Reports from others

Last Thursday I spoke with C at The Harbor. At that time, Mike was having a really good day. She said he was able to communicate to the staff what his needs were, and was participating in the activities. On Friday, I spoke with D and she said Mike did very well on Thursday until later in the evening when he was "chasing" another male resident down the hall. She said she had never seen him move so fast! They tried several distraction tactics, but nothing worked so did have to give Mike a PRN (as needed/sedating/calming) medication. After that took effect, Mike did well for the rest of the evening.

My sister, Gayle, and her husband, Tom, visited on Monday and this is what she wrote to me:

"At first when we saw Mike yesterday he was just zooming into the lunch room ignoring us and our yogurt offering, just saying "oh,oh" and holding his head off and on.  The lady said he'd been like that for 2 days and asked him if his head hurt, but he didn't answer.  We walked him outside to sit and eat. Then he did ok and we were able to show him pics from the weekend and talk calmly a while.  They brought his supper out. (Which he insisted was breakfast). Tuna salad, lettuce and cucumber salad, crackers, and cherry cobbler. Looked good! Then we sat in his room and he wrote you a letter, Jay, which I am mailing.  He wanted me to read the Daily Bread devotional to him so that's why his letter has scripture and references to the Christ Our Redeemer statue in Rio de Janero.  He didn't have his glasses and we hunted but never found them.  The office lady is looking, too.  He seemed to be fine and liked the pics."

Zooming around, eating fast, losing his glasses, repeating words are all fairly typical of Mike so I guess he's adjusting fairly well. He has his good days/moments and his rough days/moments. It is always encouraging to hear of the good days and I am hopeful that there will be more of those as he adjusts to the new place, people, and routine of The Harbor. He wanders in and out of rooms so his glasses could be anywhere. Dr. E. at CSH ordered him two pair after he lost one and then broke the new ones, so there are two pairs floating around there somewhere. Someone else could be wearing them! When we were there for Father's Day weekend, Mike's roommate, James was wearing Mike's OSU hat. I know it is impossible for the staff to keep everyone's stuff in their respective rooms.

Has been a busy couple of months. I decided not to go anywhere this weekend. Just working in the gardens, helping Dad & Mom, catching up on desk stuff, etc. After lunch today I was so tired that I went to rest a bit and 2 hours later I woke up! That's very odd for me, but evidently I needed it. Now it's time for bed. More later.