Yesterday (Saturday) was a non-responsive day. Mom was in her room, but wouldn't wake up for the bloody apocalypse, and that was that. Her nurse said she'd been sleeping much more and waking much less that week, which was worrying. Today I found her in a common area, where she was again sleeping comfortably (and unresponsively.) So I was not very hopeful.
I asked a nurse to wheel her back to her room, and the movement did the trick. At first she couldn't get the ol' speech centers engaged, or just had too much gunk in the way. At the moment, regrettably, that's a possibility, although they use a suction machine on her often to keep her mouth as clear as possible. On that front, at least the nurse said the lung secretions were not as copious, and her last x-rays came back clean for anything an x-ray would see. There was a fair amount of amateur clean-up today, but I don't think we need to discuss those details.
In any event, her eyes opened and she recognized me when we got into her room, and after a time-out while the nurse hooked up the g-tube to the feeding pump, we had a nice conversation. She was much more with it again today, and we were able to talk to the English relatives (Herschel was there, and she'd been asking about him, so it was wonderful to hear his voice.) We also spoke to Meryl up in Jersey again, but couldn't reach Viv.
We talked about everyone's vacation plans, and I reminded her about the Outer Banks, where we'd also gone as kids. It seemed to be an engaging topic, and I talked to her about our upcoming beach trip -- which she followed much better than topics like "what's going on in the world right now." I told her I had pretty happy memories of the Outer Banks, except the time when my shoulders got sunburned so badly I had shoulder-pad size blisters on both sides. She remembered that and said, "oh, that was terrible. Be careful this time."
I also mentioned that the place was my favorite beach - you can keep your sugar-white sand and clear blue caribbean waters. I'll take the murky chilly atlantic and the threat of a Noreaster, as long as I know the ghost crabs and the dolphin pods personally. I asked her if she liked it there, and she said yes... I said "but then, you were always breaking up the fights and making the sandwiches," and she actually laughed. "It might be different," was her way of putting it.
After talking to some friends on the phone, I switched on the TV, to see how Mom feels about TV. Evidently, about the same. It didn't matter whether it was crocodiles, volcanos, or mobsters, she zoned out pretty quickly and pretty thoroughly... I woke her enough to let her know that I'd leave it on the news channel (CNN, I'll be damned if I'll leave it on Fox for her to be propagandized,) and that I'd have to go to get our shopping done.
I do worry a bit. The last time we left it on, she became convinced one of us was dead in a terrible accident. But that could well have been a UTI talking, so we'll see whether any more confusion results. She really doesn't seem to be riveted by it, but who knows.
Best until next week,
D
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