphills. It’s amazing that I never be able to catch up with my husband’s handbike’s speed at downhill. It’s fast! My whole body aches now, but it was joyful. We got a suntan! 

Entry#31.  4/23/2022
I used to carry around a wooden board with me all the time when I go out with my husband. It was a must item. It’s called “slide board” or “transfer board”. It’s used to “bridge” two surfaces when you transfer from wheelchair to car, from bed to wheelchair, from wheelchair to another chair and so on.  Basically you put/slide one end of the board beneath your thigh. The other end of the board is aiming to the second surface. To move across the board, move your body toward the second surface, slowly slide your body down (or up) on the board to complete transition. Once you are settled fully on the second surface, the board can be removed. It needs LESS upper body strength. It could be helpful for high/big height difference for transferring. My husband doesn’t need to use this slide board anymore recently because he has enough upper body and arms strength now. He just use his arms to transfer his whole body by himself most of the time. However I keep this slide board in our car just in case. We never know when we need it. He might be too tired to use his arms. We always need to prepare for any occasions. When we went to a bed store to find a better bed for spinal cord injury, a store person told us “Please feel free to get lying down on any type of bed.” friendly and nicely. However it was very tricky because most of the beds (all of them) had very high bed frames. It was too high to transfer from a wheelchair even with a help of “slide board”. He managed to try onto some beds anyway. Lately we went for a car hunting. I carried around a slide board with me, of course. It’s still a must item for us. We have two boards. But he prefers a board without holes. There is a tiny problem though. This board is heavy and it’s good for biceps. See? A tiny problem. 

My wonderful friend in Manhattan, KS. told me that her hummingbirds arrived at her place! I'm jealous. Mines are almost here, I believe.

Entry#30.  4/22/2022
I’ve had Japanese chatting sessions with several friends before. (some high school students and adults. Most of the time, one on one.)  It was not a tutoring or lesson, it was more like introducing Japanese sounds, Japanese random trivia and laughing together.  I can follow the actual textbook but I always prefer to skim and wander off the grammar. I do stick with the topic though. Plus having fun is the most important part for all of us. It’s always good to myself, their point of view makes me feel refreshing and realize something new. Basically Japanese doesn’t have R, L, F, V, th sounds. Because of this, I sometimes cannot pronounce words which have R and L in, properly, in English.  Try to ask me next time to say “Marilyn” “Nora” “Nolan” “Carolyn” “Kathryn” and so on.  I cannot say “parallelogram law” specifically. Funny, isn’t it?  Then there are some Japanese alphabet sounds which don’t exist in English.  The key is “mimicking the sound from listening”, without looking at “letters”.  It’s easy to say this, but it’s tough sometimes. That’s why my English sounds very different. I’m thankful for my friends and people who always try to understand me. It’s always fun to talk about how much different between Japanese and English, how different each cultures are. Also we nod agreeing some similarities each cultures. I do happy dance when I get some great news from my previous Japanese chatting buddies. One girl will be on Study Abroad program. One lady will be in Japan on Jet Program to teach English. One family has lived in Japan bravely and they are making their own wonderful adventurous life with great effort. I’m their proud friend here. 

Entry#29. 4/21/2022
If you are a dog lover and a coffee lover, you might want to go to this place. Whenever you get a cappuccino or a cortado, you will get a cute doggy face on the top. Something different and I love it. 

Entry#28.  4/20/2022
We’ve tried several coffee shops in Louisville, KY. So far, our favorite one is Quills Coffee. 

https://quillscoffee.com/pages/about-us

One time, we accidentally found this restaurant and it was just tasty. (I fell in love at first bite. I must be super starving.) I talked to the waitstaff telling him how happy I was to find this restaurant. I added the fact we came from Ohio.  He said “Oh that’s great. Did you know the original Restaurant is in Cincinnati? There is another in Columbus.” 

https://www.eaglerestaurant.com/

That made my cheeks blush. It was a good laughter. The antique vintage Hotel safety deposit boxes are welcoming and greeting you at the entrance. (I believe it is vintage.) And I loved that.

