The Blog of mamapolo

Dear Friends:

Yes, I admit it, there was a brief time when I allowed myself to crumble.

I have received emails and phone calls from loving friends reminding me of how far we have come and how much we have to be thankful for, and they are all correct.

Yesterday at the hospital, one of the speech therapists mentioned that she hadn't seen my husband "Since he was decannulated." (She was referring to the removal of the trach from his throat.)

He waggled his eyebrows at me and said in his still weak and whispery voice, "I'll have you know I've been decannulated."

The therapist jotted something on her clipboard, and said kindly, if condescendingly, "You've been enchanted?"

I said, "Decannulated."

She said, "Oh," and scratched out the note she'd made on the clipboard.

After she left, I said, "Honey, you have to regard this like security at the airport. You CANNOT make jokes about bombs standing in line at US Airways, and you CANNOT let them misunderstand you about mental confusion."

He waggled his eyebrows again. He's always had a low poor-sense-of-humor threshold. And for some reason, after he lost his hair from the radiation, all the vigor of hair-growth has been expressed in his eyebrows, giving him Groucho Marx qualities.

Given his stubbornness and wise mouth, I have my hands full trying to make them see he IS improving. Sometimes I think THEY think I have reverse-Munchausen's Syndrome, that I'm trying to make them think he hasn't 'gone west' when he has.

I began lobbying yesterday to get the psych report re-evaluated. I have seen too many incidents where someone's well-being has been jeopardized by a single statement in their medical records.

My next step: Making him understand that for the first time in a long time, he cannot be pro-active and simply get out of bed and go home, or alternatively, yell at me until I get him out of bed and take him home. His obstinacy and determination has been a virtue in many instances. This isn't one of them.

Thanks for slapping me out of my hysteria (although you did it gently and sweetly).

I'm bettah now.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou are with me."

:)