The Funny Farm

DADDY / PAPPY IS HOME!
Friday afternoon, around 3:30 pm my Daddy was officially released from Roger C. Peace. I am sure being outside on a beautiful sunny day and driving down the road in their van was quite a surreal experience for them. I followed them for a little while and my mom called on my cell phone with excitement about the drop in gas prices ($1.39). She had heard about the price going down, but to actually see it large and in "real life" was shocking. They slowed down to a crawl to appreciate the beauty of low numbers! It was funny for that to excite them, but it did! They went on home and I stopped to grab some groceries for them and all of Daddy prescriptions (seemed like 20 or more) and ran home for Craig to load our recliner in my van. My parents have a recliner that is not nearly as comfy as ours and theirs took quite a bit of arm action (big no-no for heart patients) to get it to recline, so we figured our big, soft green recliner would work out better for Daddy. The boys constantly fight over sitting in it and were sad to see it go. I now have more room in my family room, and less confusion, so I am happy. Christmas trees always offset the entire balance of our already crowded space.
Speaking of our beautiful tree . . . that cotton-picking booger fell on Tuesday night (last week) while we were all snug in our beds taking a long winter's nap. No one heard it, but I think my head twirled around on my shoulders - three times Wednesday morning! I said I couldn't take much more Christmas decorating, but guess who got to decorate the darned tree again, once it was tied by ropes to the window trim and a built-in bookcase? JOY! Why on earth would they make a large, heavy, pre-lit tree with flimsy plastic feet? ARGH! I know having every ornament on the very front of the tree didn't help either!
My parents were certainly happy to have their house all decked out for the holidays. Daddy said they wouldn't have had Christmas without our hard work (bless his heart). Mother has thanked me everyday for all that we have done. I am just so glad they are finally home to enjoy it all. I don't think anyone could have stood another week in that place! The nurses and doctors were great to my parents, but they felt imprisoned, not to mention Daddy was more than tired of the food! Daddy feels very useless and weak, which work together to make him angry. He has always been such a "get-er-done" kind of man, so using patience is becoming a honed art form for him.
Taking one day at a time is the only way he is going to get better. Mother is feeding him well, they are sleeping in their comfy bed, he is taking tons of meds, the wound vac is doing its thing, he is napping throughout the day (when he is not eating) and the home health nurse is visiting three times a week to re-dress the wound /vac area. He is definitely well taken care of, so healing is just going to take time. They have plenty of family and friends checking on them, so they are in good shape in my eyes, but Daddy feels he still has a huge mountain in front of him he has to attempt to climb everyday. Truly we are all so blessed and have countless things to be thankful for. "Think positive," I keep telling him. Eventually he will catch on!