I’ve not explored Louisville much yet because I’m always exhausted after driving and don’t have much energy left. I always look like a zombie. Well, but my husband showed me something. This is the place where I wanna go and I must go in future, to meet Forest Giants!

https://www.kentuckytourism.com/the-forest-giants-in-a-giant-forest

Entry#27.  4/19/2022
It was a bit crazy morning yesterday with the snow. Winter just keeps us staying home because it’s just too cold to be outside for my husband’s body unless he does “winter” adaptive sports. We learned that it’s a little bit tricky. Once his legs got cold, it will take more times until his legs’ temperature gets warmer again. We need to be careful and watch legs’ warmth carefully. Snow keeps us staying home as well. It’s too slick and slippery for a wheelchair. I still need to learn more about how wheelchair users can handle snow roads. Well, so I’m really looking forward to warm Spring for my husband. At least it was interesting to capture some images from my yard on my camera. Yesterday’s cappuccino cup drawing from Kofenya was perfect, too. 

Entry#26.  4/18/2022
I used to love buying ceramic bowls, plates and cups in Japan. My mother and I enjoyed talking about her collection of ceramics. Her oldest brother is a potter and he has his own kiln. Some of his creations are included in my mothers collection. Our son got passionate about pottery and purchased his own potter’s wheel. It’s been fun to watch how he throws. Especially he loves “cutting the foot, trimming the foot” part. He will get very chatty about these stuffs.
I love our town because we have a Paint your own pottery studio. We used to go there and paint. It was always fun. 

http://www.yourefiredoxford.com/

Photo: Two plates are from this studio. Dobsonfly (by my husband) and stagbeetle (by our son).  The third one, Tribolium. My husband painted it in Japan. As you can see backside of the plate, it was June 2004. We lived in Manhattan, KS (the town of KSU: Wildcat) at that time. It’s really nice to keep having this plate. It has a great memory. 

I love our town because there is an event named “Empty Bowls” in fall. (Wow, this year will be BIG 20th Anniversary!!)

https://www.oxfordemptybowls.org/

I love my 2016 bowls very much because of the color and shape (and especially potters).
According to our son’s explanation, throwing pots is also profound and is a deep world. It’s interesting. 

Entry#25.  4/17/2022
Once warm temperature hits this town, it’s amazing to see how fast all plants grow. My “Lily of the valley” is now growing quickly as well. I wonder if they can make it to bloom on 5/1, May Day, as an official May Day flower. We will see. The mighty power of wildlife is just great. I just LOVE seeing and observing spring lives. We don’t celebrate Easter but I also love the atmosphere of Easter. Everyone around us dresses up in spring colors. It makes me smile all the time. I’ve missed several spring concerts, musical shows, spring sports and so on. I bet every single performers did a fantastic job and had a blast. I close my eyes and imagine them. Spring is nice. I started “harvesting” dandelions. Funny. I did it when I moved into this house in summer 2008. It was a huge harvest! Well, I guess I would have a big one this year. Yes, I gotta hustle to weed. Happy Easter!

Entry#24. 4/16/2022
When my husband introduced me a handcycle at the first time, I haven’t gotten the actual mechanism of that “machine”. I finally tried riding on it recently, it’s both interesting and fun. But it’s also a bit tricky to manage it and it’s harder to make a turn. I can feel that it’s great for cardiovascular and upper body exercise. Handcycle bike is a hand-cranked tricycle. It’s more efficient than a wheelchair. It’s geared, so it amplifies your effort. There are several types of handcycle bike. My husband showed me a video of the tadpole trike. I was astonished seeing the “riding style”. It’s totally different. Legs tucked to the rear with a padded support for the chest! It was designed for more difficult off-road area. Then it made me think “how do you ride on from a wheelchair?” I’m still wondering. I think Handcycle world is really deep. Then several questions came up. Can he commute to college from home by handcycle bike? It’s gonna be faster. However, at the destination point, he needs to get on his wheelchair because he cannot get into the building with handcycle, not at all. He cannot teach on handcycle.  Seems there might be a solution about it though. If he can attach his wheelchair on a handcycle with ‘clip-on’ device, he could switch (well, somehow). My brain is over-processing now. For now, my husband has to start riding handcycle from home and round trip to home because I don’t disassemble handcycle to carry into our car yet. In future, we would love to try some different starting points and hit different riding courses. We need to figure out more stuffs before that. At least I can tell that handcycle has many possibilities. It’s awesome. 

