He just amazes me

Sometimes the man just amazes me. When I gave him his pain medication at 5:45 a.m. today, he opened his eyes and smiled at me. Throughout the morning and afternoon he opened his eyes (with their morphine glaze, as I call it), seemed to try to focus, responded to health aide Nicole when she arrived, watched her as she bathed him and changed the bed linens (with him in the bed--boy, she's good). When I got home from church announcing "I'm home you lucky person," he gave me a big smile. He snoozed now and again, but I described his occasional seeming alertness between 6 a.m and 1 p.m. as being 5 times the amount of activity that we saw in Saturday's 24-hour period. He opened his eyes and gave 2 big smiles when he saw his brother Bob, and he seemed to acknowledge other visitors as well. He even answered hospice nurse Amy with an audible "yes" along with nodding his head. Several times today he gave slight nods of yes or no to me. It even looked like he was interested in a few of the golf shots on TV. We were told before that this process was a series of ups and downs on a downhill road, so today must have been one of those ups after yesterday's down. What capped the day was this evening as I tucked my index finger into a wet washcloth to bathe his mouth and he bit me--hard enough to leave teeth marks and it hurt! I yelped, and he opened his eyes wide then gave me a huge smile.

Once most of the visitors left, he was obviously exhausted, but sleep didn't come easily. I had questioned nurse Amy about a cough he developed about 2 p.m. She still doesn't hear any fluid in his lungs so she really didn't have a satisfactory explanation for the cough. I guess he just doesn't have the strength to cough out the phlegm in his throat, assuming that's what it is.

Today's parade of visitors--besides brother Bob and nephew Bobby, daughters, son, and a sprinkling of grandkids--included Frank Barone, an old friend and neighbor from his years living in Upper Arlington when his kids were growing up; our next-door neighbors Bill and Ann Morgan; and our former across-the-street neighbor John Wade. So once again it was a busy day. Sherry and Becky are splitting the night patrol tonight with me stepping in at the appropriate hour to administer the Roxanol. My alarm clock has never before gotten such a workout in a single night.