Can You Hear Me Now?

Ahhh yesterday was a wonderful day! I got to stay in bed a little later because there are too many people for the nurses to get up and dressed by 8:30 on my side, and I said I didn’t care if I missed breakfast since I was going out with my folks soon. The nurse said she’d be back later to help me dress, but while everyone was off in the dining room and I was on my own clock, I slowly got myself up, washed and dressed by about 9:00. I wheeled myself downstairs to get a good coffee fr0m the machine, and then came back up to the dining room to say “hi” to Blanche and Clive. Our nurse saw me and gasped “who got you up??” I said “I don’t need YOU! I don’t need anybody!” hehe

My parents picked me up at 10:00 a.m. and we packed up some stuff to go home that I won’t need my last few days here. Then we headed to the chiropractor and he worked on my shoulders, arms and wrist a little bit. Bob bought me a muffin and coffee because I missed breakfast. Then we were home to my hot apartment. This is the first time I have been back that I wasn’t wearing a cast or splint on my wrist. As soon as I sat down, Pita jumped up on my lap, wrapped all four of her legs around my left forearm, and started licking my wrist. I looked at my mom in amazement. She just would not let go of that arm/hand and was licking and nibbling at it like crazy. It was adorable. Cats are so intuitive. I just kept telling them, “purr on my wrist! Purr on my wrist!”

I got my shower and decided I will definitely need Home Care for awhile to help with that. At least helping me get out of the shower, I can’t stand up from my shower bench alone. Melanie (from my client Troy’s office) dropped off some work which I added to the growimg pile of things I need to do when I get home!

To escape the heat and have a nice dinner, we headed for the air conditioned Olive Garden around 4:00 (early enough to miss the line-ups!) We took our time and ate and drank and ate and ate and, I do believe, ate some more. It was soooo good and I came back here at 7:00 ready to burst! No evening cookies for me.

So, I learned I am “banned from sitting around the desk” LOL Oh my GOD. The reason is that I seem to know too much about the goings on of other patients and I hear too much sitting there. That cracks me up! I figure some staff must have found my blog or something. If they think it is because I hang around the desk, they are so wrong! I yak with staff at the desk because I like them. We talk about men and relationships, mostly. Work. Life. Whatever. Everything I hear about patients I hear because I have good hearing! Whether I am in my room, in the lounge, in the dining room… my ears are sharper than most people in this place, and ALL the staff talk. A lot. Either to each other, or yes, to me sometimes. Not to mention how the other patients talk about what they have heard staff say about other staff and patients lol And if I write about it in here, so what?? I haven’t talked about half of what I have heard. I have never mentioned the name of the place I am staying at, most of the names are aliases or “the nurse”, and stats show me 95% of the people who read this don’t know me outside of this blog and probably couldn’t even point out Calgary on a map. I am not going to apologize for having good hearing, being someone others vent to and is easy to talk to, or writing about my thoughts and memories from here! I’m not hurting anybody and if I am, they can talk to me directly.

Last night I told Karen (who was working, yaaaay, but I was too tired to hang out with her, boooo) to make sure the morning staff knew that I want a lazy Sunday. I’d had two days being out and about, and I need a day to be lazy. So no one bothered me in the morning and I stayed in bed until about 10:30. Then I got dressed, got a coffee, and then it was almost time for lunch. Which was a waffle with peaches and whipped cream and some bacon, so close enough to breakfast for me! Tonight’s supper is my favourite, turkey and mashed potatoes, so I’m going to go lay down and daydream about that.

Random Notes ~

• When Elaine goes home on Tuesday, she is on a 48 hour pass to start with, so that means her bed will be held, and that means I will have a private room my last couple nights here!
• Bob is picking me up Thursday morning, so that is when I go home!!!
• The room next door has a big old man who sort of howls and wails all the time… either he is in pain or it is just his way of getting stuff out. Elaine said “my God, he sounds like a chicken trying to lay a square egg!” LOL
• I had a dream that I asked for a straw (as I often do when a cup is heavy) and was told there are no more. Anywhere. In the world.
• Clive doesn’t eat any fowl, including soups made with a chicken broth base. When I asked him why, he mumbled something about London and the War and bombings and slaughtering geese and chickens and that is all they had to eat. So at meal time when they place three desserts at the table, one for each of us, I usually get to mine first… if it is cake Clive will ask me what kind it is, and I answer “chicken cake”, hoping he will give me his. It hasn’t worked yet.
• I’m still hearing lots of positive long marriage stories from staff and patients
• Jerry (the man I mentioned in this entry) went missing yesterday. He just left, and hasn’t been since since. I heard him paged, followed by the code yellow (missing patient!) and he’s just gone. He was homeless and suffered from dementia before, so that’s probably where he is again… off getting drunk somewhere, I’m sure.
• Karen works again tonight. I am going to try to have the energy to hang out with her for awhile. And make sure the conversation sticks to subjects that are okay for us to talk about… like my bowel movements.