In Mary's Words

Last night Angela and Tony took the grandchildren (Kelsey and Cal) to visit Rick for the first time since the accident. She called me on their way home and was really excited because Rick recognized them and they had a really nice visit.

I received the following email from Mary this morning:

I know Ang talked to you last night about Ricks visit with the kids.  It was really cool…

I’ll just tell you about the rest of the night.  He was good after the kids left and we were going to play cards.  He said he wanted to go out and have a cigarette before we played.  We went back and forth about that for about 15 minutes and then he said; “well this is just dumb”  Let’s just go home then.  He started taking all of his clothes out of his closet and put everything on the bed.  He took his stuff out of the bathroom and put it in a bag I have in his closet.  Then he was asking me and looking for a bag for his clothes.  I told him we couldn’t go home yet, and told him where he was and about the accident.  He would go up to the nurses station and ask them for a bag for his clothes, they told him he couldn’t leave because he had to see the Dr this morning.  He said he would go home last night and come back this morning to see her.  There was a chair in front of the desk where is suitcase is so he didn’t see it at first.  After about an hour he saw it and packed his clothes, including folding most of them.  After he was packed he sat in a chair and asked me for the keys for our vehicle.  Of course I told him I couldn’t give them to him because we had to stay.  One of the RN’s came in and asked him to sit on the edge of the bed because she had to take his blood pressure and give him his meds for the night.  He wouldn’t budge for at least a ½ an hour.  He said it didn’t make sense to take medication when he was going home.  When he finally did sit on the bed they did what they said there going to do and got him to lay down so they could check his breathing/heart etc with the stethoscope.

This was over a 2 hour process and was after 9:00 when they got him to lay down.  He was asking me for a phone number of someone that would help him “break out” (his words).  I told him how much we all Love him but no one could help him break out last night.  It was actually kind of exhausting but good at the same time.  Everything he was saying was in the right order and the right words.  And he was somewhat in control and not totally irritated or angry like he has been in the past.