I just got back from visiting Cap’n Greybeard and he looks great! He is talking more and whining less and he even ate a lot of his dinner without me threatening to jack him up with a feeding tube like they do for geese when they make foie gras.
He has been upgraded from a red tag (DANGER FALL OVER MAN) to a yellow tag (probably won’t fall over, but maybe so keep an eye out just in case) which is awesome news! They do keep him in a wheelchair (unless he’s in bed) with a seatbelt just in case, and that’s good because otherwise he’d make a run for it. Trouble is, the facility is literally three miles from anywhere so where would he even go?
Compared to yesterday, he has improved almost 100%. He’s still having trouble with his throat (and if you want to google “elongated uvula due to intubation, feel free but I don’t recommend it) and he still has some headache and double vision but at least he’s alert and chatty again. We had a nice talk about stuff and I didn’t have to yell at him once! I could tell he was feeling more himself when we were talking about run-of-the-mill domestic stuff and he said “are you okay with keeping the house clean?”
Me: Ummmm… no?
Of course not. That’s not a thing I normally do and I’m not gonna start now. It’s pretty much as clean as it ever is – we live here and it shows. I did have a weird dream that we moved to a new house and the entire thing was done in shades of beige but it’s possible that was just the ghost of my mother-in-law checking in.
OH I FORGOT TO TELL YOU: I gave him back his phone. This is the longest he has gone without some kind of device since he was super cool and awesome and got a pager back in 1995. But since he promised to behave, I gave it to him, so if you’re getting a ton of messages, I’m sorry. But not really.
We’re very much on-track to get him home on Monday, and while he will still need to see various doctors here and there, I don’t think we’re going to need as much visiting nurse support as we had originally thought.
Today is Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish New Year. I’m not super-observant but my hope is that this will mark a turning point not only for us, but for everyone. So, you know, prayers and junk for a happy and healthy new year.