Here is just a brief report from the front. Despite her
ups and downs and the problems with fatigue, Barbara
continues to reward caretakers and visitors with warm
smiles of greeting and pleasant remarks. Her speech
therapy sessions this week have been the best since
her seizure. However, she does still suffer from
perseverance in tests of cognition, that is, a tendency
to lock onto the previous question rather than to move
on to the next. This problem does not show up in her
conversation.
Yesterday at 1:00, I went off to the dentist to deal with a
tooth that had broken off and Mimi visited with Barbara. In
the late afternoon, Charles T. and Phil Y. joined her and I found
them all there when I got back with my tooth cemented back
on. Mimi then left and Charles and Phil joined us at the dinner
table with Mr. Hsu, a resident of the rehab center. It was
a lively occasion but Barbara ate very little of her dinner as
sometimes happens.
After dinner and a few moments spent back in Barbara's room,
Charles left and Phil and I went to the dining room to wait while Barbara was to be helped into her bed clothes by Carleen, the weekday caretaker. But we were soon followed by Barbara and Carleen on foot. Carleen had Barbara's arm but, otherwise, she
was under her own power. Barbara had decided that she wanted
to sit up with us for a while. I make this short story long because
this was a first. Two firsts in fact. Barbara had never before
wanted to stay up with a visitor and indeed was unable to because
the fatigue always won out. And the second first was that Barbara
had not before walked to the dining room without a wheel chair
available to back her up (though she now performs this feat in
physical therapy).
After Phil left, Barbara was restless when she got in bed and had
the impression that she had not had had her dinner. So I gave her some of the food from the nice snacks Phil had brought. Then
at last she slept, if fitfully. The next morning, she did not feel very well and reported being nauseous. Following a long nap, she began to look better, having slept for three hours. Two neighbors from our
building came by to see Barbara and we all went to lunch
At the physical therapy session at one-thirty she refused to walk.
She reportedly said to the therapist "Everything is over for me."
Ups and downs, ups and downs, day by day.