Entry#23-2.  4/15/2022
Yes! I put it up today for my hummingbird. wink wink

Entry#23.  4/15/2022
Our boy dog, Ranger is blind now. It was not a common cataract. It was more related with genetics. We found him at AAF (Animal Adoption Foundation). We like their program and wonderful care for many animals. His eyes were ok when he came to our house. He chased every squirrels when he saw them. On his walk in the winter, he saw a squirrel on a electric wire up high. He started running without my attention. The road was slick. I slipped and he kept running with me on my stomach. Funny. I was more embarrassed, you know. He was an energetic big puppy indeed. I also was a very beginner dog owner. So I walked him many times a day, even I did in the early dark morning. One morning, we walked by a trash man and we greeted. Ranger bumped into a trash can as if he couldn’t see it. Trash man laughed out loud seeing him. I remembered this clearly because I thought his eyes had something already at that time. His eyes were gradually turning into white and he got blind. He doesn’t care about it much and seems fine. He still loves to walk in the trail. Surprisingly he doesn’t bump into trees or branches at all. Amazing. I noticed his unique walking ways when we walked around my neighborhood. Before stepping up a curbside, his steps were higher just like a horse’s trot. He cannot see curbside but he measures the distance somehow. Sometimes he does this walk before he reaches to the edge of curbside. A bit funny (sorry, Ranger.) It makes me chuckle always. I love it. I hope Ranger keeps leading all of us for a long time, I do hope. Especially for my husband. Photos were taken in October 2021.

Entry#22.  4/14/2022
My husband uses his hands/arms as both functions of “legs and hands”. During moving around by hands/arms, basically he needs to put something on his lap to carry stuffs. Sometimes I wonder though. How about a cappuccino (both for-here and to-go cups)? How about a food tray at buffet place with several meals? Is it still possible to carry it by himself putting on his lap? I have several these kinds of questions about wheelchair users.  Then my husband introduced me this video. 

“The lapstacker: Never drop anything again.”

https://youtu.be/NQQPW4VyBUM

My eyes were wide open. Of course there are many great stuffs for wheelchair users. Someone invented them for efficient ways and better life. I need to know more and learn more. This “LapStacker” is on his wish list in future. It’s fun to learn more as well. 

Entry#21.  4/13/2022
My image of a wheelchair user before the accident was just simply “people on a wheelchair”. I didn’t do deep thinking at all. Just a blurry image. (Sounds terrible, I feel so.)  Fortunately (I still want to use this term) my husband doesn’t need me to push a wheelchair. However I still need to know the facts of “how to push a wheelchair” (how to push a person in a wheelchair).  I did put my husband in danger once right after the discharge from hospital. He needed to visit a local family doctor. I was pushing his wheelchair but I didn’t pay attention to a bump on a sidewalk in front of the clinic. Front wheels tripped over (were caught by) the bump and he was almost thrown from a wheelchair seat. That was a scary moment to both of us. (Even with wearing a seatbelt, that going-forward momentum makes him fall to ground with a wheelchair.) Making a “Wheelie” position is really important. I never thought about it before. Wheelie looked more like an acrobatic performance or a special trick to me. Our son figured it out very quickly and reminds me of the importance repeatedly. However I cannot manage to do wheelie at all. It is hard and tricky. Two small front wheels are easy to fall into a narrow ditch. You have to use the “wheelie” technique to avoid a ditch. Same idea applies to climb a curb or stairs. (Yes! Did you know some expert wheelchair users CLIMB UP/DOWN stairs by themselves?)  But you should be careful at all times of tipping over backwards while attempting a wheelie. 

Entry#20.  4/12/2022
I have these 3 lanterns lighting up in the night. Each one of them has a story. I might write about it sometime.  My wonderful friend in KS told me that she usually put hummingbird feeders on 4/15. She has many hummingbirds every year. I'm so jealous because I have only 1 or 2 coming to my yard. She said 4/15, so I'm planning to put feeders up on 4/15, too. Then I'll wait patiently. 

Entry#19.  4/11/2022
A long long time ago, I was really into making crochet animals. I made more than 10 crochet-cats, a crochet-monkey and so on.  It’s now a good old memory because I totally forgot how to make it. There is a Japanese word “Amigurumi” which was popular back then. Our son was 1-2 years old and I was a stay-at-home mom. Between breastfeeding times, I did crochet. Funny.  Most of my crochet animals were adapted by my friends from near and far. Only one stayed here, a polar bear. This one is special because my long time old friend (both husbands made us connect together) shared this ‘polar bear pattern’ with me. She has hers and I have mine. My dear knitter friends, art teachers, sewing friends out there, you might be interested in it? I bet you already made some. In case of interest, here are some links.

