A great day!

Chad is having a fantastic day today.
He has a big appetite, has been drinking a lot and even wanted to get out of bed.
He’s talking pretty clearly, even though his vocabulary is still limited.

When I arrived today, he had already had a flurry of visitors.
Several co-workers stopped by, as well as his mom, brother & aunt.
When I entered the room, he motioned for me to come to him and gave me a pretty nice hug!
I was surprised to see him in the recliner.
He hasn’t attempted to get out of bed since Saturday.
He can’t really sit in the wheelchair comfortably anymore – he leans a little too much and it’s not safe. The recliner has wheels and can be moved easily. The nurses rolled him down to the sunroom at the end of the C Wing, and all of us followed suit.
He sat in there, pretty content, for a while.

He looked good, too – or at least better than he has in a while.
Apparently, he ate a big breakfast and had just finished a bowl of spaghetti for lunch.
He drank quite a bit while I was there, too.
What a wonderful day!

He was talking quite a bit — and he indicated he wanted to talk to his sister, Melynda.
He overheard his mom & I talking about talking to Mel, and he said, “OH!”. He then picked up the remote control and held it to his ear like a telephone. I took that as a pretty big sign that he wanted to talk. I dialed Mel and they chatted for a few minutes. He even said, “Bye….Melynda” at the end of the call.
It was a wonderful moment.

He has had several visitors this week that have told me how chatty he was with them, or tried to be. I think that’s just amazing. He doesn’t say a lot when it’s just the two of us. He’s usually in and out of sleep.
And he’s had such a hard time swallowing lately – and no appetite. He literally ate 2 bites of pudding and a taste of applesauce yesterday.
So, you can imagine my surprise when I heard how much he had today. Good for him!

This little burst of energy is definitely heartwarming and encouraging to see.
But I was warned that it may be short-lived. It will probably disappear as quickly as it showed up.

I struggled with taking the girls today. I don’t want to confuse them. I don’t want them to think he is getting “better”. I don’t want to break their little hearts if we get there and hos “good” day is finished.
After talking with the children’s grief counselor today, we decided it would be best to give it another day or two and see how Chad does. If he’s still having good days, then I would need to ask the kids if they want to go. They may not want to. And that would be fine, too.