At Bill's and the children's mutual request, I brought Sophie and Olivia over this evening after their art class. It was so far the best visit since Bill's hospitalization; this made me very very hopeful that things just might return to 'normal'. Over an hour, Bill listened to them singing, commented on how pretty Olivia's dress was (a pink Chinese style top and tutu skirt she put on for daddy), cracked jokes with Sophie. The children both helped Bill practice ice chip swallowing by feeling his adam's apple go up and down (as a confirmation of the swallow) and seemed proud of their dad. Bill seemed happy.
Abby showed the kids flowers Andrea sent from Hong Kong and they were delighted, going "ooh and ah". Abby let them choose few flowers to take home in a paper cup.
Also, Bill had sit up in his cardiac chair for one hour today, which is longest record up to date.
He practiced his swallowing several times today both with the speech therapist and with us. He seemed very motivated to do these things.
Abby and I also had meaningful conversations with him about practical things like what to do with his house. He said he was sad but felt it was a good idea to close it up.
The only thing: His toes are not doing very well. Bill has a lot of pain in them and he requested Xanax (rather than morphine), which we relayed to the nurse. Abby had the bright idea of getting electric blankets for his feet/toes and on the way to the hospital I bought two., one for each foot. They were not a perfect solution to warm his feet, but better than hot towels.
The girls were told that Bill needed to be able to sit up in the chair for three hours before going to the rehab. They immediately told him to practice sitting up!
And I will definitely bring up the new Lupus drug to the doctors tomorrow!! Thanks, Abby.
Kris
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