Mid-morning and late afternoon visits and discussions with doctors and nurses, left me feeling a lot better than yesterday. That’s because Nancy was much better than on Tuesday and surpassed the Monday status. She was sleeping better and eating more today. When I got there about 4:20 this afternoon she was sleeping soundly. I stood and watched a silent television for 15 minutes before she woke up. I learned that the mid west was being slammed with a blizzard unlike any since Nancy and I lived there in the 1970s. Also Yakima broke a record low. With the sound off that’s about all I learned.
She needs to breathe more deeply. When she went to the ER last spring she had fluid in her lungs from the cell damage the bacteria were doing (I think) and the X-ray was first interpreted as her having a “piece of pneumonia.” Not so as it turned out. Then this latest episode caused some more lung damage (now healing) but laying in bed doesn’t get you much lung exercise. So she gets to blow into one thing and suck on another. That’s boring after about 30 seconds.
So, …
I told them she played fiddle and visited nursing homes and such with a group of ‘old-time-music’ friends and that she started singing in a church youth choir when she was about 3. So they brought in a music player and tried to get her to sing along with some Christmas music. We both think Christmas music ought not to be allowed on the airwaves until 12 days before Christmas (not close enough yet). She was a good sport about it but when David (ICU nurse) left the room she had me turn it off.
If they had had the Virginia Reel, she probably would have known lyrics and been happier. The rest of us would have been clueless.
So we are looking forward to Thursday.