Elaine and I went over to pick up mom and then we went to see daddy, where we found him in the cafeteria eating his breakfast. He seemed sleepy and the physical therapist didn't seem to be having much luck with getting him to eat his breakfast. Apparently, the medications that he takes for his Parkinson's cause him to be really dizzy and sleepy. Then on top of that, they give it to him about an hour before he is to eat his breakfast and go and do his occupational therapy. The results have been that daddy will seldom do well eating his breakfast and then he has no desire at all to go and do his therapy, so he has cleverly made up the excuse that he needs to go to the bathroom to get out of it. To top it off, I think the therapist for today doesn't know daddy well enough to know what is normal, or baseline for him and what isn't, so when she took his blood pressure, oxygen level and heart rate, one of them was extremely low, but not taken on an apparatus that was very reliable. We took him back to his room, where one of the RN's came in and assured us that things were okay...EXCEPT, he has lost another half pound or more. That has a little concerned as he does appear to be eating well, but it seems to be going right through him. They are going to try and figure out a way for him to eat more calories without having to eat more food.
He was tired, but we tried to give him a little more food, of which he ate, but then he was done. It was during this time that he asked mom, 'Can I go to the temple please?' It was sweet, but of course, mother had to tell him ' no, because you're just not strong enough yet.' That did NOT make him happy. We put him down for a nap which only lasted about an hour. Daddy has a stalker that lives across the hall that tends to make her way to daddy's room where she knows there is always a lot of fun going on, so apparently, while I was gone, she tried to come in the room a few times. Elaine has had to 'shoo her' away and finally just started keeping the door shut.
When daddy got up from his nap, he needed to go to the bathroom, and when he hadn't come out for a minute, mom went in to make sure he was alright. She caught him trying to stand up, for which she scolded him and scared him nearly half to death. Once he came out, Elaine fed him his lunch and shortly after, I went back to mom's, then to Becca's house to help her make dinner for tonight.
Near dinner time, Rebecca and I went back to see daddy. He had had a very successful therapy session and a nice visit from my Uncle Floyd and my Aunt Barbara, daddy's brother and sister.
Dinner would be coming soon, so to help pass the time, we decided to play a few hands of tricks, a family game. Daddy has not lost any of his intelligence, just has slowed quite significantly in his ability to show how smart he is. When it 'would have been' his turn to shuffle, Becca just pretended to hand him the deck of cards and said, 'here daddy, it's your turn to shuffle' at which he bust out laughing. It was priceless. He did real well playing cards but was hungry when dinner was brought in, so we finished that hand and put the cards away.
We put his tray of food in front of him, took the lids off of the food, and then Rebecca asked daddy who he wanted to say the blessing on the food. He slowly pointed to...himself. We tried to hold our quizzical looks from his glance and bowed our heads and closed our eyes. Several seconds went by before Elaine asked him, 'Daddy, who do you want to say the blessing?' He once again, pointed to...himself. This time, as we closed our eyes and bowed our heads, we heard him take in a breath and begin his prayer.
Oh My. Daddy prayed a prayer like no other. And it had nothing to do with blessing the food. I could hear both of my sisters sniffling and felt my own throat constrict with emotion as I listened to his words being sent to our Father in Heaven. It was such a spiritual moment, one that I truly did not want to end. But as we each spoke our 'Amen's', I could feel that I truly had witnessed a miracle in a multitude of ways...one, my daddy's words were clear and precise...his words made sense, had meaning and were a direct plea to his Heavenly Father....and lastly, it was not short. It was a prayer with many words that he was able to speak; more words than he had said for many many days. I felt so blessed to have been present for such a moment.
After he ate a great dinner, ( soooo sarcastic...his meals are ALL pureed and tonight he ate a hamburger, French fries and something else...ALL pureed), he began to scoot himself back from the table and looked like he was also attempting to get up out of his chair. Of course, we questioned his actions. 'Daddy, where are you going?' Him: 'Atras'. 'What daddy? Where are you going?' Him;'Atras'. One last attempt to try and understand his answer...'Daddy? Where?' Him: 'ATRAS'....OHHHHHH ! 'BACKWARDS'... in Spanish. Really dad??? It was hard enough to understand him most of the time in English, but now he was going to throw Spanish at us??? Another moment of great laughter. He is too funny.
As we were getting ready to leave, my brother in law Paul Pickett came, arriving before his family would be coming shortly after. I was glad they would be there to have some private time with daddy and I was hoping it would be just as memorable for them as it had been for the other grandchildren the night before.
Tired tonight. I need to run a few errands tomorrow and then I might go with my mother to a doctor appointment she has in Provo. Today has been very rewarding with my father. I'm thankful that some of these memories are sweet and funny and will be nice to share with my family when I get back to Texas.
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