Sylvia's Journal

Friday, 20 July 2007
Today was a bit of a rollercoaster – all good still, but I think it’s beginning to sink in with my father that this is going to be a long journey. My mother got then news today that she may be discharged tomorrow – she has a meeting with a physical therapist in the morning, so the final word will come after that. We are coming prepared with a dress from Burkina so she can be rolled out in style, if need be. Upon hearing this news my father pouted a bit and said “that’s not fair, I want to go with her…” If only.
She is doing really well today – her face is a lovely peach and she used the private toilet for the first time, although it’s not so private, I suppose, when you have two nurses and your daughter watching.
She had some lovely food today; fruit plate again, hummus, tabouleh, nice chocolates from Doug & Sallie Craig Huber (which we nibbled on all day). A bountiful cornucopia of fruit and cheese and other goodies arrived from Phil & Bobby, which mad my father’s cat food meal look sooo vomitous. I am thinking about bringing a blender in – he’s on a puree diet, but one can puree just about anything with the proper blender. A cheese/sausage/apple/pear/popcorn smoothie might actually be pretty good, no? Tessa and Steve spent a lot of time with him today and lovingly fed him orange mush, and fish mush that looked like it had soap bubbles in it. Oh – and the bottle of “No-Rinse” reappeared in my father’s room this morning, and the PCA washed his hair with it (that’s my job, lady…). I imagine it much like one of those Mormon commercials – “I’m sorry, Sylvia, I took your “No-Rinse,” I’m really sorry…
Dad listened to a bit of Harry Potter while I paid some bills and had a very, very nice talk with a woman from T-Mobile, who, upon hearing the news, credited my cell phone with 200 free minutes to accommodate all the extra calls this month. My mother found this very comforting/touching (as did I, it was a warm gesture). I actually think it was the first time I had seen her shed a tear since this whole ordeal happened…She said it was really nice to know that there were good people even in really, really big conglomerate companies, good to know that good people were empowered to do good things.
My mum’s machinery arrived this afternoon – a wheelchair and a walker with an arm rest thing – I am going to suggest that we spray-paint it fluorescent orange so she doesn’t get lost at night when she escapes from the cage we are going to keep her in. It should be very interesting having the run of the house with her out of commission…We’re going to have a good time!
She’s not too much of a movie person, but there may be some times that Jim, Steve, Tess (and Joe Sterling) and I may want to go hit the town, in which case, it would be good to be able to cuff her down and plop a movie in on repeat…I jest, I jest. But if you do have any movie suggestions that don’t involve plane crashes or hospitals or axe wielding maniacs, let us know. I think I will be taking full advantage of my Netflix account in the nest couple of months.