We Do All Our Own Stunts

When I got to the hospital today, our boy wonder was sitting up IN A CHAIR! This is a huge, huge, huge deal, because when I’d left him the night before, just sitting up in bed was challenging. It’s a combination of his head, the fact that his eyes aren’t working in sync right now, and the fact that he’d been in bed since Saturday.

So unlike some movies you may have seen, it’s not like you can be in bed for 20 years and then all of a sudden get up and dance around the house because your snot-nosed grandson got a golden ticket. That’s not reality, I’m sorry to tell you all.

Anyway, Sitting Boy was VERY CHATTY this morning. I plopped down on the bed and got him caught up on all the gossip and passed along everyone’s well wishes and all of that. He was adamant that I text his co-worker about a situation they’d been in the middle of and he would NOT shut up until I did. But that’s all being handled just fine.

He is very anxious about work. I totally understand where he’s coming from, since our position has been fairly precarious since December. But everyone I’ve talked to has reassured me that it’s all fine, he’s fine, the job is fine, it’s getting done, it’s ALL FINE and even though I tell Freddie this (many multiples of times), he still frets about it because that’s just how he’s made. We’re gonna have a tough-love talk about it tomorrow if he doesn’t settle down a little bit.

I missed the first round of doctors this morning but we saw the social worker and the rehab specialist and the dental surgeon today. The social worker is working with the rehab person to find a place to put him for some inpatient rehab when he gets sprung from the hospital. This was not the news he was looking for, because he is extremely anxious to come HOME, but yeah there is no way I am equipped to handle the early days of Head Wound McGee, making sure he doesn’t fall or anything like that. We’ll leave that to the professionals and they can release him to me when they are confident that he isn’t going to topple over or walk directly into the wall.

I STILL DON’T KNOW ABOUT SURGERY. From what the dental surgeon said, it WILL be necessary but she isn’t sure exactly when. His teeth all look good, all present and accounted for which is a HUGE relief, but his skull still needs to be stuck back together. I guess they use Gorilla Glue or FlexTape or something. I don’t know, I’m not a doctor.

His appetite has improved quite a bit. He ate a lot of his lunch and was starting on dinner when I left. That is a big improvement. He even drank the Ensure they are providing which (ew) is going a long way toward keeping him on the path of healing. He’s still on a fully liquid diet, though. I’m not sure how that’s going to shake out when we get home, but we have blenders and strainers and all the tools we need to puree everything up to and including a ribeye (don’t think I won’t try it).

The BEST news was that the other dude in his room (you may remember him from yesterday’s post) was released and it was 30% quieter in there today. Hallelujah! But hospitals are inherently noisy places, so it’s not exactly restful. Later in the afternoon, they moved him across the hall to a different room so he could be closer to the bathroom. I guess they’re going to try to let him get there and back on his own (or with help) which will be a HUGE RELIEF (literally) to everyone. But he is still a fall risk and is under VERY STRICT ORDERS from his SUPER AWESOME WIFE to not get out of bed on his own until he is officially allowed to. He hates to ask for help but DUDE. This is exactly what all of these people are here for, man.

Overall, he is improving rapidly and the difference between Saturday night and today is startling. But in a good way! He doesn’t actually remember anything about Saturday or Sunday or Monday. His memory starts at yesterday morning when he left the ICU. So I’ve been filling in the gaps for him when he asks.

As for me, I am doing all right. This is a big thing I am being asked to do and it’s hard and it sucks out loud but I have the easy part. I’m not the one with the box of Legos for a head. But that doesn’t mean it’s fun. The chair available to me is uncomfortable as hell and all I can do is read or play on my phone because Freddie is still very sensitive to light so it’s not like I can drag a stitching project with me. He sleeps a lot and it’s very boring, but that is where I am supposed to be, so that is where I am. I am Penelope, waiting for my Odysseus, except HE’S RIGHT THERE and HE’S CRANKY.

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