In the "Can't We Talk" book she deals with her parents' aging. Currently I can see a little bit of myself in her mother's total denial of her husband's downward trend.
My Dave has hit a rough patch, health wise. This has included a brain bleed, brain surgery and other gory stuff. After a second fall, he's now at the same rehab hospital he was in a couple of weeks ago.
Regular hospitals are where we go to lie still, maybe in a coma, etc. and have round the clock care to save our lives. Really good rehab hospitals are where we go to get back to where we were before we got sick or had the accident in the first place. It's a whole different program and it's very hard work. If you're in your 70s or older it's really, really hard to get back to where you were before. You have to be all in with the program.
Dave's not kicking and screaming. He is all in, but he is out of his comfort zone. He had five hours of rehab today, physical, occupational and cognitive . And I left him this evening playing cribbage with his friend. This is part of his therapy. He actually aced his cognitive test but they still want his brain to be stimulated every day. (By the way, this standard cognitive test is terrifying to me. Not sure I could pass it at this point.)
Even though he just wants to sleep, Dave did well with everything except he kinda flunked his putting on his tube socks part of occupational therapy so ( in case you think I'm be too hard on him) I bought him some shorter socks at the grocery store before coming home tonight.
In the morning I'm taking in two Architectural Record magazines. Also nagging him about planning our next trip. And, yes, even with everything that's happened in the last month, this is still my best time.
P.S. The support we've had from family and friends is overwhelming. That's another blog posting.
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