March 20 & 21

Day 36 & 37
Tuesday marked the fifth week since Glenn got sick, and we are slowly finding the way to cope with what is going on. Most days in the hospital are informative and full of concern and hope and frustration and fear. It wears you down, and lifts you up. Jackie was just commenting that some days are worse that others as far as being bothered by what has happened to Glenn. Then the next day you are back on top of it, and ready to take on whatever comes.
Glenn hasn't been able to clear whatever is keeping his lungs congested. When he does, the tube will come out. He is strong enough to have it removed, but they are still having to suction, and it is better to go through the tube rather than down his throat. He is brighter, and doing more in therapy all the time. I guess Wascana said that he isn't quite ready to move there yet, but they are watching and ready when he is.
He is improving on communicating skills. We had a letter board and a batch of pictures to help him make his needs known to us. We figured that he wanted to be dressed, and today he told me ( by picture) that he wanted to go for a walk around the unit. After, he had a sleep, and we worked a bit on the letter board. He is able to spell out words, but has a bit of a time controlling his hand to point to the right letter. Even so, he was better at it today than yesterday, so the improvement is marked.
The OT's made a new splint for his right hand to try to keep it stretched and more loose. We are supposed to change it every two hours and his hand did seem more relaxed. He gets batches of food, so most of the time the only thing holding him down is the humidifier. Its nice to not have to worry about IV's and tubes. He was dressed today when I got there and that was good to see also. I'll have to do laundry for him now. He can push his glasses back up his nose, and use a cloth to wipe his mouth. All these things seem small, but really right now they are huge. Colin and Jackie can make him laugh, and he really can watch TV. I know now that he is probably reading, because he can spell. The computer keyboard is a little tough for him to use right now, but we will keep trying. Yesterday when he was concentrating on getting me to understand what he was spelling, his right hand was moving in small wrist circles. That is the first time I've seen that kind of movement in his right hand. The doctor came in with an intern tonight and said that Glenn is improving slowly but surely and said it is a matter of time until he can go to Wascana and continue to recover there. I think he likes Jackie and always says hello to her and actually noticed that her hair was different. Jackie wasn't too thrilled, but I said I thought he wasn't hitting on her, he just liked to see a daughter so devoted to her Dad.
Chris is sick with a pretty bad cold, so he hasn't been up to see Glenn for a couple of days. Colin was there but I missed him today. I went and helped the sewing ladies eat lunch and have coffee (finally), so I got to the hospital at 3:00. Glenn was in the therapy room, they had him pretty busy today. When he went to bed, he went to sleep and didn't even wake up when Jackie got there. We went for supper and went back to visit, but he was still zonked. Jackie and I talked until quarter to 8, then decided to go home and let him sleep.
It's getting to be time for bed, so I'll sign off and say it's a new day tomorrow, we'll see what it brings.
Louise