Update on Grace, Monday, Aug 16

Monday. Latest update 9:30 PM.

1:45 PM - I've been to see Grace twice this morning, and both times SHE WAS EATING!

Cheering and more cheering and thank You Lord! This is the first time she's been able to eat anything since her accident on August 4.

My first visit was about 10AM this morning. When I arrived, the occupational therapist was there, and Grace was brushing her teeth. Wonderful! That's also the first time she's been able to do that since the accident, and I just know she was delighted to be able to do that.

She also had on her tray some graham crackers, some juice, some water, and some Ensure. I could see she had eaten some of the crackers and drunk some of the juice.

When I walked in, she recognized me right away and said, "Hi, David."

I greeted her and enthused over her being able to eat and to brush her teeth. She seemed a bit subdued about it all, as if it were no big deal.

I suppose, to her, it really was no big deal, because I think she doesn't realize how long she's been asleep. It might be that the day of her accident and today are connected back to back in her mind with no gap between. That would explain why she asked, when she woke, "When's the operation?"

During that first visit this morning, I told her that I had taken a lot of pictures during Shelley's baby shower party yesterday, and that this morning I had gotten them off my camera and onto my computer, and from there I was able to upload them to Walgreen's, and I had ordered prints of them. I told her I SHOULD be able to bring them back with me when I returned around lunchtime, and she smiled delightedly at that.

It's obvious that the anesthesia drugs still have hold of at least part of her mind, because when the occupational therapist said, "Miss Grace, I'm going to give you a washcloth so you can wash your face now. Do you want me to wet it with warm water or cool water?" Grace looked blank, then she turned up her hand and said, "It doesn't matter." I told the OT to get warm water. I'm not sure Grace is quite ready yet to process questions like this.

Then, just as I was leaving, she said, "David, I haven't seen Snick yet. Where is he?"

Jan and I talked about how to handle that quite a bit last night and this morning, so I had some answers ready. I said, "You're still a little groggy from the anesthesia. Let's talk about that later. I need to go get Jan for lunch now."

She accepted that, but I could see she wasn't happy about it.

So I left then, and drove to Canton to pick up Jan. We came back to Walgreen's, and while Jan ran into Wendy's to get us some chicken nuggets for lunch, I dashed across the street to Walgreen's and got the pictures, which (heaving a sigh of relief) were ready on time, and I got back to Wendy's just as Jan came out with our fast food excuse for nourishment. We nibbled the chicken on the way to the hospital while Jan looked through the pictures, then went in to visit Grace at about 11:40 AM.

When we got to her room, Grace had a full tray of food in front of her! Rice and some kind of generic meat in gravy, a yeast roll in a waxed paper sleeve, a paper cup of water, another of what could have been coffee or maybe chocolate milk, and another of iced tea. And the bright spot on the lunch tray - a piece of chocolate meringue pie!

When Jan and I arrived in the room, Grace was glad to see us, but not overly excited. We chattered at her for a few minutes as she continued to eat a couple more bites. But when I pulled out the photos to show her, the lunch was instantly forgotten.

I told her she could keep on eating and I'd just show her the pictures, but she seemed not to hear that. She just wanted to see the pictures.

So I showed them to her, one at a time. She held one of them, and moved it to the distance where she could see it best. I noted that distance, and when I showed her the rest of the pictures, I tried to keep them at that distance so they would be clearest for her.

I told Grace I had taken 202 pictures at the party, but this morning I deleted all the duplicates and near duplicates, and any that were blurry or not so good, but we still had one hundred and twelve pictures to see, and she was very pleased with that.

So we went through them all, some of them more quickly than others. (By the way, if you'd like to see the pictures, go to the updates table of contents page (here), scroll all the way down to the bottom, and click on the link that says "Shower Photos." That will take you to the Walgreen's site, where you can see the pictures. Please don't feel obligated to go look. I'm sure they'll be of interest only to people who know Shelley well. I'll leave that link on the table of contents page, so you can easily find it later if you want to.)

Grace did enjoy seeing many of the pictures, and we left them there beside the flowers Shelley brought her from the shower yesterday.

We also heard that Bill had been there also this morning, and was coming back, but now he had gone out to give his dog a romp.

Grace always was a sharp cookie, and even now, still struggling out from under the effects of the anesthesia drugs, she remembered what I'd said earlier, and wasn't going to be put off.

She said, "You told me earlier you'd tell me where Snick is."

Sigh.

So I told her, "You know you're living in Mississippi now." She didn't react. I said, "You're living here in Mississippi with Jan and me.

She processed this for a moment, but it didn't connect, because she said, "So Snick is living with you now?"

I answered, "No, you are. You've been living with us here in Mississippi for seven years now."

It seems this was too much for her to process just yet. She said, as though to herself, "Well, I guess Snick will come see me when he's ready to."

Yes, it was distressing.

I have some friends in my band who are doctors, so maybe I'll ask them about this tonight during a break in rehearsal.

Just a few minutes after that, Jan and I left, as I had to take her back to her office for a meeting.

I'll go visit Grace once more this afternoon, and I'm sure Jan will go see her again this evening while I'm at rehearsal.

I'll report more after those visits.

Meantime, obviously, Grace still needs your prayers, your caring, and your concern.

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2:25 PM - I've just GOT to tell you about a phone call I just received. Let me reconstruct it the best I can.

It would be so easy to let myself ask questions like "Where do they FIND these people?" But I'm sure she has a huge stack of work she's plowing through, just trying to get through it the best she can, probably at least halfway on autopilot.

I'm thankful that they are following up, and in spite of their huge workload (or whatever other constraints they're working under) that they are there for people like Grace, who need them.

More later.

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9:30 PM - Tonight, Jan and Bill and Chad visited Grace while I was at Band Rehearsal.

Jan reports that Grace was awake and alert, and she had supper, but she didn't eat very much because she just wasn't hungry. With more than a week of not eating anything, that's quite understandable. She'll get her appetite back soon, no question.

She told us the physical therapist had come by and had her do arm and leg exercises with one of those "stretch band things."

There was some talk about local people and things, such as Grace's bird feeders and who had been visiting them, and Bill cracked a lot of jokes and got her to smile quite a bit.

Jan helped her find NCIS on the TV, and she got involved with that, then it was time to leave.

As some of you know, I have quite a few good friends in my band who are doctors. I talked to some of them tonight about Grace's situation. One of them said that anesthesia for the elderly is usually not a good experience, and another said that older people's liver and kidneys don't work nearly as well as they did when younger, and those are the organs that metabolize the chemicals to get them out of your system, so it takes older people a lot longer to overcome the effects of anesthesia. There was general agreement that the older one gets, the less certain the outcome of any operation under anesthesia becomes. They said a few other things, but they were all just possibilities and speculation, so I won't go into them here.

The only certain thing at this point is that continued prayer will help.

By the way, band rehearsal went very well, and we're ready for our concert this Saturday night. If any of you are in town this Saturday, you're welcome to come to the concert. I'll get you in for free!

I'm headed for bed soon. I'll report more after I visit Grace tomorrow.

'Nite, now.

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