Brenda, Dreams, Beans and Caddy Shack

Walt's cousin Brenda came up last week from Florida to visit. She posed with Tip (seated) and Walt (reclined). If Brenda lived up here then Walt would be pretty spoiled and the St. Mary's staff would be pretty pissed.

I had a dream Friday night that Walt had recovered. I woke up relieved and hopeful. When I visited the hospital on Saturday I found Walt in the dining room intently going after everything on his lunch tray, but smeared with the baked beans that he was eating without utensils. I cleaned him up and took him back to his room. He wasn't talking or responding much even though he seemed alert. I put a rolly tray in front of him, and put the DVD player in front of that so that we could watch Caddyshack and split an apple turnover that I brought. He ate his half of the turnover then grabbed two tubes of ointment that were also on the rolly tray and tried to stick them in his mouth. I took them away and put them at a safe distance. I turned on the movie but he wasn't really interested. Patty called about that time and gave me an update on Walt's week. I mentioned to her that I had removed his hand brace when I was cleaning him up from lunch. At the mention of the brace Walt stuck out his hand and I gave it to him. I thought that was a good sign and told Pat, thinking that he wanted to put it back on. Pat asked me to gently exercise his right arm so I hung up with her and went to work with Walt. He took the brace and held it to his ear like a phone. I don't know if he thought the brace was a phone, or he was trying to tell me to give him the phone, or if he had wanted the phone when I was talking with Pat. I am completely useless trying to interpret his signals. Anyway, he seemed to think the brace was a phone and he seemed to get more and more uncomfortable when I took the brace to put on his right hand--he was sweating like crazy by that time. The brace went on fairly easily and he didn't wince or otherwise indicate that it hurt, but I don't know.
The phone rang again and this time it was Brenda. I gave Walt the phone and she talked to him for awhile. I couldn't understand his words but he was making an attempt. We lost the connection a few times so I held the phone for him and we stayed connected. When I checked with Brenda to ask if she was finished talking with Walt she had a request. Brenda said that she wasn't going to ask me to kiss Walt for her, but she asked me if I would blow him kisses and say they were from her. I told her "no way". His recovery is tough enough as it is--there's no sense driving him over the edge.

I continued to play the Caddyshack video--Rodney Dangerfield had just ripped a fart at the dinner table and said, "Hey, did somebody step on a duck?." Walt seemed to get more and more tired which I attributed to the Kenny Loggins music in the video. Just then, Walt had more visitors--Anna and David stopped by. David had driven up from Florida to visit. We chatted for awhile. Walt was pretty pale by then--David dried the sweat from Walt's face which seemed to relieve him a bit. Then David called the nurse to give Walter a change and we left the room. I showed David where the air hockey machine is if he happens to visit when it's available. The staff cleaned Walt up and put him in bed where he rested much more comfortably. I noticed that Walt's right hand wasn't clenched at all while he slept. I could easily straighten it out so that his hand was flat on his chest. I had been there a couple of hours by that time so I said goodbye while Anna and David stayed. Just as I got to the elevators I saw Lindsay who was coming up for a longer visit (she brought home work).

It was easier to visit when Walt was making daily progress back in June. I would rather help him work out than clean beans off his face. But in fact, one is just as important as the other. It's what he needs at the moment. I look forward to the day when that dream I had comes true.