That is certainly deserving of [consideration]

Wed Oct 20 morning with Barbara is more frustrating than the Tuesday afternoon. She sits in a wheel chair, elegantly dressed, legs crossed in a manner of a relaxed lady, with Barbara hair, face and expressions, just as you know her. But while Tue afternoon conversation was great, this is much more frustrating. Tuesday I talked about matters that she cares about (apartment, Engelbert, Ed) and she let me know by her expressions that she understood everything I said.

Today the format is different - I am quizzing her on how she feels. No answer comes as a complete sentence; three introductory words [a subject, a verb, an article, ...] followed by a word like 'raise' or 'breaks,' far away from the one she wants to puts together, or no recognizable word at all. She can read large text, but she cannot (or will not?) write text herself. I tried writing down my guesses of words she intended to say, and having her nod yes or no, but that is probably foolish, as she understands what we say. She said 'The soups here are excellent' but when I showed her the sentence written down she disagreed vigorously, so I had to edit it to 'The soups here are NOT excellent.' I completed only one sentence correctly: 'That is certainly deserving of [...]' and when I wrote [consideration] she accepted it. While cute and very Barbara-like that she would formulate an answer to a yes/no question this way, it did not get us any closer to the truth of the situation. Maybe a trained neurologist could figure it out, but I failed over and over.

This is what I understood (or perhaps misunderstood): She has no headaches. She can swallow. Her mouth is dry, but not too bad. She does not dream. She feels the same on Wednesday as she did on Sunday, neither worse nor better (to us it looks like she is doing better today than three days ago). She understands everything. When Ed reads to her a message that Pete Wilson from Vanguard called, she makes an annoyed face - she knows it is the insurance man, calling about the Falmouth house.

Why does she not drink water? This one really worries Ed - in 3-4 hours I have seen her drink maybe six drops of fluid through a straw. Did not get an answer on that. The real questions, the elephant in the room questions I did not ask: does she understand her ailment? does she want to take active part in treatment decisions? does she want to go home? Only Ed and Mimi can ask...

Predrag