A strange syndrome

"I have a strange syndrome it causes me to generate new limb they seem real but aren't there"- Steve, while I was rubbing his arms.

The above quote was spelled to me letter by letter (with some guessing and word completion on my part) by Dad when we visited last week. He was very chatty this visit. I love that he used the word "syndrome" because it shows that he understands the minor differentiation that what he has is indeed a syndrome and not a disease.

I was pleasantly surprised by the changes in Dad this last visit. His eyes looked SOOO much better and he was more conversational and less intense. He did a little eye rolling but it was mostly when he caught a glimpse of The Jerry Springer show that had been left on in his room. Ha!

I was able to observe Dad sitting at the bedside on 2 separate days- one time he accomplished 27 minutes- his most to date! (while waiting for Tim to arrive) and the next time 20 minutes. Each time he was able to SPEAK while upright and then would continue speaking for a bit following. It was great to be able to surprise Tim with a spoken "Hi Tim!" when he entered the room. The video we made where he said "Hi Everybody!" was following one of these sessions. He also greeted each of the kids by name.

Evy was absolutely enamored with Poppa. She saw me feeding him ice and then stated that she wanted to do it. She fed him ice chip after ice chip, each time asking, "Is that good? Do you want more?" He would smile at her and stick out his tongue and she would confidently declare, "He likes it!" One time she reached over and poked him and I said "Be careful! You don't want to wake the sleeping bear!" And Poppa immediately made his eyes fly open and glared at Evy teasingly. She loved this game! He did too...until I did it once and he gave me a look like "Not funny. Stop poking me!" ;)

When Becky visited she noticed him yawning a few times and I had the opportunity to ask the Dr about that. Was it a reflex returning? She said "Yawning is a great mystery, but it sounds promising."

In nursing school they drummed into our heads, "If it's not documented, it's not done," so I welcome the chance to recap the visits with Dad. I feel a strong need to get everything down so that we can keep all the details straight. I especially feel the need to get the story down for Dad's sake. Through questions he asked this visit, it is obvious that he doesn't remember most of the past few months. A blessing to be sure!! I re-reintroduced him to Lisa the RT, and reminded him that she was the one with her hands on his neck for 3 hours the night of his emergency trach surgery, and he indicated that this was again new info to him. Also, he asked Tim early in the visit, "What is GBS?" and "What are GBS meds?" Tim walked him through the entire timeline and everything that had happened over the past 4 months. He showed surprise quite a few times at different parts of the story, especially concerning the ICU stays.

I'm looking forward to Dad's reading this and seeing story after story of God's provision, the kindness of his friends, the ever-patient love of Mom, and just how far he has come.