Friday pm visit

Sophie, Olivia, and I arrived to yelps of "help" by Bill in his room. When I opened the door to the room, Bill was seated in his chair in agony. He said he was stuck in his chair for a long time with no one responding to his yells. The call button did not work, he said, and he tried to yell as loud as he could. I summoned for help and several nurses came right away. They were apologetic and moved him back to his bed. His nurse said that the doctor "ordered" Bill to sit up in a chair for three hours, which he did successfully do. The problem was that they left him unattended longer than that.

The good news is that Bill got very mad and was very articulate about it. He demanded to talk with the charge nurse and complained vigorously to her.

He and the girls had the best visit ever: He was emotionally engaged with them in a way that he has not been so far ("I missed you two so so very much!") and told them he wanted to watch a movie with them. Sophie wanted to crawl into his bed; they eagerly helped him practice ice chips (Olivia delivered ice chips to his mouth, Sophie maneuvered his suction tube, both girls encouraged him to chew and swallow, and put their fingers on his adam's apple to make sure he swallowed). It was amazing that the girls knew exactly how to do swallow exercise with him. They were inquisitive about different tubes and needles and Bill explained what they were. While he was oriented, lucid, and lively, he did still show some cognitive lapses (i.e., couldn't remember if the nurse had given him medicine and asked several times about it).

The girls are all over him. I think they really missed him and are glad to have him back! They want to visit again tomorrow.

When Bill complained of pain, Sophie told him to think about something else to distract himself. Bill asked, "like what?", to which Sophie said, "like your children". It worked of course. They were excellent daddy's helpers.