Patience, patience, patients . . .

My father's recovery is progressing now that he is back in residence at the Norman VA Center. The weekend has been a little bumpy but the staff has handled is beautifully. His blood pressure has been taking dips below 100 over the weekend and he developed a fever on Saturday prompting the medical director to give him IV antibiotics. The best of all is that he has been able to rest and sleep the past couple of days, hopefully making up for some of the sleepness and busy nights at the hospital.

His evening nurse (Mary) called me around 6 p.m. on Sunday stating that he had been asking for me and she promised to give me a call. We agreed that I would wait until Monday to visit unless his condition warranted me coming out. When I phoned her around 9 p.m., Mary indicated that he was "perturbed that I didn't rush right out to visit" but we agreed that this is precisely why I did not. Behavior change can be very difficult and he is having to re-socialize with others --- that is a very good thing.

The laugh for the evening was this. When I phoned her, she relayed that the staff had a busy evening. Just prior to my phone call, one of the other residents could not locate his call button so he called 911! Thankfully, the staff was laughing but it certainly broke up a somewhat routine evening. We must always remember to laugh at ourselves and with each other. We visit his knee doctor on Wednesday.