Monday, January 17, 2022

Monday, January 17, 2022

Tonight's picture was taken in January of 2009. Mattie was in the hallway of the pediatric hospital units and in the process of having a physical therapy session. Mattie's sessions were always lively and never boring. Anna, Mattie's physical therapist, understood early on that she had to engage Mattie in different ways in order for him to comply with therapy. Anna did not disappoint. Typically Mattie had an entourage of people at his sessions, this helped to egg him on and inspire him to get up, move, and in some cases compete with whom ever was attending.

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 66,198,486
• Number of people who died from the virus: 851,226

Last night while sitting in the family room, I thought I heard a snow plow. I told Peter and we both went to the windows. Sure enough it was a plow. That may not sound earth shattering, but for us it was. The first snow storm that dumped 7 inches on us a week or so ago, we did not get the street plowed. It took many days for the snow to melt and the ice to disappear. Which made for treacherous walking of Sunny and driving. 

Peter literally went out to talk to the snow plow driver. Jay was very kind and for a few extra dollars, he even plowed our driveway. A good guy, and Peter even got his cell phone number. All our streets are in great condition today, even the side streets. A total night and day difference from January 3rd's storm!

Peter and my mom got into throwing snow balls. Peter was aiming for our mailbox and apparently hit it numerous times. 

My mom joined Peter and was enjoying the snow. Something she hasn't seen in decades. 

This morning, I had Peter outside shoveling our front walkway because my dad's occupational therapist was supposed to be coming today. However, she did cancel on us because of the weather, but mid-day his physical therapist called and is coming over at 4pm today. I tried to explain to him that late in the day is not the best for my dad. So we shall see how today's session goes. In all reality, once they give me the exercises, the burden falls upon me. Therefore, I truly do not find their visits helpful. In fact, it adds to my day, because I need to be present to observe, participate, and make notes. If I don't, then my dad would have NO MEMORY at all of what he just did. 

My dad's memory loss is intriguing to me. Not only does he have a huge short term memory loss, he also has BIG lapses in long term memory. Such as he has no recollection of Mattie's baptism, Mattie's god parents or where we held the luncheon after the baptism. This is just one of MANY MANY examples. He is a shell of the person he used to be, which is a sad commentary.