Sunday, April 21, 2013

Sunday April 21

Sunday morning. Elder Babcock said, “The whole world has turned luminous on me. It's not light but involvement.”

Correction, “The whole world has turned”. Also, he was comparing now with hallucinations when he said it. He was not just watching anymore.

This morning he also told me he wanted to write a paper for the hospital staff on the subject of cosmic confusion in Spanish.

Elder Gonzales and Elder Villatoro


I went to sacrament meeting. The sister who gave the opening prayer prayed for Elder Kenneth. It was good to be able to tell people who asked that he was improving. But I should have stayed with him. He did not want to walk with another woman, the physical therapist, without me. He said Dr. Rivas came in and said that MRI showed he still has pus inside his head and said that the choices were surgery or antibiotics.

Elder Babcock said he asked the doctor, “What would you recommend?” He said, “Antibiotics.” Remember that Dr. Rivas is difficult to understand. I should have been here.

They are having trouble finding veins that still work for ivs. Nurse says it is the same antibiotic that he stopped that is now begun again.

Ken just walked around the large atrium pushing a wheelchair instead of a walker which doesn't have wheels. He was able to walk very naturally, but the therapist had him stop and take one step up a set of stairs. Twice. Frustrating for him to break his stride. Some things are still very hard. But better than yesterday every day.

We both had a nap after lunch, and then I cut his hair because he was going to have a shower. Clean bed, clean hospital gown and pajama bottoms. Then the elders came and we had a short sacrament meeting. Then “once”, which is a late afternoon snack before “cena” dinner. He wanted to use the computer today, but he has another exercise session, and preferred the warmth of the bed.

I just talked with Dr. Riva. Surgery isn't a good option because there isn't that much infection and because he is doing so well. But it is important that the infection be completely gone. Dr. Rivas apologized for not having the MRI a day earlier but he had three patients in triage that were worse off than Elder Babcock. They will be using the same antibiotics. He will need to stay in the clinic for at least one more week. It could be one to three weeks. The CT scan shows fluid, but not infection, so he didn't know before the MRI.

Dr. Riva said that the infected area is the place where we store working memory. I tried to understand what he meant. Elder Babcock couldn’t remember Chilean Spanish. Once when he was walking he said “alto” and was frustrated that I didn't understand that he wanted to stop. In Chile they use the word “pare” not “alto” for a stop sign. Elder Babcock often finds that people don't understand his Mexican Spanish.

But, while he was reading my blog, Elder Babcock remembered a more recent experience with being unable to turn off the car alarm and trying to find the valet button. However, he was having trouble remembering his computer passwords.

When the infection is gone, he should get much better. Kind of good news.

With more time in the clinic, Elder Babcock will get stronger. I was convinced that he needed to walk out of the clinic without a wheelchair to show the power of God. Tonight he pushed the wheelchair again. It's almost like walking alone. The therapist thinks he could walk alone, so tomorrow we are going to try. He doesn’t want to walk with another woman, so maybe he will walk with me. She could always follow us with the wheelchair so he could sit if he needed to.

The internet in his room wasn't as predictable as it had been. It was nice that Dr. Riva came early tonight, also the therapist. Elder Babcock was eating dinner when I left. He was sitting on the couch with the bed table in front of him.

I also left him stuff to brush his teeth. I thought the streets would be more deserted on a Sunday night but it was busy enough that I didn't walk through the mall. It was just getting dark at 7:30. Before I left, I took a picture of the Chilean sunset! I'm glad we had the curtains open.