Old Blue Eyes, wearing a gown to match those azure orbs. Rumors of his demise have been exaggeratedI stopped by the hospital to see Dad, and after forty-eight hours of IV fluids and antibiotics he was a new man. Or anyway a new old man. He wanted to know what he was doing in the hospital because he didn't feel sick.
"You've been asleep for two days," I wrote him on his notebook. And then I did my pantomime of him coming into the hospital: I hung my tongue out of the side of my mouth and sunk my head into my chest and drooped my hands like a dead seal. When he is in a good mood, he loves it when I play pantomime with him, as he has no hearing left and must rely upon his eyes and his sense of humor.
"I'll bet you thought I was dead," he said. And then he paused, for effect, like the good comedian he is.
"I got news for you," he said. "I ain't dead yet."
And he ain't. He has grown mighty perky in the hospital during the last twenty-four hours, for a dead guy. You can see from the picture, he is still looking a bit ethereal. But he is happy and alert and eating all his meals with gusto.
He wants to see my Mom, but she has come down with the stomach flu and can't come to the hospital. If she loses any more weight, though, we'll have to get them a double room. Appropriate, since they've been married for sixty five years this month and haven't spent sixty-five minutes apart since World War II.
Dad has a "procedure" today to try and uncover what in his system keeps causing him to have infections. I wrote to him that they were going to put a camera down his gullet and he made a face.
"Sounds like fun," he said. I wrote that they wouldn't be feeding him breakfast and he shouldn't get mad about that.
"Mad? Me? I'm through being mad," he said.
But don't you believe it. He awoke in the night and started raising heck and asking for my Mom. Sounds like he's full of the old vinegar. He definitely ain't dead yet.
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2 comments:
What is it with the anger? Not just in Pa but lots of others get this way too so I've heard. Is it just a way of reacting or behaving when the brain is not functioning correctly because of being tired and not knowing how to react or behave to get what you want?
I guess we would have to read up. Pa is essentially getting brain damage every day and if it impacts certain regions that must cause violence. In one person I know of the disease caused her to be completely silent and easy to get along with, after years of being a contentious chatterbox! So I guess it effects each person differently. I do hate seeing Pa so angry, though. Isn't that a good pic of him?
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