Entry#18.  4/10/2022
In this season of the year, I hear my woodpeckers’ drumming every morning. My favorite tunes! Every time I hear it, I try to spot him/her, then I yell at him “Gooooood moorrrning, my friend!” I’m grateful for having tall trees in my back yard including almost dead-ones. I wished I could photograph woodpeckers, but never have a telephoto lens camera. I have many birds here. Have you thought about “a wonder of Robin” before? Robin never comes to my bird feeder to eat birdseeds. But they are like everywhere around us and make a nest near us quickly, then make us observe the chicks. Robin follows me as I dig up my garden hoping to steal a few worms as I unearth them. So Robin doesn’t eat birdseeds? Not so sure. But I’ve never seen Robin eating my birdseeds anyway. Curious. My backyard is like an animal kingdom. My visitors are: deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, skunks, shrews, moles, and a FOX!  There was one time I saw a fox here a long long ago. I was thrilled really. I see turkey vulture many times. In this winter, one freezing cold morning, after freezing rain, Ranger and I saw a turkey vulture made a move, she jumped into a bush and was stuck with branches, she looked like injured and couldn’t fly away. I had no idea how to do for this poor creature. I talked to myself “Can I just leave her there to let her die?” Oh, that’s terrible. Then my next door neighbor, the director of Hefner museum, and his sweet tall son came to the rescue. They caught this turkey vulture by hands magically quickly beautifully, then put her into a cardboard box. They explained to me nicely that the feather/wing were all frozen. That’s why she couldn’t fly. The solution was “warm her up and defrost the wing”. They released her later safe and sound.  Wow. It blew my mind, wings were frozen! Once it’s defrosted, she is good to fly.  Love my visitors very much. Please tell me hummingbirds are coming ‘soon’??!  Also I hear over the grapevine that it’s time to start MOWING, is that right?  I gotta hustle. 

Entry#17.  4/09/2022
My son told me “You should use a cruise control when you drive. It’s very useful and helpful. It makes you feel better and easier.” I’m working on it. I get the idea and I can see my both boys are loving a cruise control for long distance drive on the highway. Whatever I use fancy systems, I just cannot relax at all on driving outside Oxford. Well, as long as I focus on it, it should be fine, I believe. My husband has practiced driving on a hand-control car several times. It’s a really wonderful program that the instructor comes to our house with a specially-equipped vehicle with the latest in adaptive equipment! She is a knowledgeable and experienced driver, she knows everything about SCI (spinal cord injury). I was impressed when I saw the car she brought here for my husband. Hand control is by the steering wheel. Spinner knob on the steering wheel. No pedals on the floor (foot area). (All electronic) I can see that this type is very special, I was amazed looking at it. Most of paraplegia people have some kind of spasm in legs. It is safer if there is no pedals on the floor. This part surprised me the most. I’m still not sure if I can drive this car by myself. It seems my husband was totally fine with that. I was glad about it very much. The “driving skill” part is good. However there are many things we need to think and decide before he gets the actual license. (taking a driving test). Which car/van does he need? Which type of hand control is the best for him? Install/Modification process? How much? Well, we might need more time to “go for it”. It’s gonna be super exciting when he gets his own hand control car. Oh, one thing is for sure. I need to practice driving his car using the hand control somewhere in parking lot “many times”.  P.S. My brain hurts because there are too much new information around me in these days. ;-)

Entry#16.  4/08/2022
Sometimes I wished I was a strong huge tall lady. Bigger than my husband.  Because I could simply carry my husband if it’s needed. There were several situations that we had a few moments to freeze and think. For example. X-ray room in the hospital. It was a quick visit and it was only for taking X-ray. There was only one technician there (because it was end of the day). X-ray table was way too high to my husband. A transfer sliding board was useless for this time, it was just very very high. I was thinking “ohhh this is impossible. We cannot make it.”  We tried several ways. At the end, there was a stretcher to the rescue, which was height adjustable. He transferred to the stretcher then transferred to the X-ray table. Whew.  Every time he tried out for several types of adaptive sports. At some of events, there were many great helpers and they (usually 3 or 4 people) teamed up and carried him and transferred him to the seat. At home, for handcycle, I needed to stop and think about the body mechanism and how to move legs, hip, and knees without any scratches and damages. That’s why I thought and wished for a huge tall body. On the other hand, it seems that my husband always thinks about how to transfer by himself alone. I often forget about it and I tell him “I can help” or “Let me help.” If he could manage it by himself, he would be able to feel more freedoms and confidence. That’s really important. But there is a tricky part, too.  We need to learn more about limitations. We still need to try, play, and practice with it, then we can figure out which ones we need to give up. Figuring these things out would be sad and heavy. But that’s the way we go forward, I guess. Oh, by the way, my husband almost manages “floor transfer” by himself and we all feel more comfortable and happier. 

