Update On Fred

I know Fred is getting better because:

• he is no longer feeling the need to use oxygen. {Note to self: Ask visiting nurse to ask doctor can we get rid of it}
• he is walking around the apartment without the walker. He is still uncertain on his feet and feels the need to walk hunched over and holding on to things, but the walker is parked.
• he is {by his choice} getting up and getting his own food and snacks from the kitchen.
• he has taken back responsibility for his own medication and no longer requires me to check after him
• he is wondering when he will get a call from the physical therapy people.
• he said last night that he knows when he feels “blue”, it is up to him to find a distraction. {This really pleases me because he was inclined to wallow in the blues}
• he is back to playing Bookworm DeLuxe again. I suggested he might want to start a game under another name until his concentration came back. He did this, but last night he went back to the game he was playing before all this happened and he reached his goal of getting seven million! Of course, it all burned up {end of game if you are not a Bookworm addict} right after that, but he did reach his goal.
• he is feeling the need to nap during the day a lot less. He still wakes at night but then he has always done a little of this.
• he is wearing slippers around the house instead of socks. This means the swelling in his feet has gone down sufficiently that he can get his slippers on again.
• he is complaining about the Foley catheter and thinking about the steps involved in getting it off.

I am looking forward to :

• him having regular physical therapy
• seeing him trying the stairs
• seeing him succeeding in walking down stairs and up again
• seeing him go back to shopping again. {When we talked about this, he said he wants me to go with him the first couple of times. I have no problem with this.}
• him being able to wear shoes again. {The shoes the hospital lost contained his arch-support inner soles and somehow we have to get him another pair. This means I have to drive out to the place where he got the first ones. They are not custom orthotics.} I think that when he wears shoes rather than slippers, he will feel safer on his feet and not shuffle and hunch over so much.
• him getting the Foley off. I am worrying about him having to use it for the rest of his life. It is silly of me, I know, because he looks after it himself and it adds no more work to my life, but I see it as an obstacle to overcome. A person with a Foley is a person who has a handicap, albeit a minor one, and he has the already big task of dealing with diabetes.
• him being allowed to {and being able to–two different things -} drive again.
• driving down to Lake Champlain with him to watch the sun set behind the Adirondaks. {This is a date we have made for the spring.}

Until later…