Saturday Visit

Yesterday Daddy Steve, Caleb, Audria, Tyler, Ann, me, and Brody went to visit Daddy Ken and Grandmommy. We left at 8 am and didn't get home until midnight! As soon as we got there Daddy Steve, Caleb, Tyler, and I left to go see Daddy Ken at the nursing home. Audria and Ann got to work deep cleaning Grandmommy's house while Grandmommy took on the task of playing golf outside with Brody.

A lot has happened in the life of Daddy Ken in the past few weeks. After being admitted to the hospital, he was really improving. Then one evening a nurse was helping him to the bathroom and he fell and broke his hip. This was a HUGE setback which resulted in surgery, pneumonia, and a UTI! This has made recovery/rehab go much slower than we had hoped. On Friday they moved him to a nursing home and on Monday he'll start rehab. They'll be working on his hip, his speech, and his balance. They still have him doing breathing treatments to help with the pneumonia and this will probably continue for several weeks.

When the guys and I arrived at the nursing home we found him laying in bed still in a hospital gown. He doesn't have any strength in his legs...but his upper body is as strong as an ox! He's always been a little ornery...so when he said he wanted to arm wrestle me I didn't turn him down. I was SHOCKED when I realized that there was no way I could beat him! I was using all my strength and wasn't even budging his arm! He didn't look like he was even trying! He just smiled and said that no one has ever been able to beat him. He doesn't have very good control of his hands yet, so he still needed our help to eat the lunch they brought him. After his lunch he wanted to take a nap so we left to go back to Grandmommy's house.

Brody was excited to see the guys and had them playing in the front yard as soon as lunch was over!

When Brody went down for his nap it was the girls turn to go see Daddy Ken while the boys worked! Grandmommy had a honey-do list of things that needed to be fixed around the house, so the guys started tackling that list as soon as we left.

I was surprised to walk into the nursing home and see Daddy Ken sitting in a wheelchair (dressed in sweats) in the lobby! He said that he was tired of the bed and was trying to get out when the nurses found him. They bathed him, dressed him, and then wheeled him up front. I think he was happy to see these pretty girls walk in the door.

It was a beautiful day, so we wheeled him outside to visit. He enjoyed sitting in the sun for the first day in weeks!
It was nice to get to visit with him and meet the people who will be caring for him. I think that Grandmommy was very encouraged when she saw him yesterday afternoon. The nurses told us several times that we should expect to see dramatic improvements in him over the next few weeks. They said it takes about a week for all the meds to wear off that he'd been receiving at the hospital (some of them made him kinda loopy).

They guys were able to check off most of the things on Grandmommy's list and the girls thoroughly cleaned her house...so all that was left was to make sure that she was well fed before we headed home! We took her to Texas Roadhouse for a delicious dinner. It was fun to sit there and eat a nice meal, talk, and relax. She told us some neat stories about things she remembered from her childhood...and of course we were entertained by Brody.

We didn't leave her house until 10 pm and we were all tired when we got home...but it was worth it! We just wish that Namaw and Mike could've been there with us...