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Beyond expectation!
Jun. 17th, 2004 09:14 pmYesterday I didn't want to write the latest about Arnold because I'm not just writing for myself, and I think that other readers would prefer to not be asked to think about the end of someone else's life every day. On Monday, though, they had discontinued the feeding tube, and yesterday when I was at the hospital, my mom and M. (Arnold's older son) and the doctor were having a discussion about the issue of discontinuing his hydration as well. If they did that, it would be acknowledging that his life was ending and that they were trying to make him as comfortable as possible; not having fluid intake can be easier for his body and make him more comfortable, apparently produces more endorphins, and would typically make him more lucid for about 36 hours and then gradually fall into a sleep from which he would not awaken. (Learning new stuff.)
Anyway, so today I stopped at my mom's house and picked up a copy of Dante's Paradiso, because the Divine Comedy is Arnold's favorite book and I thought I could read the first canto to him, in case he noticed. As I was driving from the house towards the hospital, about a block or so away from the house I saw my mom and M. driving past, and we both stopped our cars, and I walked over, and they told me that... Arnold got better!!! He was trying to sit up and everything, and now they think he might not even be dying! The plan was to have a speech therapist assess whether he can swallow, and then maybe he'd get to eat real food instead of having the tube again.
So I went to the hospital, and not only was Arnold better -- livelier, more interactive -- than he'd been ever since he'd been admitted two weeks ago, but he even told me that he was getting better, twice, in complete sentences! It takes a great deal of effort for him to make himself understood, but he is definitely improving. And he is definitely not "giving up" or reconciled to this being the end of things, as one would expect if he actually were at the end of his life. As M. says, it's been an emotional roller coaster.
One of the rose bushes fell off the fence overnight, what with the winds yesterday and the weight of this spring's growth, greatly aggravating the neighbor who wants to sell her property and considers the driveway a key part of that. R. had gone to Wilsonville to spend the day chatting with two friends from Washington, one from near the ocean and one from near Idaho, but as soon as he got home he tied the rose back up to the fence.
It was 90 today and breezy, perfect for reading in the shade. I read more of the Lefkowitz book, which I'm finding a bit disappointing. So far, all she's done is retell the stories in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and various plays about Orestes and Elektra, making sure not to omit any activities of the gods. I would think that anyone introduced to the stories this way -- in stultifying detail but stripped of all poetry -- would hardly become interested in reading the originals. I remedied my own boredom a bit by reading some of the Ulysses Voyage book, written in a much more engaging style, which so far has discussed Odysseus's personality, the excavation of Troy, and what it's like to sail northwest and then southwest from the Turkish coast along the Greek coast in a replica of a Bronze Age ship. (I also was inspired to want to make a post about the theory that the Odyssey was written by a woman, and the unrelated theory that much of the book of Genesis was written by a woman, but figured today's post would already be plenty long.)
Anyway, so today I stopped at my mom's house and picked up a copy of Dante's Paradiso, because the Divine Comedy is Arnold's favorite book and I thought I could read the first canto to him, in case he noticed. As I was driving from the house towards the hospital, about a block or so away from the house I saw my mom and M. driving past, and we both stopped our cars, and I walked over, and they told me that... Arnold got better!!! He was trying to sit up and everything, and now they think he might not even be dying! The plan was to have a speech therapist assess whether he can swallow, and then maybe he'd get to eat real food instead of having the tube again.
So I went to the hospital, and not only was Arnold better -- livelier, more interactive -- than he'd been ever since he'd been admitted two weeks ago, but he even told me that he was getting better, twice, in complete sentences! It takes a great deal of effort for him to make himself understood, but he is definitely improving. And he is definitely not "giving up" or reconciled to this being the end of things, as one would expect if he actually were at the end of his life. As M. says, it's been an emotional roller coaster.
One of the rose bushes fell off the fence overnight, what with the winds yesterday and the weight of this spring's growth, greatly aggravating the neighbor who wants to sell her property and considers the driveway a key part of that. R. had gone to Wilsonville to spend the day chatting with two friends from Washington, one from near the ocean and one from near Idaho, but as soon as he got home he tied the rose back up to the fence.
It was 90 today and breezy, perfect for reading in the shade. I read more of the Lefkowitz book, which I'm finding a bit disappointing. So far, all she's done is retell the stories in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and various plays about Orestes and Elektra, making sure not to omit any activities of the gods. I would think that anyone introduced to the stories this way -- in stultifying detail but stripped of all poetry -- would hardly become interested in reading the originals. I remedied my own boredom a bit by reading some of the Ulysses Voyage book, written in a much more engaging style, which so far has discussed Odysseus's personality, the excavation of Troy, and what it's like to sail northwest and then southwest from the Turkish coast along the Greek coast in a replica of a Bronze Age ship. (I also was inspired to want to make a post about the theory that the Odyssey was written by a woman, and the unrelated theory that much of the book of Genesis was written by a woman, but figured today's post would already be plenty long.)