Forgot the Madonna

From Bill Prinzmetal

Thursday
Got to hospital about 12:00. Bill was in dialysis. I waiting in his room until about 2:30 and went down to dialysis (6th floor, I think). He was just finishing. He was asleep.

When he got back to the room he was pretty tried. We opened cards and said a few words now and then. He told me “Be Patient!” Someone sent him a beautiful book by Oliver Sachs on music and the brain. I read part of the preface of the book, but he got tired of that. (I think that the chapters themselves are more interesting).

Just before I left, I told him I was going to call Kathy Pezdek to say I was on the road to Claremont. Bill said he wanted to speak with Kathy. When I put her on speaker phone, he smiled and just glowed. Kathy was able to understand most of what Bill said, even though Bill’s voice was very weak.

When I left I put al jazeera on TV, which we both thought would be pretty interesting. (The next day he gestured that it wasn’t very interesting).

Friday
Got to Hospital about 10:00.

Camile can by and visited with Bill a while.

PT (Christina) can by and was very good. He had a painkiller first and then did all the exercises (exercises are listed on the wall). Bill enjoyed it the stretches and exercise. Mostly flexing is foot at the ankle. Bending his knee. Moving his legs in an out. And there was a finger exercise. (See pictures on wall). His own muscles contributed a lot to this. Christina (see picture) had him sitting up on the side of the bed for about 2 minutes. (The picture was approved for posting by Bill.)

Bill enjoyed the exercises (or maybe it was Christina (-; I enjoyed doing them with him. He is suppose to do 10 of each 3-times a day. Sometime he is just not going to have the energy, but when he does, its something that he likes.

Aside: going to the airport, I had a “Prinzmetal you are so stupid moment. “ When he was doing the exercises, why didn’t I play music from his iPod? I could have at least played a little Madonna.

Irv Biederman (a colleague from USC) called and talked with Bill. I had to interpret a bit because Bill’s voice is quite. But Bill understood Irv.

Speech Therapist can by, practiced swallowing with bits of ice. Instructions are on wall. We should be doing this with him. Elevate his head with the bed, give him small bits of ice. He should put his fingers by his throat and see if he can feel the swallowing. If he dribbles a bit, that is fine. She was concerned that his voice was so weak. She was going to talk with doctor about this. I do not think that he likes this particular speech therapist. But small bits of ice do help him speak clear.

After an active morning, he fell into a heavy sleep
My old friends Julianne and John came by. (She will post separately). Julianne was an undergraduate at Pomona when I was a graduate student. Bill woke up a few times and was very pleased to see Juliana. Juliana had visited with Bill in November and in the hospital in Glendale.

Julianne and I (on the request of Kris) asked to speak to the doctor. The doctor (Jamie McKiney?) came in and reported that there is some fibrosis in the kidneys. But the renal and rheumatologist and going to go over the kidney biopsy results.

A new heart scan results came in and the heart “bounced” back. That is great news.

Bill listened to the doctor’s report. I told him that in the future, when he got a bit better, he would have to continue the blog himself, and he nodded.

The doctor paged the kidney specialist who wasn’t around. The doctor (who looked young enough to be one of Bill’s recent students) said she would call Abby and give the entire report.

I was sad that in 2 days, we had so little quality time, he slept a lot. But when I saw him in July and his scleroderma symptoms just started, he slept about as much. His voice is very weak. But I have to remember that the first time I went to the hospital he couldn’t speak at all, and then second time (2 weeks ago) he uttered his first comprehensible words. He as lost a lot of weight, but with the gastric tube, hopefully he will gain it back. He did tell me "be patient."

The cards he received mean a lot and he like the phone calls he received (with a speaker phone).

Julianne, John, and I left around 4:00.

P.S. I will send some mittens which might be useful in keeping his hands warm.