Update on Grace, Thursday, Sep 2

Thursday. Latest update 9:00 PM.

4:00 PM - About 9:00 this morning, I got a call from Grace. She said, "David, they tell me they're going to come pick me up in ten to fifteen minutes."

So I told her I'd be right there. I quickly gathered my stuff and headed out to see what was going on.

The latest information I had before this was that they'd move her at noon-30 today. Well, maybe they had a cancellation.

When I got to her room, she was still there, waiting, still in her hospital robe, and nothing was going on. So I put out the clothes we had brought last night for her to travel in today, then began to gather the personal items that were in her room, packing them into the suitcase we had brought.

Fortunately, we also had a red carryall bag that we'd brought when she was in the ICU, because all Grace's things that were in the room wouldn't fit into the suitcase. The biggest things were the books: the large print New King James study bible, the women's devotional bible, and the library book.

Add to that her toiletries, her sweater and robe, and some other miscellany, and the suitcase was full. I had to put the framed photos of great grandchildren and several other items into the carryall, but I got it all packed and set it by the door.

I asked Grace if she'd had a good breakfast, and she said, "I ate it."

Hmm. Deducing that meant she didn't really enjoy it, I asked, "Did you have oatmeal?" Grace usually likes oatmeal.

And she said, "It wasn't very good. They wouldn't give me any salt."

Aha, so THAT's why it wasn't good. I told her, "Oh, right. This is a hospital, and they probably think salt is evil. Does bad things for blood pressure."

As we were waiting, I read Proverbs 2 to Grace, then read the first chapter of the book, "A Dog's Purpose." By the way, that's a really fun book to read - as long as you can get past the mildly sci-fi concept of canine reincarnation. It's told from the point of view of the dog, and anyone who has been around dogs will laugh in delight at the characteristic observations from this viewpoint.

While I was reading, a nurse stopped in to say, "We're just waiting on the doctor. He hasn't called back yet, and we need him to okay the release."

Ah, I guess that explained the delay.

A bit later, another nurse came in and announced, "I'm going to remove your Foley."

To which I said, "And I'm going to wait outside!" Both Grace and the nurse laughed.

So I paced in the hall and sent a few text messages and played a game of Sudoku on my phone, and when I went back in, Grace was fully dressed in her traveling clothes.

We finished reading the chapter, then talked a little bit about the move, and about the new facility, and about this 'n that, and then it was about 11:00 AM and we were still waiting.

I was thinking of going to find someone to ask about this when a nurse came in and said, "The van is running late today. They called and rescheduled the pickup for noon."

Grace said, "David, why don't you go get some lunch?"

I agreed that was a good idea, because it was getting on to lunchtime. We discussed what I could get for lunch, and I was thinking of going to KFC for some of their grilled chicken, and asked Grace if I could bring her anything.

She said, "No, I'm really not feeling that great."

"Awww!" I said. "I hope you don't have tummy pains again."

She said, "No, it's much better than yesterday. But it's still not the best today, and I just don't feel like eating anything right now."

"I'm glad it's better than yesterday," I said. "I wish I could do more. But it IS a beautiful day outside today!" She smiled. "The sun is shining, it's clear and a million out there, and the temperature is in the low 80's. You should have a beautiful ride to the new place."

"It sounds like it," she said.

I said, "Okay, I'll go get some lunch. Here's your cell phone. I've got it set up so all you have to do is press the green button twice and it will call me, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

But her expression said "almost okay," so I demonstrated for her. I told her, "If they come to get you before I get back, call me."

She promised she would.

So I picked up the suitcases and headed for the car.

Have you ever carried a suitcase full of books? Okay, it wasn't FULL of books, but it did have some significant weight to it, and I thought, "Why on earth didn't I bring a suitcase with WHEELS!?"

That was when I decided to go home for lunch. I could easily get a hot dog there, and it's already paid for, and I could put all Grace's stuff from both the suitcase and the carryall into her big red suitcase with wheels.

So that's what I did.

I was home just long enough to do all that before I left again.

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4:40 PM - When I left the house, I tried calling Grace's cell phone to see whether she was still at the hospital or had they already begun to transport her, but there was no answer.

