"Stupid"

In case any of you think this experience is going to change my father, or make him heed the advice of others any more than he has in the past, think again. Last night he tried to get up out of bed, and fell. Lucky once more, he didn't hurt himself, except perhaps in the pride area. I could see in his face today that he is sad and wants out of there. I think he has these episodes of frustration at night when he's alone. I wish we could station one of us by his bed at all times. As you can probably tell from my description of Uncle Bob's visit yesterday, he's better all around, physically and mentally, when he's got people around and isn't lying helpless in bed. When I asked him why he did it, he wrote "stupid", then "I think they're pissed off." I told him they just don't want him undoing all their hard work -- a fall is *exactly* what they are concerned about most right now, since the respiratory issues have subsided. It's the most likely thing to happen, and the most dangerous.

Still, his humor is there. We could see that the doctors were doing rounds, so he wrote out "Doc, you ok for Flabob tomorrow?" He was asking if he could get a pass to go out for the chapter meeting at Flabob scheduled for tomorrow (I'm going in his place). The doctors and nurses are completely charmed, by his humor and his personality, and by the story of this guy who built an airplane. There are probably a lot of people who come into the ICU with end-of-life events, whereas Dad is strong and personable and headed towards walking out of there back to a full and interesting life (as long as he stops trying to get out of bed on his own).

So the fall is the bad news, but there is good news aplenty. Still no fever. They are going to fit him with a valve that will let him talk. They experimented with the vent to see how he would do using his voice. Here's the three things he said during this quick experiment:

1. Fuck!
2. Good morning.
3. Shit!

Quite the usual ratio of colorful to polite words. He always reaches out his hand to the doctors and nurses to shake their hands -- they like that.

Second good news: they might move him out to the main ward tomorrow. The doctor says that will give him greater mobility, because they can start to disconnect some of the wires and tubes. He wrote the order for the valve that will allow him to speak. Then he can start having visitors. Maybe I could even walk him near an open window.

Stay with me, everybody! We're moving past the milestones one by one. Soon we'll be talking about a rehab facility, then maybe a stay with me.