Getting old ain't for sissys Part three.

Keep at that therapy! The progress is not linear. I had surgery on both hands early last May. My left hand came around in about three months. I had pretty much lost hope for my right hand after five months, but kept working on it. It really seemed pointless, as it was stiff and painful to close into a fist. It was usable, but nowhere near as dextrous as I wanted. Then, one day, it started working again. It's still stiffer than my left but, as long as I continue my exercises, both hands continue to get better.

 

Ended the week on a positive note. Results of the testing done last week states that there has been improvement in the left hand strength particularly the fingers.
The speech therapist has noted a lot of progress with swallowing and speech and is cutting back at least two days to give more time to the other therapists. Buoyed by the results I attempted yet one more repair. To replace the entire handrail assembly on a Kato RS11 that had been modified into a CP unit that had been broken. Took me about 2 hours to do counting time for ACC to set. Had to disassemble the unit and remove handrail section, then remove the pilot inserts and the MT 1015s in each end. Reversed the process with the new handrail, got the pilot inserts in without gluing fingers to each other. workbench, or face. Then had to drill and tap for the MT 1015 mounting screws. And the results.



Loco now back in storage box as this was one that is slated for elimination. After December I will pull out those pickle cars since I will have another month and one half of therapy under the belt and get some idea of where I am headed. But for now I am pursuing other courses and resuming my writing and other things. I will be hanging around here to put in my two cents worth on occasional things but no more modeling for awhile.

 

John, very pleased to hear of your progress, and to see the results. Pray that it keeps improving as rapidly as you approach pre-stroke capabilities.

 

It’s not so much “Getting old” as it is the aging that accompanies it.

 

Hang in there John. Betty Davis agreed with you by the way:

 

Spent the better part of the day clearing things out to take on some non railroad projects. And removing my big therapy cat from off the workbench. Therapy because lifting his big 16.2 pounds off my layout plans is a workout for the arm. For all his size he can navigate his way through all my delicate stuff and not touch anything. Wesa is Deekus the Cat's little brother and my other constant companion, phone answerer, and mail retriever. And yup Betty had it right. Old ain't for sissys.

 

Deekus is almost four years old now and at 11 pounds large for a female and also very tall. Wesa, her baby brother is just 1 year 6 months old from the same parents as Deekus and at over three feet long not counting the tail and he and stands about 2 inches taller. When he wants attention he just reaches up and pulls my arm down to pet him. Unlike Deekus he has never stolen any train stuff or tools and leaves the stuff alone. Ball up a piece of paper though to throw away and the game is on. I fully expect him to hit 18 pounds since he is still growing.

 

I guess I can call this the end of the year update. Speech therapist who was treating my speech and swallowing issues threw me back into the pond and said you are on your own now. That freed up two additional days for the other therapists to beat on me. Leg is about 70 % back but the danged arm and hand are lagging behind especially the fingers. Decided that messing with the coupler issues and trying to fit the older detailed bodies on the New Bmann F-7 chassis would be a good way to judge how much of the hand I have back. So managed over about four days to paint my GN F-7 shell into BN paint, trim some of the metal off of the Sunrise plow pilot and off of the new mechanism so it would fit, and decaled the old repainted shell for BN. I believe I can at least do limited work on diesels with maybe some simple extra details. Acid test in about two weeks when I pick up a pickle car kit again.

The F-7 I repainted and decaled. Now just need to be steady enough the mount a beacon on the cab roof.

 

John....

Slow progress is better then NO progress !! Looks like your great modeling talents are still intact ^5

 

John, you've done impressive work with your "damaged" faculties. I use the word "damaged" because that's the impression you've given us over the past months. However, seeing what you did with the F7, I believe you have lessened your credibility...your faculties are NOT damaged, they merely are slightly impaired. Keep it up, my friend, you obviously are doing something right. Merry Christmas, and I'm sure your New Year will be far better than you dare hope.

 

One may have missed a couple of key words here, like older detailed bodies. All the added details were done several years ago before I had the eye issues and certainly pre stroke. I simply took the path of least resistance here by copying a page from the prototype and basically painted over a slightly sanded original paint with the new colors. Since it was BN that part was simple. The decals were the hard part in trying to keep the hand steady and was a chore that took way too long.

The mechanical part was in changing out the couplers and having to grind some off the Sunrise plow/pilot to get the old shell to fit the new mech. What should have and would have been a little less than 2 days turned into a 5 day project. Three months ago now this would not have even been doable. Does give both me and my OT Therapist a small benchmark to measure against.