Room change is still going well. After I went through a multitude of universal remotes trying to get something to work on the new TV, Arlene called Sylvania who suggested the cheapest Radio Shack one.
I went through Castro this morning and got that and Ill be darned it WORKS! As fate would have it it was one of the last codes we tried.
When I came into the facility there was a man in a wheelchair who saw Buck and I at the free coffee table and wheeled himself over talking in broken English but I basically gather that he wants me to give him a cookie from the table so that he can give it to Buck. The cookie tray is empty. He doesnt quite grasp that, but I know I have a fortune cookie in my Dim Sum bag which Richard wont eat so I ask him to wait and I'll come back.
Well into the room and Arlene is there messing with the TV - this is pre-remote celebration - Richard announces they just got back from the dining room where they had lunch like real human beings. They have a couple of different lunch areas - one of which you can sit down and be served in a 3-4 course meal like a real meal. He apparently loved that. He was good today. Alert and in relatively good spirits.
So time passes - Arlene and I have danced a jig over the remote and we're scrubbing the sliding glass window with GooGone trying to get the adhesive off from a mylar we ripped off the window. This is making richard crazy. He doesnt give a damn the curtain is always shut quit messing with it.
then I turn around and the man wanting a cookie is outside the door. Its Richards roommate! This man speaks hardly no english - hes russian, and he too has suffered a stroke so they are two peas in a pod in there. So we did give buck the cookie in the hall which he liked.
Speech therapist came in to give us a long report of what she has seen so far and she is targeting next week to move his liquids back down to thinner but still slightly thickened. She said hes not always remembering his swallowing techniques. He has to be que'd on a lot of things, but as he does them over and over he is making them more habit.
Then a psychologist comes in. Hes a 3rd party contractor. German. Arlene and I were going to leave and give them privacy, but he opted for us to stay to help answer questions. I did leave to the patio for a bit, but when I walk back in I'm fascinated by the answers Richard is giving to his questions. I would definitely score higher on the depression scale in comparison. He loves life, finds it exciting, never bored, but consciously feels the incapacitation, and therefore feels lesser than.
Cognitive questioning was remarkable too. What date is it? Richard says near the Kennedy Assassination so around the 26th...wow. He went through a battery of these then dropped them because he said openly his cognitive function was opposite of what he expected so hewould move to the mood stuff.
Richard will tell you straight up. Hes not depressed. Hes trapped....and those that know him also know hes a 'bolter' as Arlene would put it. He is completely unable to bolt from the situation. A strange twist indeed.
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