Hi Team!
I have really been slacking in my 'updating' role... sorry about that. Busy time of year.
Lee is still <surprise> in the hospital... and she is still doing OK. She is eating well, and sleeping a lot, but her recovery seems to be a bit 'stalled'... not really any fast changes. I am sort of torn between thinking that is a good or bad thing. On the one hand, I hope she continues to improve, but on the other, she isn't going downhill.
What has happened in the last month... (omg - 2 months!) since I last gave you an update? Well, the kids all came up for Christmas, and got to sit on Nannie's bed and open some presents and help her open hers... that was a real highlight, because for the last 3 Christmases, she has been sort of out of it. Her hands are quite contracted and she has lost a lot of dexterity, so opening presents was kind of reduced to a rip-and-tear thing... the littlest one kept encouraging her "you can DO it, Nannie, don't give up!". What do you get the woman who has everything? Socks. Lap Blankets. A supportive neck collar so her head stays uptight when she dozes in her wheelchair. 'Jammies. Pictures for her walls. So that was a good few days.
Her Principal showed up with a bunch of cards and had a nice visit again... she is interested to see how 'her' kids are doing, and surprised that some of them are graduating this year (they were in Grade 9 when this happened, and she still 'sees' them at that size. He is bringing newer pictures when he next visits, printed bigger so she can see them better.
I have been with her as much as I can; I try to help out the nurses and HCAs who are her primary care these days; her doc keeps an eye on things, but really, there hasn't been a whole lot of change. Every so often, she surprises somebody with something she says, which tells me she doesn't talk all that much when I'm not there. It would be easy to forget that she needs what every other adult needs - conversation, intellectual stimulation, threads to follow, things to attend to... this vision thing keeps her off the computer and the staff is just too busy to spend sustained time with her. Mealtimes are probably the most 'active' times for her - when I'm not there, she often tries to skip getting up and into the chair and going out to the dining room (they will bring her meals in to her and help her eat in bed if she asks, which was the game she was playing) but I put a stop to that - told them to use their discretion, but I wanted her up and out and about at least a couple times a day. Now they tell her "Gerry will be upset if we don't get you up" when she wants to just stay in bed. One nurse laughed and said "you should hear how she responded to that the other day!".
I can just imagine. She tells me off when I push things too far or too much with the rehab I'm working on, and I actually kind of like it when she does. If she didn't still have that spark, I would worry more.
Well, I gotta go back over there. I've been away a bunch, working, so try to hang out with her at every day, especially at mealtimes so I can help out and free up some staff. Our government has a full-on-frontal-assault going on Healthcare, (including Doctors - just tore up their collective agreement the other day, which REALLY got everyone's attention), so it would be easy for the staff to be disillusioned with their jobs. I can understand that, the government has the same assault going on against education, and the schools I work with need constant reminding that just because the government is noisy, it doesn't mean they are the voice of the people... that their jobs matter, that THEY matter, that the parents/students/patients appreciate them, even if the friggin politicians don't.
What IS it about 'Austerity' governments that they want to cut all public services and privatize everything? Haven't they friggin learned that doesn't save anything, yet? Ours keeps releasing these little facebook ads or tweets that talk about the waste, the high wages, the doctors and nurses and teachers make... and a percentage of the retards out there believe everything they read. Sigh. Does my frustration show?
Anyway, that's all for today's soap opera. Thanks for thinking about her, and for the cards you send. I read them all to her, and she tells me about where she has met you (or not), which is always encouraging. Lee has good friends.
