This is my husband being fed his first semi-solid food since his stroke by one of his physical therapists. She focuses on the ability to swallow reliably and safely. She has been working with syringes of water, for example, patiently asking him if he wants some. He opens up like a baby bird and she squirts it into the side of his mouth and then waits. Sometimes he swallows right away. Sometimes he just sits there with the water in his mouth seemingly ‘forgetting’ to swallow. She is working with him every day. He’s getting a LOT better. Today he pointed to the bottle of water, wanting her to give it to him. He’s not ready for that yet, but it made her laugh.
He actually enjoyed the yogurt today. He asked Brian to take a picture of him eating the yogurt. It really surprised me. I jumped up and took a quick pic, too, of his ‘baby bird’ imitation. He was also able to say ahh, oooh, eeeeeh, and la-la-la, plus sticking his tongue out, holding it out while she counted to five, then doing it again. He made her laugh again when he remembered the moving his tongue to the left and to the right and back again, doing it before she instructed him, showing off a bit.
Other physical therapists were there today, but the most difficult thing they had him do today was sit on the side of the bed. They worked his right arm and both legs, too. We are all protecting the site of the installed pacemaker on the left side, just under his collar bone. He’s supposed to keep his left arm down and keep the whole area still.
That’s like telling a two year old to be still. He is constantly trying to bring the left arm and hand up for some stupid reason. He usually can’t tell you why, but he does it over and over, causing either Brian or me to leap up and patiently explain to him again WHY he needs to keep his hand down and not to do anything with his left arm, protecting his wound. He nods, agrees to be still and then two seconds later, we’re explaining again. He’s also after his feeding tube. We keep explaining that the feeding tube can be removed when he shows good improvement in his swallowing. He forgets and tries to grab it again. And AGAIN, he flails his right hand around. The back of it has several IVs attached and needs care and being still. Yeah, right.
Anyway, the doctors are all pleased with his progress and he was moved back to his private room this morning. Brian and I were at the hospital in the ICU before 9 and didn’t leave until the night nurse we hired came at 8pm. We didn’t eat dinner until around 9.
While we were waiting for dinner to be delivered, I tried again to cancel our AT&T account. We lost access to our online account because the first thing they wanted was to send a text with a code to our phone. Since neither is a working number now, it was impossible to get past that in order to put in our user name and password. When I would CALL, the call would drop off mid call. ARRRRGH!. Brian changed the setting on my phone from local internet to Blue Tooth – slower, but possibly more reliable. I spent over 25 minutes talking to a total of three people before reaching Ruth, a truly wonderful lady. She asked to speak to my husband, and I explained our situation. She took pity on me and got the account canceled, plus gave us good wishes for my husband’s recovery. Mission finally accomplished!
The doctors were talking today about letting my husband go home Thursday. We politely said that we were in no position to care for him until he was able to eat something, make at least some intelligible speech so we knew what he needed, and could at least walk with help to the bathroom and back. I will still need to arrange for help in our air bnb for awhile until he is able to help me some. I’m trying not to worry about that now. My mantra is one day at a time.
It’s amazing how your focus narrows when your life is upended. Now I watch like a hawk to see if my husband starts to lift his left hand so I can jump up and stop him from hurting himself or the wound. I watch every sip of anything that goes down his throat, or when he coughs, to make sure he swallows and doesn’t choke. I strain to hear or try to read his lips to try to understand what he’s trying to say. I see every little bit of improvement from one day to the next. My world revolves now around the hospital, my husband and our son.
Thanks to all of you who have expressed good wishes or your prayers for his recovery. You just don’t know how much it means. ❤️
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