Bob's Turn

Today it was Bob's turn.

This lady has been Bob's physical therapist, but his Medicare coverage has run out, so this was his last appointment. What a lovely person she was.  She reminded me so much of our wonderful SPCA friend and dog sitter, Ashley, in her positive attitude and especially her love of the two dogs.  I liked her a lot.

Peach was warned that the injection of Neulasta she received yesterday would give her bone pain, but that it would only last a couple of days.  She has been pain free, which is a blessing.  But she is very tired so she has taken several naps today.  She made it to breakfast (Bob didn't), but wasn't up to going to the dining room for lunch or dinner.

So I am still Bob's date for meals.  

Though he has recovered miraculously from his stroke 3 years ago, the effects of the assault on his body are very apparent.  He walks with a walker and his right side is weak.  Sometimes he can't make it all the way to the dining room (about where the red light is below, above Bob's head).

This afternoon, walking back to the apartment, he got very winded and I ended up pushing him in his walker, so he didn't have to push it himself.

The hardest thing for him is his loss of short-term memory.  He wants so desperately to understand what is happening to Peach and what the course of her treatment is, but it's just beyond him, though he talks about it all the time.

I called my mother this afternoon and was sorry that I did.  She just pouted about how I was here when I should be there and that I had deserted her.  She talked with Peach and told her that she was jealous of her. I am here surrounded by so many of my mother's contemporaries, many of them in worse shape than she is, and I haven't heard all that negativity since I last left Atria.

This afternoon, Peach and Bob were going to go to Mass, which was being said in the non-denominational chapel here.

But both of them were too exhausted, so they didn't go.  Later, the priest showed up here in the apartment to bring them communion and anoint them.

He was a very nice man and seemed interested in Bob's stories about his and Peach's work on the Stealth Bomber project many years ago (heck, even I am learning things about their work that I never knew!)

(I am feeling somewhat schizophrenic here since everyone knows Peach as Carolyn, so I have called her "Carolyn" probably more than I ever have in my life...but at home she will always be "Peach.")