Catherine-Ann / Pure-Grace

Oct. 1, 2022

FUN CREATING A STORY TOGETHER (09.30.22)

Friday, September 30, 2022 8:31 PM

BTW: Some confusion about the blog pic where Larry's sporting a thick head of hair. That's his sister, Mary-Lynn with her hair falling across Larry's forehead. He thought it was funny & so did we! He said, "Go ahead!" re: Blog post.

  Hello, welcome to our day. Good-bye September! 

I knew Larry was having visitors this morning, so I went in the early afternoon. No therapies today, being a national holiday. I wasn't there when the doctor saw Larry. There was hardly any interruption during our visit, by staff. There's a lot of entertainment coming from the other side of the room. Mr. K gives the staff a hard time, with his tongue in his cheek. It's quite cute to hear the banter, when the nurse knows that he's pulling her leg while trying to make his point. "I'll do my best for you!" was her answer, that became the last word!

  Larry had a barf basin nearby. He said he had thrown up. Well, didn't the nurse say that Larry was managing his own ice chips & water, which caused him to aspirate & throw up. It's so darn dangerous, as his swallowing ability is extremely limited. When you think of a person only receiving liquids through an I.V. or gastric feed tube, we can only imagine how wonderful it is to refresh your mouth & throat with cool water, even if it is a teaspoon at a time, and only 3 at that. It's hard for visitors to not give in to his request to leave the cup of ice chips within his reach. He's had pneumonia twice now, from aspirating while vomiting. Lungs don't like that! When he pleaded with me to leave the ice cup, I asked him to tell me why I couldn't do it. He told me why. He knows!

  He didn't want to do physical exercise, so I got out the sketch pad & we took turns adding shapes to each other's drawings. I didn't know what to expect, but it was fun to see a story develop, each time it was Larry's turn to add something. We both can draw fairly well as a rule, although it's not so evident in this masterpiece. In Larry's defense, he was semi-reclined & has difficulty seeing, not to mention his shaky hand.

  That was our excitement for today. I'm thinking that the weekend will continue to be quiet, without therapies. I appreciate visitors giving me a heads-up, to avoid visitor traffic jams, or disappointment due to therapy sessions happening, while at hospital, to spend time with Larry. I hope that whoever visits, will engage Larry in some activity, with all the props that are there to have fun using with him.

  I'm going in early tomorrow, as the nurse said that Larry would be in his wheelchair, once they 'freshen' him up in the morning. He didn't have the chance to do that today. There are so many good opportunities for exercising in his chair as opposed to being in bed. The nurse is locating a special seat cushion so he can more easily tolerate sitting for 90 min. or so.