Tuesday - Day 1 1/2

Spent the morning with Estelle. Busy day already. Between 8AM and 11:30AM she was visited and assessed by Teena, the nursing supervisor, Wayne, the activities director, Miriam and her assistant from Wound Care, her new physician, Dr. Trahos and a host of nurses and nurse's aides from her unit.

Everyone was very nice to her and she was very talkative and grateful in return. Teena seems like a great asset. She's new on the job, just three weeks, and comes from a supervisory position in a Maryland hospital and she seems very dedicated and very interested in hearing from patients and families on ways to improve their services. I had mentioned three small concerns and before I left an hour later, two of them had been taken care of already.

The activities department listed some of the things they offered that she might like to attend and said that if she does not want to go to them, they will come to her. I've set it up, for now, that someone will come and read the newspaper to her three times a week.

Estelle was very talkative this morning again. The nurses said she had slept most all of the night and she was bright eyed and inquisitive when I arrived. She's still a little confused about "her new home," and she is most often uncertain as to who I am - but she says everything is "lovely," and she's asking a lot of questions about what we can do and where she can go. She's also helping to give her medical and social history to the staff when they ask and even corrected me when I said that she preferred to stay in bed as opposed to getting sat up in a chair. She said, quite determinedly, "If I have to stay in this bed all the time you may as well shoot me." At which point we all assured her that we will get her up and sitting in no time. It will take a few days, however, because physical therapy will have to evaluate her and decide which type of chair is best for her and how long of a time she can be comfortable in a sitting position.

We talked about her friends and family alot. She was eager to call people on the phone. She spoke for a bit to Vivian which she enjoyed a great deal and then when I offered to call someone else she said, "Oh pleeeease, you must know it is very tiring to talk talk talk all the time....let's wait awhile."

By 11:30 she was looking pretty tired so I decided to leave and let her get a nap if she could. I did stop at the local Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a cervical pillow that the wound care supervisor had advised might help her with her neck control and keep some of the pressure off of her neck and Dan and I will be going back to visit tonight when he gets off work.

Thanks to everyone who's writing, calling and keeping us all in their thoughts. We do tell Estelle every time we hear from someone and she's always interested and pleased.