Its only 3:00pm and I'm posting early because I don't expect to see him again today. I also promised him a free pass day tomorrow with no visitors which he is ecstatic about.
Buck and I drove down to 6th and Clement where that New chinatown is that Nicky took me to. Ive been dreaming about that lotus package I had and I wanted to get Richard his stinky mung bean thing. He called me from his cell while I was washing my face and getting dressed. Tried to garner a free pass day for today as well as tomorrow. I told him no way I was heading to get him his mung bean thing and if I had to keep it in this house for a solid two days I might die and become trapped in that glutenous rice myself. Asked if he had taken his vitamins today and he said yes they gave them to him. He wants to read the bottle. I told him again what they were. Now that I'm sitting here back home I think I'll print out information on both and bring them to him next time I see him.
His SERVAS friend Mary Jane called this am, wanting to visit. He said no way no visitors. More like cried it. I had to call her back and let her know.
So my Taiwan restaurant says no delicious lotus packages today... :( I walked a couple stores down to the dim sum place and waited in line there for the mung bean package. Everything smelled so good and there is ALWAYS a line in this place! I eves drop on the people ahead of me seeing what they choose. Especially if they are Chinese. I got a him a skewer of chicken, some pork shumai, his mung bean thing, and a couple egg custards. Did I mention front row parking with 20min left over in the meter from the person leaving?
Clement is just a block off California so I tracked all the way up that to him. Got free curb parking on the corner.
He was sleeping on his side when I came in. I said hello loudly as I walked in and past his bed expecting to plop down on the spare bed and to my surprise there is a Chinese man in bed there who Buck was happy to greet. He doesn't speak much English and is laughing giving me hand gestures of Buck biting saying good boy and making a funny face at me. I couldn't stop laughing. I had to borrow his chair to have somewhere to sit. Richard says his son slept in it all night. sweet.
Richards lunch tray in on his bedside table unopened. He turns on his back, adjusts his bed at both his feet and raises his head to sit upright. His IV bag looks fresh and full. He is COMPLETELY mentally alert and speech is very good. He is like Richard of 3 years ago. His nurses and CNA come in later and say the same thing - that they are very happy with how alert he is, and say it started last night. There were even notes in his chart from the night shift nurse saying the same thing. I asked about his blood pressure today and she went to get the numbers. Its high. 144/90. Next week when therapy is back in full swing we need to start getting him to stand up again and see how much it is dropping. If its not I think we need to address the elevated levels with the doctor....give the CoQ10 the weekend to saturate and help it maybe.
Anyway...he removes the lid from his institutional lunch and I'm surprised that it looks like a pretty decent meal. Big baby carrots that are sauteed, boxed mashed potatoes and gravy and a protein/stuffing mixture (I think that's what it was). It looked like decent food anyway. Hes fumbling with the edge of the plate trying to grab a hold of it and I say don't bother with that we have your chinese food here. He says I know but I'm trying to give it to Buck so I get the points for eating my food. They looks at things like that you know....hilarity. Everything is on a point system for him.
Its too much of a hassle to get his table swung around to let him eat off that so I just put the plastic containers in his lap. That man ate every single thing I brought. the chicken kabob, 2 big pork shumai - bigger than a golf ball smaller than a tennis ball - his munch bean thing - some of which he fed to Buck in order to get a kiss from him, and one egg custard. Kissing is Bucks pretty please with sugar on top for human food treats moving from your hand to your mouth. He saved one of the custards for later.
While he is eating I grabbed his lunch plate and held it in my lap and let Buck eat his lunch. One of Bucks fans wheels by the door in her wheelchair and says 'busted! i see what you are doing Buck!' hee hee.
I also brought the aloe vera / honey dew water back today and he LOVED that. I didn't mention aloe vera this time before he drank it. Its full of real whole aloe vera pulp, and fruit juices sweetened with honey and cane juice....and tastes like angel water. No preservatives, no artificial anything and aloe has 16 amino acids and 20 minerals.
He seriously ate like a horse today, and didn't need much help doing so. I untied the string off the mung bean package, and helped him open up the leaves, but from there on he was on his own. He pulled leaves off as he went and I threw them in the trash. He nibbled the chicken right off the skewer, and used his left hand to drink the juice I brought. successful, but is still a little off in aim.
I had one Aloe original in the fridge here that I had when I got home. Little bit of lychee flavor to it.... also delicious. I got those at the whole foods store down on Haight. Going to run down there tomorrow or Monday and pick up a couple more.
Except for the still uncooperative physical body, today was old Richard. Even the uncooperative body was working for him today because he deftly reach for his glasses and almost spilled a glass of liquid but saved it. I gave him a sitting ovation ;) His mind did not wander off into lala land once. He was very there and very connected, with the exception of still thinking I have 2 dogs with me and saying buck was a pretty GIRL.
I'd like to say today was a marked improvement for the addition of the antioxidants, but its day one. He seems to have a great day followed by a down day. All part of the healing process I'm sure. If he works hard today I'd expect him to be exhausted tomorrow, however weekends are a skeleton crew as far as therapy goes. Since I wont be seeing him tomorrow, I'm already looking forward to Monday and hoping to see him in good form and on a general upswing. I did remind him to continue to do his vocal chanting even if he did not see his speech therapist. This was her request as well.
He walked me through how to post and approve a post on his SERVAS group message board so that I could share that information with the other group owner. She always wrote the posts and he would post them...she is left with no idea how to manage and post to the group.
Yesterday he mentioned skype to me. I am pretty much ready to do that with him but would like to wait until I see how he is doing next week. If he seems to be continued improvement, then I'd like to do that. Anyone who has and would like to skype, please send me a message on what times you would be available to do that during the week, and we can coordinate that. It is better for me to target 10:30a-noon and 2-4pm Pacific Standard time. Next weekend we can do it as well.
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