I showed up at Terri and Andrea's place at around 1 pm today (Sunday 26 Feb), after a quick trip to the Target around the store to get munchies.
Andrea goaded Terri to get up off the couch so she could sit next to her spouse. Terri looked much better than I'd seen her in previous visits to the hospital (hospital gowns and lack of hair washing can make anyone look like $#!^...
)
Terri was wearing a maroon (or burgundy -- I'm color-deaf) top and jeans, and appeared relaxed. She's still not out of the woods (and admitted as much) but again, I saw much improvement compared to last week. I asked Terri if she'd seen this topic. Terri said that she'd looked at Susan's Place since returning home, but as her vision was still affected, she couldn't read the postings unless she set the font size really big. She also tended to move in slow motion -- sitting down, reaching for a coke or a bag of Chex Mix, etc. (I think we've all had days like that
), but Terri'll probably be moving like this for at least another month...
She also said that as the bleed had been in the left side of her brain, she had difficulties with controlling her right side. (this was a rather long exposition from Terri -- a very good sign.) Also her voice volume wasn't very much above a whisper (not good for me, as I've got enough hearing loss to get money from the VA
). 3 or 4 times during my visit, Terri slowly got herself up and made her way carefully to the kitchen and get another coke (or whatever) from the fridge. I commented that this was part of the healing and rehabilitation process.
I told her of the outporing of support from Susan's Place members. She said she'd seen the 7 page (or is it 8 now) thread, but hadn't been able to read it because she still had problems with her vision.
Terri and Andrea's granddaughter, Moriah, did her best to be an attention thief (an easy task for a 5-year-old girl who knows she's cute
), so I did my best to turn on my broadcaster voice (I'm no one-take-jake,) and read her books to her. Terri enjoyed the performance.
I told Terri it must have sucked to not be able to communicate and that I'd told her that during my first visit. Terri said that, no, it had been somewhat of a relief to not have to respond to anyone, and just let stuff happen for a while while she recuperated. (Thinking about that comment as I write this, maybe Terri was telling me she was more aware of what was going on around her than we suspected... hmn...)
Moriah's mom picked her up and, after a short visit, departed with Moriah. I entertained with a couple of stories from my days gigging in a band (how to program songs to increase alcohol consumption,) and then we talked about various concerns about current events in the world. Terri offered lucid comments along the way, and I silently cheered every one.
Finally, I had to go. I asked Terri to stand and gave her a hug, saying it was from each and every member of Susan's Place. Terri appeared visibly touched by this. I gave Andrea a celebratory hug, and she (and Terri!) said I was welcome back any time.
Haz
P.S., I totally forgot to ask about the laptop or any sort of donations to the Stovalls. My apologies...
