Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. Mattie was in the outpatient clinic that day with his friend, Maya. Mattie and Maya were good buddies and they did many creative projects together over the course of a year. That day, they created a performance stage within a cardboard box. Then they performed a whole show for us and others in the clinic. The theme of the show was space aliens!
Quote of the day: I am seeking, I am not lost. I am forgetful, I am not gone. ~ Koenig Coste
My dad's memory care center has had a surge in COVID. Some families have decided to pull their loved ones from the Center this week. I can understand decisions made either way. I elected to send my dad in on Monday and Wednesday. He gets tested daily and was required to wear a mask this week. Thankfully he is fine. Today I learned that the Center is closing down tomorrow to do a deep clean of the facility. They will reopen on Tuesday, with testing daily again next week. Honestly if it isn't one thing, it is another to worry about.
Since the Center is not allowing in visitors or outside contractors this week, my dad's physical therapist came to the house today. I have been communicating with him through text messaging for weeks now. It was lovely to meet him in person and to go over my dad's exercises with him personally. He is an absolutely charming and professional person and I wish every therapist was this easy to work with. He gets along with my dad and the funny part is the therapist tells me that my dad is very compliant at the Center. However, at home, he can see that my dad pushes back and is more stubborn about getting up and doing his exercises. I felt vindicated to hear this, because getting my dad to do anything is like pulling teeth. If he had his way, he would sit in his recliner and sleep the day away. He only wants to move for meals and bathroom breaks. It truly is pitiful, or it is from my perspective. From my lens he has no joy in living. Of course this is my lens, not his. He is a far more sedentary person than me and therefore, whenever judging his quality of life, I have to look at it through his eyes. But trying to stimulate and engage him is close to impossible! Which is why going to the memory center is crucial. Sleeping the day away is not good both physically and mentally.
Sunny went back to the oncology center today for follow up blood work and ultrasounds. I received a surprising call mid-afternoon letting us know that Sunny IS responding to treatment. The tumors in the adrenals, spleen, and bladder are slightly smaller. Which implies that we are dealing with cancer and I am glad I made the decision to start oral chemotherapy. Given that getting tissue samples from Sunny would compromise his life, we truly did not know if we were dealing with cancer. So I had to gamble between giving NO treatment or to try treatment. Given our experiences with cancer, we know the definite outcome of NO treatment (assuming Sunny had cancer). Each of the tumors has shrunk and the oncologist sounded very pleased with the progress in two weeks. Way to go Sunny!
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