VIP

The room next door to where Dad has been for the past two months is a VIP room - the nicest in the hospital we have been told. We have all been coveting it for as long as we have been on this floor. It is large, has hardwood floors, and its own sitting room. When Dad was moved back to CCU this past weekend we began plotting (along with all of the staff) to have him returned to THAT room... Well, the timing worked out beautifully! Today when he was moved, the patient who was in it last night was gone. SO IT IS HIS NOW! Woo-hoo!

Dad says this is more space than he needs - but he is not involved in the daily game of musical chairs and who has seen my purse that the rest of us have all been playing. We LOVE it! It has a table, several chairs, a TV with a VCR, a microwave, and a refridgerator. Mom was speculating on bringing in a coffee maker..........and maybe her sewing machine too. 8-) The BEST thing about this room is there is more than one picture on the wall and they are not hideous - like the one in his old room! Yippee!!

Things are looking good today. Dad had the hiccups when I was there tonight - ugh! Hopefully they won't go on for days like they did before. But he seemed much stonger and more engaged than he has been for the past few days and weeks. Dr. Ocolo put in the new J tube, as Sarah reported. He feels good about it - and when I asked, Dad seemed much more positive about it too. I asked if he was still leaking around it - and he said "A very little bit." Maybe this means he will actually have a chance to heal around it - while in the process of learning how to eat again. Dad was asking tonight about what Katie and I were planning to make for dinner. We went through our list of options with him (we eneded up with Steak Fajitas) and told him we would report tomorrow what our decision was. We asked if it bothered him to hear us talk about food and he said no. I think he likes daydreaming about it a bit. I take this as a good sign! He is on his TPN nutrition right now - but is supposed to be getting food into his tube again - we heard maybe tonight, but we think the order came to late - so probably tomorrow.

We always knew Dad is a VIP - and now we know the staff at the hospital thinks so too. What is really funny is I think just about ALL of his regular people went to see him in the CCU while he was there the past few days. Maybe I am imagining it - but I think this has had a great affect on his spirits. He seem much more like his old self today. Whew!