9/25 Doing good

Carolyn was out of here at a early 7am on her way to the airport.  I used my morning to give Buck an extra long walk and get caught up on some work I postponed while she was here.  Buck met Marmaduke at the park - if Buck is the most beautiful and perfect lab, Marmaduke was the most perfect and beautiful Great Dane I have ever seen with a gorgeous face.  He, however, was also not fixed and a hefty 165 lbs...I had to leash him again because he was having a moment of love fascination.  Buck is very attracted to dogs bigger than him.  Last week we had an episode with a burly golden.  Harmless in the scope, but not the best manners in the world.  We also met the cutest retriever who was prancing down the hill off leash and buck went to greet him and bumped right into him.  He was blind.  When he realized it was a dog he started hopping back in forth in a playful manner trying to figure out where Buck was.  Buck of course is peeing, and the blind dog prances on down the hill.  Very cute happy little spirit.

Bernie the landlord called me from the VA looking for Richard.  I had to redirect him over to Tunnell, and Richard later said he didnt even recognize him.  He said do I know you?  Bernie started laughing then it struck him...Bernie!

I got caught up in trying to finish some work and looked up with only 30minutes until I am supposed to be meeting the masseur.  This of course means I have to abandon the holy grail parking space on a day where I KNOW tons of people are going to be coming through for the faire and Haight.

His area is packed as well, so I had to use the cramped garage for parking.  Michael the masseur is waiting for me in the lobby.  We go up and Richard is not in his bed.  A quick glance around and his CNA says hes in the rec room watching TV...really?!

They probably made him, but good for them.  That gave me a little ray of sunshine that they are working with him and encouraging (forcing) him to get his ass out of bed so he can transition.

We walked together to the rec room, Michael is saying he can do it while he is sitting in his chair, but Richard would rather do it laying down...probably because he was kidnapped to that room in the first place.  Hes watching Animal Planet with the aforementioned super old guy, still on his IV so hes attached to the rolling IV thing.

I walk Michael and Watson back to the room, and go get Richard who holds the rolling IV thing while I wheel him.  The space is SO tight and cramped its hard for all of us, the table, the chair, the walkers...just crap everywhere so it took a while to get situated. 

He is reporting no pain.  Occasionally pain in the rear left shoulder.  While Michael was working with certain parts of his legs, his feet are twitching and I couldn't tell if that was Parkinson's spasms or Richard wiggling his feet.  Asked him after he said it was him doing it.

While he was getting that done, I went to find the CNA and nurse.  They both report he is up and doing well.  He's completely cleaning his plate at his meals.  His blood pressure is still slightly high at 144/68 ish.

He was laying close to flat, but in the middle needed me to help him raise up to clear his throat.  He asked me to find out about the speech therapist to see if they could suck the stuff out.  This is still a concern of mine in the independence scale, but the awful nurse was on duty and I asked her to request it after shift change near meal time.


Helped Michael find his way out and we parted at the stairs.  I don't even get how he gets around..the guy is fascinating to me.  We had a great conversation in the elevator on the way down and he was telling me before the HMFIC switched recently they were doing a lot more art therapy, music, light therapy, spa, massage stuff.  New guy cut the budgets across the board and they lost the majority of their programs.  Still there was a guy playing the guitar and singing to a crowd in the cafeteria...

Back to Richard and we did all of his vocal stuff and sang a song together.  His speech is still his main complaint.  Hes still having difficulty holding his tongue between his teeth and swallowing, but he got through three of them.  We talked about other ways to work that rear tongue muscle.

Reminded  him of Arlene's return in a couple of days as well as my teleconference with the Neurology department and asked if there was anything he wanted me to specifically address with them.  Only the phlegm he says, and also that sometimes at night when he is trying to go to sleep, it feels as if someone is dropping a medium weight necklace on his left collar bone.  He gets that sensation.  I encouraged him that this might be a sign of healing and the nerves repairing and firing there as this was the side he was most affected on, and that the shoulder pain on the same side could be a result of the same but that I would address it for him in case it had significance.  when asked about the hallucinations he said they have been totally gone.  I'm leery of this response because of his admitted manipulation of the nurses in information giving, but he does seem mentally on and lucid.  Bernie reported the same in his conversation with him....I'm not sure if he would withhold information from me or not.

Get back to the garage and someone has double parked behind me and is now not responding to the calls to move their car.  I had to track him down myself and found him in the cafeteria with his mother listening to music.  Thank god for the garage logs.

Parking faerie came through even though the streets are bumper to bumper around here today, and I parked just on the corner of his block.

Perfume tester for the day is Hermes Voyage, which Richard caught a whiff of as I was helping him clear his throat, and said yum.  I quite like it too, but its missing one earthy element for me.

Carolyn the Jasmine is alive and opening its blossoms.  I can smell it as I'm typing.  I'm going to bring it to Richard tomorrow.