Tomorrow is a big day. They plan to release Louise to the nursing home for rehab. It is just in the nick of time too. She decided to get up and go today. She wanted to go outside, walk around the hospital, anything but get in the bed. She was adamant. As far as we can tell, she hasn’t had any more seizures. The medicine appears to be working. She is eating on her own, so we begin the recovery road. She has a couple of issues you can be in prayer about. One is her memory. She can converse and respond when you are talking to her, but in five minutes she may not remember it. She seems to be stuck in the continuous present. She still doesn’t seem to know she is in a hospital and every time you tell her she acts surprised. I remember this stage from Bill’s recovery. It is a stage they must go through, we hope it will go quickly and there will be no residual longer term affects.
The next area of concern is the agitated stage. She seems to have started that today. Always moving and refusing, to the point of belligerence, to get in the bed. There is a tendency to be angry and not exactly know why….just an overall frustration that affects her attitude and actions. I also remember this stage in Bill’s recovery. Only he was much bigger and stronger that Louise. He would walk in circles in his room, he tried to run away from the hospital, he regularly threw things…at me. He turned over tables, threw wheelchairs at nurses, and put doctors up against the wall. Not a fun stage. They want normal and they want home…but it is not possible for them, this causes great frustration and anger is the outlet. My prayer is that this will pass quickly and that she will be willing to work with the medical professionals to get better instead of fighting them.
I would also ask for prayer for Ray in this. I can tell you from personal experience this is by far the hardest part. You have to say NO a lot when they don’t want you to. You become the bad guy and you have to stand firm for their safety even though they cannot understand. It is similar to being a parent in many ways. Only they can say and do things that are hurtful in their frustration. It is very difficult not to take this personally. It hurts, because you are doing everything humanly possible to care for them and they don’t see your sacrifice. Not only do they not see it, they come against you as if you are the enemy. Yet in another minute, they are childlike in their need and dependence on you…a very hard line to walk. The thing is that they do not remember such actions…and that is what the caretakers have to remember as well. It is not personal…it only feels like it. Bill remembers nothing of his outbursts from those months. I remember every one of them. Hard to think about even now 24 years later.
Pray that Ray will have the courage and strength to say no when needed. That he will have the knowledge that it is not a personal thing but a stage. And that he will be able to take time away for a few hours if needed to get a breath of fresh air. Pray that Louise would recover and move through all the stages quickly. That she would work with her team to get better. That she would not remain at the nursing home but progress enough to get to return home. That there would be no long term effects of this time. That God would draw us all closer to himself.