So I headed back to the hospital. I figured if she was gone when I got there, I could double check to make sure we didn't leave anything.

She was gone when I got there.

So I checked the room, which was already being cleaned, to be sure we'd gotten everything, then headed on over to Lakeland Rehab.

When I got to the new place, I found that Grace was in room 117, and headed that way.

Grace was situated in her new bed when I got there, munching some graham crackers and drinking some milk.

One of the first things she said was that she was really warm, and could I please take the bedspread off her feet, so I did that.

While Grace finished her snack, I unpacked all her stuff from the suitcase. She has a single wardrobe, with a TV up on top of it and two drawers down below the hangup space, and a 3-drawer bedside table.

Unfortunately, the bedside table was not bedside.

Well, technically, I guess it was, but it was way back against the wall, a full four feet beyond Grace's reach.

And the room phone is on that table.

I guess that makes the room phone totally unusable for Grace. At least she's got her cell phone.

Grace said, "When I got here, they said they'd get me some water, but they never did."

"Would you like me to get you some?" I asked.

"I could use a drink," she said.

So I started down the hall and intercepted an LPN, who said she'd bring the water, and a few minutes later, she did.

She introduced herself and said she'd be the day nurse for a while.

As I was unpacking Grace's things, I could catch brief glimpses of Grace's new roommate on the other side of the bed-separation curtain, sitting in a wheelchair and reading. I gestured in that direction and quietly said, "I see you do have a roommate."

Grace said, "I think she's deaf."

I thought about that, then realized that meant she might not be bothered if Grace wanted to watch TV.

Not long after, I could see Grace's roommate trying to make her way out of the room in her wheelchair, and having a bit of a problem getting around the furniture. I went over to her and asked if I could help her.

She was a very pleasant looking smaller woman, maybe about Grace's age (but difficult to tell), with snow-white hair.

She smiled up at me from the chair. "I can't find my call button. Do you see my call button?"

I looked and found it under the bed. "This one?"

"Could you please push it for me? I need the nurse."

So I did, then I introduced myself. She said, "I'm Mary Ellen. But most people just call me Mary."

I introduced her to Grace, and vice versa, and in the short (but very pleasant) conversation that ensued, Mary Ellen said, "I'm very hard of hearing."

Which explains why Grace thought she might be deaf, yet she could hear me when I spoke directly to her.

A few minutes later a nurse came in. "Hi, I'm Cassandra," she said. "I'm the admissions nurse. Did someone call?"

I told her that Mary Ellen had called, then Mary Ellen told her she needed to get back in the bed and needed help.

Cassandra helped her with that, then came to talk to Grace and me.

She had some papers for me to sign, and some questions and physical examination for Grace. She noticed the plastic bands on Grace's wrists from the previous hospital, and how they had left a ring of redness on Grace's skin. She cut the bands off and removed some residual adhesive tape and did various medico-type peering and prodding. When she said, "Miss Grace, I need to look at your chest now," I said I'd wait outside.

While I was outside, I heard someone call my name. I turned and got introduced to Carolyn, the business manager. She said she had more papers for me, so we went to her office and took care of that.

When I got back. Grace's door was open again, and Cassandra was in there with another lady who introduced herself as Jennifer, a therapy tech.

I could tell she was a therapist because she was wearing bright red scrubs.

Jennifer and Cassandra and Grace were all looking at some ultrasound photos, and I asked whose baby it was and Cassandra said it was hers. So of course, I had to show them all the ultrasound of Shelley's baby and some photos of Katie.

After they left, I helped Grace get her TV turned on, and we found a marathon of Hawaii Five-Oh episodes, so we tuned that in for her.

Then Scarlet, another admin lady, came in with yet more papers for me to sign. Whew! I hope that was the last of it.

I chatted with Grace a bit more, I made sure she was settled in okay, putting a folded sheet beside her in case she got chilled (Cassandra had turned on the A/C), and told her Jan and I would be back soon, either just before or after dinner.

So far, the people there at Lakeland Rehab all seem very nice, very personable, and very interested in the patients as PEOPLE and not just as "cases." Thank you, Lord!

