Good Friday. Sitting here bedside to Dennis. Where to begin. You will no doubt quickly come to realize this is not Scott writing this entry - primarily due to the lack of quick wit, and secondary by the end it will occur to you there has been no ripping on Chris and that clearly is not Scott's style.
First let's address disclaimers:
English teachers, majors, or generally proper speaking people, etc. Please accept my early apology for grammar, spelling, presentation and view this only on the basis of information to update you from the land of ICU.
And more importantly, the views represented tonight may or may not reflect the opinions of the originator of this blogspot, voiding him of any responsibility or accountability of backlashes from the followers.
So...let's roll. Dennis currently is resting well, as he deserves to be, he has put in quite a day. As Scott told you yesterday there has been the welcomed addition of a speaking valve. For you internet surfers, you can google (or rather let me put in a plug for usingwww.goodsearch.com for your search engine and identify Shepherd's Ministries Union Grove, Wisconsin as your charity and they will receive a penny every time you search and Dennis will be thrilled that you not only are keeping up with him but are helping a very worthy cause in doing so) the Passy-Muir Tracheostomy & Ventilator Swallowing and Speaking Valves. This wonderful little round purple gizmo reminds me of a kazoo- with just the right amount of air exerted, delightful sounds occur. Today the respiratory therapist had him wear it twice. The first time to talk with the Doc to whom he said thank you (even minding his manners in these circumstances) and the second time Chris had him make phone calls. Yesterday he talked to Tricia so the first call out today went to Scott. Chris was getting Scott on the phone and in doing so she said something like hey babe your dad wants to talk to you, to which Dennis furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips and then responded "BABE, that's me" with a quizzical look like who is on that phone that she is calling babe and making certain we were clear that term of endearment belonged to him (which at this point in the story I can assure you if Scott were writing he would have an over the top remark). I tried to capture the call on a phone video to send to Scott so he could see his Dad's expressions as he talked with him but there is no way even if it were crystal clear that it would portray the happiness in this room. What a blessing to be witnessing! Following that call Chris had Dennis talk with Courtney, Gigi, Grandma and Pa. Plans for Skype sessions are in the rough!
The respiratory therapist played music to our ears as she described the plan to increase the length of time and sessions with the valve and later on Dennis must have decided he too was going to go with the music theme and do a little conducting but we'll get to that in a moment.
A tad of physical therapy in the afternoon, breathing treatment, routine checks, and lots of TLC passed the afternoon. Change of shifts and Chris was off to work 1 floor below. Dennis took a two hour power nap 9 to 11 following which he decided to pull an all nighter! I reminded him we were long past those stereotypical college kid hours but that didn't seem to phase him so the games began. The speaking valve was out so it was lip reading and sign language along with a letter board that he would attempt to identify letters, our version of Wheel of Fortune, but he evidently was wishing Chris was playing the role of Vanna rather than me because he spelled out "love Chris". We then tried a dry erase marker on a board, (orange marker, a fave color) to write Chris a love letter ( I know this is nauseating you Scott and you probably are about to hit the delete button) but not to worry it just ended up with a few scribbly scrolly markings that only I can identify. Under the false impression that I might actually persuade Dennis to sleep a little he began our next game that we lovingly later referred to as Dancing with the Sheets, our version of Dancing with the Stars (for you Snookie.). Dennis fidgets with his hands a lot and in attempts to keep them off the tubes and wires I would give him things to hold, a stuffed moondog (Cleveland cavaliers mascot )wannabe, Ohio State Buckeye keychain, but this time he was liking his top sheet. He did the wave with it, rendition of the Chicken dance with both arms going, some moves that looked like "wax on, wax off" from the original Karate Kid, gestures of shooting hoops and coaching the game plans, and for a grand finale he conducted the St. Joseph Orchestra its first performance of the ICU Overture. When I told Dennis he most likely had put in the equivalent of 4 occupational therapy sessions and 5 physical therapy sessions, well maybe only 4 in Scott's book (keep that bar raised high) we finally made a pact to nap - at 5:20 a.m., (6:20 eastern time):
Random St. Joe's fact: ICU X-ray's are scheduled at 2:00 a.m.
