Thursday, March 27, 2008

Another day in paradise

My two little grandgirls came to visit me at a little after noon and they are still here. I actually said, you are just going to have to entertain yourselves for a bit, Grandma has a project she is in the middle of and I have to get the first part finished before I can help you with anything. And I stuck to it, and they have been so very good. I am so blessed with such wonderful girls. I got the first piece of the bracelet done. I only took one section apart three times before I realized I was looking at the wrong part of the pattern! Arrgh. Oh well, now I know what I am doing and the middle part is a little shorter than the other side which is identical to the part I just finished. I am going to wait until the girls go back home before I try to work on it again. We are all going to pile into the car and go see my dad. I told my daughter, I can’t go anywhere near him, but at least I can go sit across the room from him and talk to him. I know he will be all excited to see the girls.

Well, put a little break in there, and my daughter, the girls and I went off to see my dad. Along the way we stopped to pick up my tiny, since I was sick, paycheck. As we drove away from work toward the bank, the three-year-old started to cry. We asked her what was wrong and she sobbed, “I hungry.” We said, don’t cry, we will stop and have lunch before we go see grandpa. She sobbed, “I no want nunch, I want food. I hungry.” What a funny girl she is. My daughter asked her what she wanted for lunch, chicken, hamburger, pancakes? She said, “Chickem, hamgurger, pancake.” Tess asked her again, what do you want for lunch and she yelled, “Pancake!!” So it was off to our favorite pancake house. We then had to go to Goodwill to find a clean outfit for her, since by that time she was wet and filthy and nowhere else at the north end of town has children's clothes. I had spilled an entire glass of water on our table, and she had been one of the recipients. We then went to visit my dad. On the way into the rehab center in the parking lot, my oldest grandgirl somehow tripped over her own feet and fell on the pavement. She skinned her left knee, elbow, wrist, and pinky finger. She had a scrape on the front of her left ankle, too, have no idea how she did that one. She was sobbing so hard I think all the residents knew someone had been injured. Several of the nurses and the administrator patched her up and by the time we left she was feeling a lot better. I tried not to breathe on dad too much, but I could tell how happy he was to see us. He is doing a lot better. He really enjoyed our visit even if we could only keep the three-year-old occupied for a about a half hour. She sat on Grandpa’s lap and looked out the window at the birds for a while, and then traded laps between Tess and I. My oldest grandgirl had to snuggle in grandma’s lap for a while to soothe her arm and knee. Then she settled down and was pretty much okay as long as no one touched any of the sore spots. She wasn’t hurt badly, it was just overwhelming with how many spots she had injured. She didn’t even notice the scrape on her ankle until the nurse said she had better put a bandaid on that one, too. Every time she would look at the bandages she would start sobbing all over again. She is so sensitive it is always a struggle to find out how badly she is really injured. She definitely reminds me of me at that age. I had a little chat with a couple of the people who work at the rehab center, one of the dietary workers and the care manegement gal. She said my dad is working really, really hard to build up his strength. He is spending about two hours in therapy every day. She said she asked him what his plan was and he told her he wanted to be strong enough to go back home. She said he was really doing everything he could to make that happen and so were they. I stopped to talk to her because I had asked him what he was doing for therapy and he said, “Oh, just some exercises.” I asked him if he was walking and he had told me no, but when I asked him if they were getting him up with the walker he said, “Oh, yeah, they have me walk from the therapy room to the nurses station and back a couple of times. I think he forgets just how much he is actually doing, but it is nice to know the care planner is keeping an eye on him. She has been there as long as we have ever been there, which was 3-½ years with my mom and 3 years since then.

I am finally feeling a little better and should make it through the weekend at work. I have to be better, I have to drive my cousin to Portland on Tuesday to the doctor at the VA. It ought to be a fun outing after we get the medical crap out of the way. Nick and I have always been more like siblings than cousins, and he is definitely one of my best friends. I just hope I feel better so I can really enjoy the trip.

I am hoping for the weekend to go by quickly, and my healing to continue.

More soon!!

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