Yesterday was up the ladder, today was one step forward and a half step back. The step up is that Dad's arm continues to improve. He has much less swelling and a little more range of motion. It looks as though he was hit by a car, but there was a bit of improvement.
Otherwise, he had a slightly down day. We woke him up at 10:30 when Charisse arrived. He had been up 6 times during the night, then slept soundly from 6:30-10:30 AM. He was very grateful for Charisse's bath, shampoo and shave, he put on clean clothes and used his walker to get to the living room. The effort exhausted him. He had a good breakfast and felt a touch better, and fell asleep. Dad just wasn't feeling well, but had no specific complaints. He slept most of the day.
Dave made corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot with potatoes and carrots for dinner. Dad ate a small portion of each, but all together it was a good plate full. He even had ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert, then wanted to head to bed again.
We've been a little concerned about his sleeping routine, as he is up every 1-2 hours at night, but can sleep 3-4 hours at a time during the day. We don't know if it is because his chair is more comfortable than his bed, if something presses on his bladder while in bed, or ??? The visiting nurse came today and we reviewed his meds and this sleep problem. She thought perhaps his constipation bothers him more at night. Maybe he will sleep better tonight. Dave is staying with him, and I am home.
Geoff called and Dad was very glad to talk to him, but felt badly that he didn't have more to say. His brain is working quite well, but he is very slow to answer questions or make decisions. Tonight I read him a story about Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clark fame) from the Wall St. Journal - his descendants want to exhume his body to see if it can be determined whether he committed suicide or was murdered. When I got to the part about Lewis having two bullets in his body, one in the chest and one in the head, Dad said, "I always wondered about that - why would a marksman like Lewis need two bullets to shoot himself? And how could someone shoot themselves twice?" I had never even known there was a mystery about Lewis' death, much less that it was from a gun.
I made a comment yesterday about how we kids would joke that when Dad was driving, the car automatically turned into bakeries, when Mom was driving it would turn into antique shops. Dad said, Yes and my favorite snack was Creme Horns. Today, Dave was going to buy some more sheets, a thermal cup, etc. and asked Dad if he needed anything. Dad said, See if you can find some Creme Horns. Thank goodness, Dave found some! Dad had a Creme Horn and a milkshake for his snack. The brain is good! Just a little slow these days.
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