5/1/10

5/1/10

Today I was so tired when I got here that I laid down beside Dad and we both fell asleep. We're learning that Dad relaxes when he has physical contact with someone – JD just climbed onto Dad's bed and he stopped wheezing, and in the hospital he slept best when someone held his hand.

Tonight we had a bit of a drama trying to get Dad, who was tired and didn't really want to move, from his bed and onto the commode. He was screaming and yelling at both of us, but finally when we stepped back and stopped trying to pull him up, he kind of hopped over and made it on his own.

Aside from the commotion, Dad is getting back to normal. Not only did he sing a little today, he started asking questions, such as “When did you get into this story?”, which is Dad-speak for “How do I know you?” We did take a brief trans-atlantic voyage – it was pretty funny because Dad was making polite conversation with me as though we had just met on the deck of an ocean liner. “What will you do when you get back to the United State?” he asked.

I am really frustrated with the home care people – at the hospital, the discharge planner told me the nurse would visit us the next day and set up the physical therapy and home attendant services. Friday came and went, with no nurse, but at the end of the day we got a call saying she'd be here today. It's now almost midnight and we haven't heard anything from the nurse. Thank goodness we don't really need a home attendant – between me and Jaelynn and JD, we've been handling it – if we really needed the home attendant, we'd be totally screwed. As it is, I was counting on them to back up Marie during the weekdays, and there's no way they'll get someone here for Monday now.