daily update 10.07.2010

Chad has had another good day.
I took the girls to school and headed over to Hospice. When I arrived around 9:45, he was receiving a bath.
I had a special visitor with me – and Chad perked up a little bit when he saw her.
Lucy.
He said, “oh!” and reached out to pet her, her tailing wagging so vigorously I thought it might fall off.

I let him finish his bath and I took a walk with Lucy outside, where she eagerly sniffed every.single.thing she could find.
After about 10 minutes, I went back to Chad’s room, and he was dozing off.

My dad stopped by for a couple of hours. And we chatted while Chad napped.
When he woke up, he was having some pain and I let the nurses know.
They arrived with his morphine and after about 15 minutes, he was feeling much better.

I let Lucy jump onto the foot of the bed and she wiggled her way up to Chad, close.
And she just laid down.
Completely calm.
Serene.
She is usually a pretty active little dog, although much calmer than other Jack Russell Terriers, but she was so calm, so good today.
It’s like she knew she needed to be on her best behavior and let Chad lead their visit.
I believe animals understand things we cannot. They sense it. And I really think she just got it today.
She wasn’t too thrilled when other people came into the room. They were violating her special, precious time with Chad.
She didn’t really growl, but would chatter away at them and put herself between them and the bed, if she was able to.

He gave her a tender pat on the head, scratched her neck and just hung out with her while he watched The Price Is Right.

Chad wasn’t hungry today — but did drink a milkshake. That counts as a dairy and a fruit – it did have strawberries!
I didn’t think he would finish the whole thing, but he did! And now that I know the staff can whip up a milkshake pretty quickly, and that Chad likes it — I think I may request he have them as often as humanly possible.

I left around 2:45 to pick Carys up from school and Chad was just starting to doze off.
I’m sure he was tired after all the times he tried to get out of bed today.

As soon as the nurses got him settled in bed, sheets just right, pillows under his feet, turned just right to keep pressure points from growing….he wiggled. And squirmed. And twisted. And pulled. And tugged. And pushed. And made it to the edge of the bed.

All of that – and a mere five three  minutes after the nurses got him settled – they had to run right back in because he set off the bed alarm and had both legs firmly planted on the ground. Or hiked over the rail. Or somewhere in the middle of the process.

He had a good afternoon.

Nothing to note, really.

Another good day.

Fine by me!

—

Given his recently good days, I am seriously thinking of taking the girls to see him at some point this weekend.
I’m really playing it by ear, but I would like for them to see him while he’s having a good day.
The last time they saw him, it was so hard. He was slipping into a ‘bad’ week and wasn’t even able to hug them.
Now, he can.
And I hope he will be able to as the weekend approaches so I can take them by to see him, even if for a few minutes.
I think it would brighten their day.
But…
I also worry about the confusion and barrage of questions that I might start by taking them there.
I suppose I should cross that bridge when I get to it.

Much like the rest of my life, eh?