Mom was much better when Wendy and I went to visit her this afternoon. She could remember the visitors she'd had earlier today and could remember Big Brown winning the Preakness yesterday. (By five and a half lengths, yet. YAY, Big Brown!) She no longer thinks there are trap doors in her “Get Well Soon” balloons, into which cameras and microphones have been inserted. She no longer thinks she is being held against her will in a brothel. She no longer sees matching parakeets, kittens, and marmosets clinging to her ceiling, no longer smiles at them or calls to them, and she realizes those animals don’t come in yellow with leopard spots anyway. She does still see pink gossamer floating in the air, but she realizes it isn’t really there. She no longer thinks Daniel (our sister Barbara's husband) is planning to go to California to study at Stanford and leave Lizzie behind or give her away.
“Not to worry,” I said, “That was just a bad dream.”
“And all those adorable kittens…”
“They were dreams, too.”
“No, because I was awake. They were hallucinations.”
Correct. Excellent, Mom!
Even better, she remembers her own mother going through a similar ordeal after one of her knee replacements. So she knows the same thing is what has been happening to her. She remembers telling the surgeons she doesn’t do well under general anesthesia.
She still isn’t sure which of her memories of this past week refer to reality, but when she asks and we tell her, she accepts our answers.
At any rate, I estimate her improvement at 90%. Wendy says 95%.
She is being discharged tomorrow. She will probably spend a few days at the rehab center here, within her retirement community, before coming back to her own apartment. She doesn’t yet feel comfortable being on her own, and Wendy and I agree.
Dad’s situation is less reassuring. He may have to be catheterized again today. Wendy saw him earlier, took him to church and he was in pain. I’ll go later.
This morning I went to Barbara’s church, St. Mark’s in Bethesda, on purpose to see her godmother, Deb, and Deb’s godmother, Carol. It ws good to be there again, and especially to be there singing, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.”
Deb shared her wonderful news and I was thrilled! Check it out and rejoice with her and her family.
Meanwhile, Wendy and I have enjoyed being together these several days, and have enjoyed a couple of visits from our brother Mike, too.
Mike collects movies. He used to collect them in Betamax format, then in VHS. I remember once when we read in a newspaper that Prince Charles had the largest known collection of movies on VHS in the world, and it was so-and-so many tens of thousands, Mike just laughed. He probably has every movie ever made, if it has ever been put on tape or shown on television.
He has been updating his collection recently, getting it all on DVD, and although we haven’t been allowed into his house for years, I’ll bet he has some room to move around in it now!
Anyway, Mike brought us a couple of very entertaining movies, and we laughed and cried and hooted and hollered and thoroughly enjoyed both.
I’m more or less planning to go home tomorrow afternoon or evening. Demetrios went home Friday afternoon, and I've missed him awfully.
And I'm looking forward to getting down to North Carolina in the next few days to see my grandchildren, at long last!
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Sunday, May 18, 2008
Joy!
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7 comments:
I'm so glad your mother has recovered significantly. That is such reassuringly news.
Wendy took your dad to church this morning? She is a saint!
It was such a lovely surprise to have you at church this morning. And thanks for the congratulations here on your blog. That is very sweet.
Wendy always takes Dad to church when she's here, and a saint she may be.
Perhaps I should clarify, meanwhile, that "church" is a 45-minute, non-denominational service downstairs from where Dad lives, in the full nursing care unit. It just involves pushing his wheelchair into the elevator and down a corridor.
Dad usually falls asleep during the service.
Wendy says today he started humming the final hymn as they were leaving.
I see... that does seem a lot easier than getting him into a car and into a church building and dealing with all the people going to and fro during services.
Good news! So glad to hear it.
Any movie recommendations?
We Watched "THe King of California", starring Michael Douglas as a father who gets released from a mental institution and goes back home to live with his 16-year-old daughter. He does all sorts of wacky things, but mostly, he's off on a treasure hunt, searching for Spanish doubloons. He finally determines that they are buried six feet under the floor of the newest Costco building. It's a wild, fun adventure, and I don't *recall* whether there is any bad language in it.
"The Eulogy" is about a family that makes ours look sane assembling for the funeral of the father/grandfather. One of the daughters shows up with her lesbian lover, and that together with some foul language makes the film unsuitable for children. (WHY can't they leave out the f-word? It only detracts.) In spite of the language and partly because of the lesbian element, the movie was screamingly funny and sad at the same time. Some of the characters in it reminded us of certain characters in our family, which made it all even funnier. And of course, our parents are elderly, too, which gave the sadness of it extra poignancy. The end made me laugh harder than I have in a long, long time.
Wow! What a relief that must be to see your Mom coming back to herself again! May she continue to receive God's mercy as she heals.
Oh, and I suppose it won't be long now The King of California mysteriously shows up on our Netflix queue....
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