Talking, Talking and More Talking

I guess after not being able to speak for an entire month, you would have plenty to say when you finally can. Oh Boy! Did James Armstead talk yesterday!

Granted, you can't really make out a lot of what he is saying, but he knows exactly what he is saying. Lol!
Well, these are some of the things he was trying to convey to the nurse, my mom and I:

1) Something about "0100 and 0300". Now he continued to try to get his point across, so he kept saying it over and over. I didn't realize what he was referring to until my mom wrote down the numbers. She thought he was at first trying to tell us a zip code. Nope that wasn't it. Then he said, "two hours". Okaaaaaaaaaaaaay? So it dawned on me that he was giving us a time span: 1:00-3:00 is two hours, but two hours for what? To be honest, I then thought he was just randomly saying things or expressing abstract thoughts. Which would have been okay, you know, we were just happy he was trying to say anything at all even if it didn't make a lick of sense. Hahaha! I later realized he was talking about the eye drops someone put in his eyes, something about the doctor, something about two hours, and made it very clear he doesn't want any more eye drops because he has a reaction or allergy to it. This I was able to make out.

2) He does not like the teeth brushing thing they do in the hospital. The solution does not taste good. To this he would close his mouth tight, shake his head back and forth (the "no-no" thing he does) real fast, then say, "I don't like it!" Sigh. The poor nurse would just coax, "Mr. James, open your mouth. Or just stick out your tongue, Mr. James. Will you let me at least clean your tongue, Mr. James?" He would not cooperate and continued to tell us what he didn't like. I told my mom that he sounds like some inebriated, swollen tongue, old man telling everybody what he don't like and what he ain't gonna do! Geez! I couldn't believe how stubborn he was being. Oh my gosh! Unbelievable. The nurse was sort of laughing. She told my mom that she has to do this a couple of times a day because of the fungus that grows in the esophagus because of him being on the respirator and ventilator as long as he had been. I then told him, that Nuk asked him to please cooperate with doctors and nurses so he can get better faster and come home. To that, he got silent and the nurse immediately asked me who Nuk was? She noticed his reaction when I mentioned her name. My mom then told the nurse that she would try to brush his teeth, because she had enough of this! Maybe he would cooperate with her--and he did. Lol! The nurse laughed and asked how long had they been married? I told them 50 years come February and then she really started laughing.

3) My mom showed the nurse a photo of our family and a picture of Nuk. My dad then blurted out to the nurse, "That's my baby (something--something) 9-years old (something--something) grandson, Nick (something--something)." Hahahaha! We shared with the nurse all that had happened throughout the last month with him. She was amazed and said that she was referring him to rehab tomorrow. She said with him going through all that he had, he was still fighting her about his teeth and tongue brushing, could tell her about his grandchildren, told me no more eye drops, and figured out a way to spit (at a distance) phlegm from his lungs while laying flat on his back (I know, gross huh?), and with him talking up a storm, that he was definitely READY for rehab!

4) He even tried to tell my mom what he wanted her to read from the bible. Something about someone's wife, although he did say something about Abraham. But when I asked him about Sarah, he told me no. So I started listing each book of the bible until he told me which one. He stopped me at Samuel, but was not able to tell me 1 Samuel or 2 Samuel. So my mom just started to read the beginning of 1 Samuel about Hannah. He dozed off to sleep while she read to him. But he would wake up periodically and say something we couldn't understand and doze back off.

My mom and I laughed and said, when he is really able to communicate, those doctors and nurses are going have their hands full. He is going to give them a run for their money, that's for sure! They haven't experienced him full and in effect yet. Lol!

--June