Entry#15.  4/07/2022
When we planned to stay in a hotel at the very first time as paraplegia husband and his wife, I was nervous. It was 2 nights stay in November 2021.  I brought as much as I needed from home as if I created the same environment into a hotel room. This hotel had a wheelchair accessible room. There was a roll-in shower room. However we couldn’t use it. We usually use a shower-wheelchair at home. It’s foldable but it takes lots of space in our car plus heavy. So I left it home. Other than that, I took almost “everything” with me. Our car was fully packed. It was funny because it was only 2 nights stay, our car looked like “we are going to 10-days trip.”  Sink’s height and clearance underneath were good. Bed height and firmness were different (these are important factors for my husband.) It was a big “hustle” for me and I was relieved after all went smoothly. A bit by bit, I’m getting used to it for a hotel stay. I’m now trying to minimalize and reduce travel stuffs. To tell the truth, for now there is no space for another person for a ride. A wheelchair is in back trunk. So I still have my project for making a space in our car for traveling. Sometime our son would love to join to see Louisville. Oh, on the way to Louisville, alongside of I-71, there were trees blooming in white. Lovely. Cherry blossom, too. 

Entry#14.  4/06/2022
I’ve learned that each individuals of SCI (spinal cord injury)have different conditions. It’s based on types and levels of spinal cord injury. It means there are many many lifestyles of them. No two conditions are exactly alike. My husband doesn’t have any sensation waist-down. (He is paralyzed from the waist down.) Imagine that you keep sitting on the chair except for lying down on the bed. So there are some better ideas about “clothing”. Backside pockets on the pants are never used. Zipper’s pull, zipper and buttons might cause pressure damage on skin. Seamless and no-pockets on backside are the best. It was hard to find that kind of pants in town. I even tried to remove pockets from pants without making a hole. I wished I was a seamstress. I might be able to make it, well, that’d take a long time. We found some online. These are so perfect. No pockets and seamless. As you can see, it’s “seated cut” which follows the line of the seated body. It covers whole skin always. I should try to mimic “seamstress ways” in the long run. However, one problem. I’d better buy a sewing machine before everything. I always hand-sew after my portable-sewing-machine broke. Funny, there is no sewing machine in this house. I’ve survived so far anyway. Are you chuckling?

P.S. I love using a sewing machine, just so you know.

Entry#13.  4/05/2022
My husband is a biologist. Our son is a biology major (sophomore). Seems his interest goes to more “National parks” side. It was an easy guess about his decision of major because some of his childhood activities were insects related. My husband had a high impact on our son. Our son has several different kinds of insect nets, pinning sets, binocular microscope, magnifying lenses, insect boxes, butterfly spreading mounting boards (these are special kinds) and many insect books. They excitedly went out after dark when our son was small. He said “Mom, I need a white bed sheet, big one.” holding some flashlights. It was for a “light trap”. It was fun to see two of them shared some similar interest. Now sometimes I get jealous of them when they talk about our son’s experiment, which grants he can submit, how to improve PCR condition and even next semester’s choice of classes. I’m grateful for their connection, interaction and respectfulness. As you can guess by now, they talk about bike/wheelchair’s gear, shift, tire, tube, break, bearing, suspension and tools. Wonderful father-son duo in many ways.  Did I tell you about my experiment in my college senior year? I was attracted by magic words "signal transduction". I injected mRNA into Xenopus embryo after artificial fertilizing, under a microscope. I took care of both male and female African clawed frogs, did feed them and clean them. I needed to dissect male’s abdomen for artificial fertilizing. It was quite an interesting experience, a long long time ago. However I’m not so sure I could say “I was an assistant school librarian with science background.” as my previous job. We always joke about it.

