September 6, 2012 - She is still going to be a mezzo

Gretchen was bright and chipper when I arrived a little after 7:30 this morning ("something is wrong, what have you done with my wife?").  She was greatly relieved when I arrived because she was stuck talking with one of the other ima...I mean, patients in the dining room.  I am not sure what they were talking about (they talk softly and I am a product of the '70s so I have some hearing loss) but she said he knew her from somewhere or other (I'm not so sure).   

We had a great, though short, conversation.  There was some mild confusion but she knew what was going on.  She was sitting up and holding her head pretty well.  Generally her voice is still a soft soprano voice but at one point she laughed while she was talking and I could hear that rich mezzo voice trying to get through.  It is only a matter of time and she will have her voice back.

When Peter and I arrived at 4:00 she was in the dining room waiting for dinner (at 4:30).  We had a great time and she was able to remember some things from yesterday.  I asked her about her therapy but she didn't have much to say about that.  She knows that she needs to do the therapy but I am sure that it is a lot of work and sometimes she doesn't want to do it.  I wanted to stay until the start of mealtime so that we could pray together (when I mentioned prayer she agreed readily).  Unfortunately, she is still a good mother (to both of us) and can't stand that she has food and we don't.  I think we will have to pray and excuse ourselves as the food is coming down the hall.

I have my mom's netbook now (I helped configure it for her but didn't have time to teach her how to use it so my brother gave her one of his old Macs).  I am not sure how I am going to change my posts now that I have that.  I may write in OpenOffice (yes, free is a whole lot better than Micro$oft Office) and then copy to the blog later or I may write a bunch of smaller posts throughout the day or even start a post early in the day and post it and then edit and add to it as the day progresses (putting the update time in the title and changing it to "final" when I am done for the night).

Pray for my ability to deal with Gretchen's head therapist.  I tried to mend things this morning when I saw her but she was still a bit short with me.  I am concerned that she might try to get back at me through Gretchen if I can't get this resolved. (I know, a professional wouldn't take something out on a patient BUT a professional working with brain injured patients should be a bit more understanding of mistakes made by families of patients when they are trying to manage all these new responsibilities). 

Peter will be starting "school" next Tuesday.  Pray for us as we make the adjustments.