22 March 2007: Hop!
Dad actually fell asleep on the spray table this morning. Even with most patients on pain meds, that apparently never happens.
When he was in Memphis, I whispered in his ear, "there is a phrase from Tai Chi: Breathe, Relax, Feel the Earth, Do nothing extra." I always find it helps to calm me down when I get a little out of control - for him, I was hoping it would help him relax when he was in pain. He, of course, took the concept and made it his own - changing the words to fit whatever situation he was in. "Breathe, relax, don't fight them, ... ," for example, when the nurses were helping him roll over in the early days. He said today that he used a picture instead - one from when Ruth and I were little: we were in the woods, and had found what looked to be the remains of a chicken coop or something. The picture is all woodsy greens and yellows, with two little kids in red peeking out through the chicken wire wall of a little fort with a sloped roof. He said he spent the whole time on the table picturing it. Yes. I cried.
On the way back from the table, he apparently hopped! twice! It scared the crap out of him, though. He had a real moment of panic, and the nurses helped him find the edge of the cardiac chair he was to sit in. "Does this thing have a back?" Apparently they said yes, so he threw himself into it, and said, "If I pass out, don't let my a** fall off the chair!" He spent two hours on that chair, and was pretty pooped out for the rest of the day after that.
When he was in Memphis, I whispered in his ear, "there is a phrase from Tai Chi: Breathe, Relax, Feel the Earth, Do nothing extra." I always find it helps to calm me down when I get a little out of control - for him, I was hoping it would help him relax when he was in pain. He, of course, took the concept and made it his own - changing the words to fit whatever situation he was in. "Breathe, relax, don't fight them, ... ," for example, when the nurses were helping him roll over in the early days. He said today that he used a picture instead - one from when Ruth and I were little: we were in the woods, and had found what looked to be the remains of a chicken coop or something. The picture is all woodsy greens and yellows, with two little kids in red peeking out through the chicken wire wall of a little fort with a sloped roof. He said he spent the whole time on the table picturing it. Yes. I cried.
On the way back from the table, he apparently hopped! twice! It scared the crap out of him, though. He had a real moment of panic, and the nurses helped him find the edge of the cardiac chair he was to sit in. "Does this thing have a back?" Apparently they said yes, so he threw himself into it, and said, "If I pass out, don't let my a** fall off the chair!" He spent two hours on that chair, and was pretty pooped out for the rest of the day after that.