Entry#12.  4/04/2022
My husband loves cappuccino. He loves dry-cappuccino more most of the time. My son likes latte always. He likes to make latte art at home. He has his own moka pot. I do love cortado. I discovered about cortadito recently as well. (My most favorite was Maple orange cortado @Deeper roots. https://www.deeperrootscoffee.com/ )
A long ago, once I painted family room with the color named “warm cappuccino” because I loved the name. I don’t have much knowledge and experience about house-painting. I just played with it before.  When our new shower room remodeling happened, I needed to pick 2 colors. One for a shower room and one for a family room. It was a crazy time for everything right before my husband’s discharge from a hospital. My mind was not so into decorations of house at all. My friends warned me though. “ It’s your house and it has to be looking nice and your favorite color.”  They warned me “take your time to decide.” However I picked the colors instantly with my intuition. Guess what?  Again I picked them by the names. One was supposed to be yellow-ish, I found “Hinoki.” Hinoki is a Japanese word. 檜(ヒノキ) it’s a Japanese cypress.  This color is related with Japan like us.  One was supposed to be blue-ish, I found “Mountain air”. We love mountains, we always say “mountains are calling”. I thought this color would remind us of mountains. Just like that. It turned out great after all.  I know this isn’t the proper way to decide house wall paint's colors. But I was simply happy, it all worked out well with my “hunch”. As you can guess, my boys don’t care about it at all. This will be one of the unforgettable memories in my life. (This almost-impossible renovation came true with many donations by generous local professionals and friends. It was amazing.)  Ohhh and you see 2 rare things in pictures?  The new cappuccino tower is up. Christmas cactus is blooming in April?! Did you raise an eyebrow? 

Entry#11.  4/03/2022
People ask me “Are you back to jogging?” “Do you exercise?” “How about yoga?”  Hmmm, no not really. But you might be interested in this. Here is a fun fact about my exercise. My husband needs leg-massage(exercise) everyday because legs’ muscles have to be flexed and loosened constantly. He doesn’t have any control of legs’ movements.  Unfortunately legs’ muscles will weaken and reduce gradually in future. Even so, leg-massage is still important for his body. I’m a leg-massage/exercise helper. When I hold up his one leg, I feel about 5 lb weight. Giving massage makes my body do workout at the same time. It is like I’m doing “biceps exercise” slowly, efficiently and very perfectly, with 5 lb weights, 5 pound dumbbell. My biceps strengthen before I knew it, without any hustle. Sounds nice?  I take it because it’s still good for my body, and it’s just right amount for now. 2 times a day, everyday!  It might be good for triceps, too. Oh and I disassemble and reassemble wheelchair when it’s needed to be loaded into our car. It’s an easy assembling, just some weights. Yes, weights, again. Good for my arm muscles really.  An amazing part is that eventually my husband is gonna do it by himself when he drives alone in future. Handling wheelchair assembling surely needs arm strength. And that arm strength is my husband’s “engine” that makes all things go.  Additionally the colors of daffodils are my engine in April. Love them. How about you?

Entry#10.  4/02/2022
When my husband was in a Post Acute care hospital, he had several doctors appointments at UC hospital. He got a transportation service by EMS because of his restricted mobility at that time. I was lucky enough to ride along with him on EMS ambulance. I observed inside and how they treated a patient with a special stretcher. Especially seeing how smoothly the leg of stretcher folding up and stretcher itself sliding into the van was fascinating to me. Their professional aura impressed me and made me wonder “wow, what a incredible job they have. I wish I could have known about it a long long ago when I was young.”  This stretcher goes into doctors room directly and we discuss with a doctor without any hustle and pain. Once my husband got physically strong enough for using wheelchair, he didn’t need this transportation service at all.
On that day the accident happened, I haven’t told this to anyone yet, I was on the rescue helicopter with my husband. The gentleman-pilot talked to me nicely and professionally. I had to ask him 2 times “do you think he can make it?” even though no one knows.  I never forget images of our conversation and 20min of flight-time inside helicopter cockpit. I was thankful deeply for getting this rescue just on time. Every time I look back at this moment, I have also a feeling of fascination with this his job (rescue helicopter pilot). This gentleman-pilot told me this when we said goodbye “It was really nice to meet you even though under this circumstance. Take care. Okay?” I never forget.

Entry#9.  4/01/2022
Louisville, KY. is getting familiar with me in these days. My husband takes physical therapy at Frazier rehabilitation institute (it’s a part of University of Louisville hospital complex.)  We drive down there once a week. Taking 2 sessions in 2 days in a row. As you know, I’m not a big fan of the driving. But I’m learning Louisville traffic rules. There are several different ones and very interesting to me because I’m not a city girl. So many "one way" roads. Also Lane-use control signals. I drive in circles so many times to learn the system in this town. Now I’m a big fan of Big Four Bridge. I’ll explore it more in future. My husband told me that there are many museums in town which we should try. I love seeing architectures which catch my eyes and attract my attention. We noticed this town has southern cuisines more than our area, we are curious. Oh! and Bourbon snickerdoodle cookie (yes, bourbon!) is scrumptious!