Tune in Sunday or Monday for the Saturday Night Late Edition.
First let's address disclaimers:
English teachers, majors, or generally proper speaking people, etc. Please accept my early apology for grammar, spelling, presentation and view this only on the basis of information to update you from the land of ICU.
And more importantly, the views represented tonight may or may not reflect the opinions of the originator of this blogspot, voiding him of any responsibility or accountability of backlashes from the followers.
So...let's roll. Dennis currently is resting well, as he deserves to be, he has put in quite a day. As Scott told you yesterday there has been the welcomed addition of a speaking valve. For you internet surfers, you can google (or rather let me put in a plug for usingwww.goodsearch.com for your search engine and identify Shepherd's Ministries Union Grove, Wisconsin as your charity and they will receive a penny every time you search and Dennis will be thrilled that you not only are keeping up with him but are helping a very worthy cause in doing so) the Passy-Muir Tracheostomy & Ventilator Swallowing and Speaking Valves. This wonderful little round purple gizmo reminds me of a kazoo- with just the right amount of air exerted, delightful sounds occur. Today the respiratory therapist had him wear it twice. The first time to talk with the Doc to whom he said thank you (even minding his manners in these circumstances) and the second time Chris had him make phone calls. Yesterday he talked to Tricia so the first call out today went to Scott. Chris was getting Scott on the phone and in doing so she said something like hey babe your dad wants to talk to you, to which Dennis furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips and then responded "BABE, that's me" with a quizzical look like who is on that phone that she is calling babe and making certain we were clear that term of endearment belonged to him (which at this point in the story I can assure you if Scott were writing he would have an over the top remark). I tried to capture the call on a phone video to send to Scott so he could see his Dad's expressions as he talked with him but there is no way even if it were crystal clear that it would portray the happiness in this room. What a blessing to be witnessing! Following that call Chris had Dennis talk with Courtney, Gigi, Grandma and Pa. Plans for Skype sessions are in the rough!
The respiratory therapist played music to our ears as she described the plan to increase the length of time and sessions with the valve and later on Dennis must have decided he too was going to go with the music theme and do a little conducting but we'll get to that in a moment.
A tad of physical therapy in the afternoon, breathing treatment, routine checks, and lots of TLC passed the afternoon. Change of shifts and Chris was off to work 1 floor below. Dennis took a two hour power nap 9 to 11 following which he decided to pull an all nighter! I reminded him we were long past those stereotypical college kid hours but that didn't seem to phase him so the games began. The speaking valve was out so it was lip reading and sign language along with a letter board that he would attempt to identify letters, our version of Wheel of Fortune, but he evidently was wishing Chris was playing the role of Vanna rather than me because he spelled out "love Chris". We then tried a dry erase marker on a board, (orange marker, a fave color) to write Chris a love letter ( I know this is nauseating you Scott and you probably are about to hit the delete button) but not to worry it just ended up with a few scribbly scrolly markings that only I can identify. Under the false impression that I might actually persuade Dennis to sleep a little he began our next game that we lovingly later referred to as Dancing with the Sheets, our version of Dancing with the Stars (for you Snookie.). Dennis fidgets with his hands a lot and in attempts to keep them off the tubes and wires I would give him things to hold, a stuffed moondog (Cleveland cavaliers mascot )wannabe, Ohio State Buckeye keychain, but this time he was liking his top sheet. He did the wave with it, rendition of the Chicken dance with both arms going, some moves that looked like "wax on, wax off" from the original Karate Kid, gestures of shooting hoops and coaching the game plans, and for a grand finale he conducted the St. Joseph Orchestra its first performance of the ICU Overture. When I told Dennis he most likely had put in the equivalent of 4 occupational therapy sessions and 5 physical therapy sessions, well maybe only 4 in Scott's book (keep that bar raised high) we finally made a pact to nap - at 5:20 a.m., (6:20 eastern time):
Random St. Joe's fact: ICU X-ray's are scheduled at 2:00 a.m.
Tune in Sunday or Monday for the Saturday Night Late Edition.
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