Elliott - a status report

January 15, 2012

Sunday afternoon – cold, but sunny.  Elliott is sitting in front of the television in the family watching the football game (Baltimore vs. Houston) and I’m keeping him company as I write.  I don’t generally attempt to multi-task, but following this football game shouldn’t require more than a minimal amount of my attention.  Here’s an update on Elliott:  in his own words, he’s still “99 – and doing fine!”   However, he’s still struggling to find a way to reduce or eliminate his chronic back pain.   The only time he seems to be completely comfortable is when he’s lying down, and Elliott doesn’t want to spend his days in bed.   Several months ago, he started going to a pain specialist.  This was after he’d visited an orthopedist, and after he’d tried exercise, physical therapy, massage, and chiropractic care.  The pain specialist gave him various kinds of injections (facet joint and epidural) but the results were disappointing.  In addition, Elliott just increased the strength and frequency of his oral pain medication.  Until a couple of days ago, he was reluctant to take his pain medication more often than once every 12 hours.  He is now willing to take it every 4 hours, so we’ll soon see if this makes a significant difference in his comfort level. 

In spite of dealing with pain, Elliott remains very positive and fairly active.   He’s at the computer several times a day, checking e-mail, doing research, or playing solitaire.  As I previously mentioned, he does jobs around the house – not the routine laundry, dishes, or cooking, but the occasional special projects.  He still enjoys roaming the aisles of the hardware store.  I’m certain he’ll soon be accumulating all of the information he needs to start working on our tax returns.  About once a week, he goes out for lunch with a group of long-time friends. 

Speaking of lunch, it’s good that I’m home to supervise Elliott’s lunches now.  In pre-retirement days, his lunch consisted of bread, butter, cheese, a glass of milk, and peach yogurt (only 1 brand was acceptable, and that was available at only 1 store).  For occasional variety, he would ask me to purchase cottage cheese.  I was tempted to give him a cow for his birthday.  But now I’ve weaned him from his dependence on dairy by offering him alternatives such as peanut butter, eggs, tuna, sardines, and apple or tomato juice.  I’ve even managed to get him to switch to plain Greek yogurt (to which he adds Bonne Maman cherry preserves, an old favorite from our days in France).  He still likes to have a bowl of ice cream after dinner a few times a week, and that’s okay.  By the time a person is this close to the century mark, he should be allowed to eat whatever he wants. 

Elliott’s looking forward to more travel and he loves our outings into DC.  However, I’m not thrilled that he’s planning to go into DC tomorrow (Martin Luther King Day).  Let me explain.  The University of Wisconsin (my undergrad school) Alumni Association has organized a day of service projects for January 16.  I volunteered to participate in a project at an elementary school in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in DC.  When I told Elliott I was going in to do this, he said he’d like to go into the district with me and spend a few hours on his own.  I said I didn’t think it was a good idea and mentioned my concerns (use of walker, stamina, hearing, vision, etc.).  To Elliott, I probably sounded like an overly protective mother, and he clearly doesn’t want to be treated as a child.  So I defer to his judgment in this matter.   We’ll be taking the Metro into DC shortly after breakfast on Monday.