Monday, August 29, 2022 8:42 PM (No proofing, I'm done for the day!)

Hello, welcome to day 60 since Larry 1st suffered a stroke. 

 I arrived to Larry sitting in his wheel chair, facing the window to outside. My first thought of "Oh good!" quickly turned to "Oh no!" There he was, with his mitts on the floor, his seat belt unfastened, his bum sliding to the edge of his seat and his feet trying to get a grip on the floor. All of this, with his wrists tied down! Aye, aye, aye! "NURSE!" She came running in & said "That's it, back into bed!" She told me that when she was trying to put the protective mitts on him he told her to get them off. When she told him they could come off when I came in & sat with him, he yelled "I don't have to wait for my wife to come in. I want them off now!" Well, wouldn't the speech therapist be impressed with full sentences & clear & loud annunciation.

 Back in bed, Larry started deep scratching 1st his belly, then chest, then arms. I watched a rash start out pink, then quite red & travelling. It was driving him crazy! I told the nurse, who called the doctor, who said she'd give him something. It's a side effect of dialysis! (O great, one more thing for him to have to suffer with!)

 He was taken for Xray's for Wednesday's insertion of feeding tube into his abdomen. He was gone quite a while. When he came back the rash had spread like wild fire. He slept deeply for some time. When he awoke, there was no stopping him from scratching & picking at the tape around the area of his permanent catheter, in his chest for dialysis. He wouldn't stop, so I took a photo of it & explained as I showed it to him, how important it was for him to not disturb it. When I finished explaining, he said "I understand!" without being prompted.

 While Larry was gone to X-ray, his recreation therapist came in to meet me & learn a lot about Larry, so she would have more to work with, in engaging him in things that have meaning for him. She asked wonderful questions. She had trained at GF Strong & worked with a friend/colleague of Larry's. She is going to bring a guitar to him. I told her to help herself to our tablet to ask him about photos & show videos of him playing & singing songs. I really appreciated that she is not going to schedule specific times for him right away, but see if she can learn his rhythm for awakeness, to best engage him.

 I was so happy that Mary-Lynn came as I was leaving, as Larry was so restless & she knows how to take care of him so well, #1: as a brother & #2: as a bed-ridden patient. 

 I was off to the prayers for our friends' dad, Tom, whose funeral is tomorrow morning. Tom was the sweetest fellow. When I see him in my mind, I can hear his cheerful soft laughter. He was the best Santa for years & years. Tom's grand-daughter lives in Surrey, so she picked me up & it was so good to visit with her on the drive to the church. She told me that she was a bit nervous, as she sent a photo of 'Grampa' as 'Santa', for the obituary column in the Sun newspaper. Her 3 children are delightful, & always offer a great 'door step' encounter for our Santa Covid visits. Her son keeps Santa on his toes, as I'm sure he has a book with '365 Santa Jokes'.

 So that's where I'll leave it for today, on a sweet note to help with the bitterness of this day for Larry. Tomorrow, I'll enjoy reminding him of his Santa visits with Rachael's children.