Grace's roommate also seems like a wonderful lady, and we are hopeful they will strike up a good friendship. Thank you, Lord about that, also.

I know it's been a trying day for Grace, but also a day of new beginnings, moving to the facility that is the next step in her recovery. We are continuing our prayers for Grace's comfort and quick recovery.

More later. Take care all.

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9:00 PM - When Jan got home this afternoon, we let her sit and say "ahhhh" for a few minutes while I played on the piano a bit, then we loaded up and headed for the Nursing Home.

When we arrived, Grace was having dinner, and she was eating with a good appetite. It appeared dinner tonight was some kind of Mexican meat on a tortilla (which Grace normally isn't fond of, but tonight all the meat and most of the tortilla was gone when we arrived), green peas, a couple of canned pear halves, and a piece of yellow cake with what looked like a dusting of powdered sugar in lieu of frosting.

When we arrived, Grace said, "I need to get out of this place."

Jan said, "What do you mean, Mama?"

Grace said, "I need to go, and no one has come to help me."

Ah, so THAT's what she meant. I said, "You need to push the call button. Did you push it?"

She said, "I pushed the button, but no one came."

I said, "Well, let me push it again." And I did. Unfortunately, I didn't think to check the light on the wall outside her room to see if the button had really been pushed.

We stayed and chatted a while, and Grace was looking increasingly uncomfortable, so I finally went out in the hall, and encountered a staffer in white scrubs, who seemed to be dealing out the food trays. I asked her, "Who do I see to get someone help the lady in 117 to the bathroom?"

She said, "Let me see if I can help her," and came into the room. She said to Grace, "Oh, you're eating your dinner now, you need to wait until dinner is done," and she went over to the wall where she flipped something that turned off the call light.

I said, "She's really uncomfortable, I don't think she should wait any more."

So the staffer said, "Okay, let me see if I can get someone to help her."

So we waited.

And waited.

I saw the staffer I'd asked for help going in and out of other rooms down the hall.

I asked Grace, "Have you been waiting a long time? Like more than an hour?"

She said, "Yes, more than an hour."

After another ten minutes, I went to the nurses' station and stood there for a few seconds, until the nurse on duty looked up.

"Can I help you?"

I looked at her for a moment. Then I said, "Is it the policy of this place to have their patients wait for more than an hour to get help going to the bathroom?"

I know. It wasn't a nice thing to say, and immediately I felt bad about it.

The nurse on duty started to say, "Well, during feeding times..." then she thought better of it. "I'll come take care of her now," she said, getting up. "Who is it?"

"The lady in 117," I said. "Mrs. Ogden." Then I apologized. "I'm sorry," I said, "I don't mean to be contentious, but she's really uncomfortable."

I'll confess, I had some rather uncharitable feelings toward the staff during that long wait, when I thought I was seeing a "don't bother me" attitude, turning off the call light then ignoring the reason for the call. But after the desk nurse got involved, I must say, they were very responsive and caring.

While the nurse tended to Grace, Jan and I went outside and walked in the very nice park across the street.

When we got back, Grace was back in bed, and seemed much happier. We had brought more library books, because she'd finished the one she'd been reading, and she looked through what we'd brought and selected what she wanted to read.

Then we talked for a bit about how it would take her a bit of time to get used to the new location, the new people, the new routine.

Then we went over with her again each of the controller units she had - the one for the bed, the one for the TV, the call button for the nurse, and the TV controller. We set her up watching a channel she liked, then we bid her adieu for the evening.

Grace still needs lots of prayer. Several things she said today, particularly tonight, showed she still has some of the effects of the anesthesia-induced confusion. We need to pray that this goes away as soon as possible. She will also be starting a new therapy routine tomorrow, and I'm sure this will also be a challenge for her.

I have posted new visiting information on the table of contents page of this blog, and the emailing and mailing information remains the same.

She has a phone in her room, but it's on the "bedside" table and out of her reach all the time. If you'd like to talk to Grace, send me an email or postal mail with your phone number, and I'll tell Grace she should call you.

So far, it's thumbs-up for the new location, except for that one delay this evening. I'll tell you more about the place as we learn more about it.

Have a good evening, everyone.

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