food and liquid issues still...
i dont know where his strength is coming from.... i have no idea.... but Dan got up and showered and micromanaged shaving ... shaving can take at least a half hour to forty five mins to complete .. dan is that picky and i swear he grows hair as i shave it....he is wanting to use a shower seat though... so it is a about a 2 hour affair every other day to shower and shave, lotion and groom and then there are the rituals .. dan has to clean the bathroom counter and wash the mirror everytime and everywhere we go... as i blogged in the past we have left some very clean public bathrooms.... in our ritual wake... even in NY ... where i lost a shoe , i was so busy with dan i lost one of the shoes i had just purchased from a shopping bag... dont have any idea how, but it was gone later when i looked for it and the bathroom was the only stopping place.... one never knows as a female in a mens bathroom what is gonna be encountered... mostly just a odd look, sometimes a helping hand, and one time a commendation.. a guy had been severley hurt for sometime and his wife had to help him in and out of the mens room and so as i was helping dan one time a guy said.. that is the most beautiful thing you are doing and then told me for a year his wife had done the same when he was injured... this from a burley tatoo'ed guy who was maybe 30 yrs old.... although once i had taken dan into the bathroom and left him there ( it can be awhile sometimes) for a few moments as i had left my purse behind... and returned to the bathroom.. i always announce myself and some guy was like hold it hold it... so i stepped back out and waited till he came out .. he went directly to a waiter and "reported me" ... the waiter told me about it later.... the waiter said i just told him you were co assisting your husband and it was like the dude still didnt get it... this was at a local resturant that when i can get dan to go , dan prefers.. and they treat us pretty good... many times dan just walks in and sits at a table although there is a long line of people waiting their turn... but i have slowly been trying to resocialize himself .. and found if we sit at the bar we actually get better service and the stools and leg space that once i can get dan hoisted into the stool is better than the booths... ......... but right now dan is still not eating hardly anything, but of course it is the liquids that is concerning me... maybe at most he is getting 8 ounces a day... but today he did eat 2 bites of french toast and one bite of ham........ and in the evening he ate like 3 tblsp of hashbrowns and one bite of ham..... i wish i knew what is going on in his head.... i/we have talked , bribed, conjoled, yelled, begged nothing .. but he is very cognizant again where his strength is coming from i have no idea.... today he was very involved in talking in numbers and looking at maps on the ipad with bethanys boyfriend ( now he was one patient kid) 3 hours this went on in aphasia talk.. but the kid just kept working with dan.... one time dan was holding a pen as he would occasionally write a number down, and he started to write on the wall... he noticed and said oh SH.T and tried to rub it off.... many times dan speaks in numbers --wish i could break the code--- and he will use his finger on the wall next to him in the chair to write in the "air" ... and even when he makes a mistake ( in his own mind) he will rub it out like the number he wrote in the air is real... so he rubs out the number and starts over.. kinda like a math teacher... the number talk shouldnt suprise me... dan in his job as shipping manager knew all the invoice numbers and many times co workers would call him and ask for a number because he was faster than a computer at the recall of the number... LOL and phone numbers he used to know and remember everyones.. it was almost photographic in memory for him..... i cant keep numbers straight to save my soul.... he often said if had been allowed to go to college he would have went to be a math teacher... but a hard working son is a commodity on a farm, so his parents convinced him not to go... but he loved working with animals, picked up on their mannerisims fast and just had a way with them.. and he loved physical hard work.... even today, when he is of "right mind" he loves it when the PT puts him through the wringer and pushes him... dan will come out exhausted ,shake the PT's hand and say thank you very much... but right now he is not in that mind set..... i swear it feels like i have several husbands, some i like some i don't ,, but I LOVE all of them... he feels so close and yet so far away... but once in awhile you get that connection a memory you both recall or something you both notice at the same time and even with out words we connect... usually just brief, but enough to know my husband is in there... the loss of the ability to communicate is so very difficult... and frustrating. i wish i knew what 202- dot- 313 means... or seven eight six -point- three two four means ... sometimes it means there is a door open ( he cant stand a door ajar, it has to be open all the way or closed) or he wants a coke... ( although latley he definatley isent asking for a coke) .... and promises , he makes them and breaks them from one minuet to the next and he really sometimes forgets he just made and shook on a "deal"... today he did ask me why i limp when i get up.. i limp for about six or seven steps before i walk out that fluid behind my knee pain... one of those things... just gotta live with.... just some more theraputic midnight blogging ..... LOL or CRY OUT LOUD ( COL) but i guess i just (BOSN) blog on stroke net.....
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