Thank you Lord for a good visit before I leave...

I have been sorting and organizing Dad's things in his room the last couple of days. Kind of difficult because for me, this type cleaning is not done until after a death. Mom is having her grand daughter move in the end of this month. My niece will help Mom and keep her company while she works and attends nursing school.

I went to visit my oldest daughter and two grandsons this morning in Beaumont, then back to Covina to pick up Mom and go visit Dad. When we arrived, we had to walk behind the nursing home to the Finance manager's office to deliver some billing. When we arrived in Dad's room, he told us he had seen us walking past his room.

I was so excited he was so much more talkative! Figures, since I called both his psychiatrist and his primary care physician to ask them both to examine Dad. I left messages telling them both how concerned we were about Dad. How he acted "numb" and "like he was in a trance".

I will have to call them both tomorrow and withdraw my request. Maybe Dad was just getting readjusted to the nursing home.

As we were standing, talking with Dad. I noticed Dad's right hand. It had a localized red area that was swollen and sore. Dad could not remember for sure, he thought he banged it on something. I knew it was not there yesterday. We told the nurses and they had already noticed it and given him extra strength Tylenol. They were trying to get in touch of Dad's doctor. They had the radiologist come with the portable x-ray machine and x-ray Dad's hand. Later, the nurse called and said nothing was broken, so doctor prescribed some pain medicine for Dad...if he needs it.

Dad had a skin care treatment before we arrived. They put Dad in shorts so his legs could allow the lotion to soak in. I noticed his feet looked so much better today.

Dad ate every morsel of food on his dinner plate. He had barbecued beef sandwich, carrot and raisin salad, french fries, coffee, milk, and a cookie. Of course he was still hungry, so we gave him two of his 100 calorie snack cookies and then two strawberry ice cream cups.

I told Dad I was driving back to Nevada tomorrow, but we would be back in September. He thanked me for "all my loving care" and gave me a little Papa-doots smile... I feel so much better going back, knowing we had a good visit.

Mom sat and chatted with Dad, holding his "good" hand. I just could not believe the difference from one day to the next. We changed him into some warmer pants and kissed him good night. His lips were still cold from the ice cream cups, so Mom called him "Mr. Cool" (which was the name of the ice cream). Dad smiled at that...

When I talked to the nurse later that night, he told me Dad had gotten up and walked the halls a little and then got back into bed and was sleeping. He took his meds with no problems and is eating well at every meal.

I looked on the little tag on Dad's dinner tray and it said, "Food dislikes: NONE!" How true is that! Seems all his little food quirks have fallen by the way side. He now says, "Oh boy" and "more" when we were feeding him (due to his sore hand). It made Mom and I crack up at how he was scarfing the food down!!

It is 1:30am and I have a long drive tomorrow. I have no business still being up... but Mom and I made some progress in Dad's room, and I helped her with some computer stuff and we shared some time together one on one... She always feels she has to compete with my lap top...