Approaching Normalcy… or Bored as All Get Out?

Tuesday March 17, 2007

I had a chance to discuss Jon’s medication with one of the specialists today and it was decided to take Jon off a medication that I was certain was responsible for the heavy state of sleep Jon has been in for the last few days. As it is wearing off he has continued some of the behavior which suggests hallucination and confusion. Further on in the day he started complaining of being bored. I’m racking my brain trying to think of 2 handed card games that don’t require picking up a lot of cards, as in rummy. I thought of composing some silly poems and started with “There once was a man from Defiance” and wondered aloud what might rhyme with Defiance and he came back with “Who wanted to sell all his appliances” …but that’s as far as he wanted to go. We might try that again sometime.

One of the side-affects of the medication I wanted removed was extreme hunger. He asked for a Milky Way yesterday and knowing that he couldn’t have candy I checked on the whereabouts of the nearest Wendy’s. I brought back 2 Frosties since the nurse suggested I could put one in the freezer. He ate some yesterday and I finished it off. Today he asked for the other one. I was afraid the frozen texture might affect the taste but he didn’t mind; the flavor was the same. In the middle of one of his morning snoozes he blurted out “I’ll have some lasagna” followed shortly by “How about some garlic bread with that.” Yesterday it was a toasted cheese sandwich. What a sad thing to be craving food and even dreaming about it when you can’t eat yet. Perhaps that day is coming soon. I only hope the food the patients get is half way decent. The cafeteria has some interesting food and some of it I have really enjoyed but I know Jon has a limited list of foods he likes and even those have to be like Mom or someone else fixes it.

We tried reading some more of The Kite Runner but I barely finished a page when he’d ask me to stop. Then he asked a little later and I managed another page and a half. We did watch American Idol and he’d either sing along with the performers or sing during commercials. What was once an exasperating raspberry kind of sound to get our attention when he couldn’t talk aloud has now become a drum roll and the start of a song. After weeks of jumping to attention when hearing that sound it is hard to decide whether to stay seated and wait for an oncoming song or get up to see what he wants.

I know that the antsy feeling he’s experiencing is a sign he is getting better. That is about the only positive thing I could think about when he was sleeping so much--at least his body was spending all its energy on healing. Which reminds me; we’ve been asking repeatedly to see the report that said Jon has MRSA, the antibiotic resistant strain of staph, and have had no luck. Yesterday the nurse came and reported that Jon was being removed from quarantine since he didn’t have the staph infection..but still no paper work indicating that has turned up. They claim it was a preliminary report and must have been from a test that OSU sent over as their cultures have not shown any sign of such an infection. They will, however, continue with the medication for a week or so to be on the safe side.

Am tending to ramble so must go. Jon has started to work his arms again and can get his elbow about 5 inches off the bed by himself so if you’re so inclined you can add to your prayers a quick recovery of strength and return to Dodd Hall. He can barely tolerate the idea of extending his hospitalization another 6-7 weeks which he could very well be.