Thursday: Mixed

Redjeb got a hair cut today, and boy did he get one!  A buzz cut.  He had been talking about doing this for months and finally got his chance.  They have a beauty/barber shop on the top floor with a view that  looks toward St John The Divine Cathedral up near Columbia U.  He was taken up there and zzzzz hair gone.  Now all he needs are some tattoos and maybe a gem in his ear.  When he puts on some more weight he will look really cool.  And all this for only $12.  No tipping allowed.

This place and the hospital have these separate specialties that look at you and make decisions.  There seems to be no one who pulls the whole thing together.  The very nice competent doctor in charge Mon-Friday is often by-passed by teams who just decide something.  When I tell him something, he looks surprised.  But he does get things done when he can, and there is also a very competent nurse who does her best too.

But my sense is that this nursing home is a lot of cosmetics.  It looks very nice and there are very nice attributes.  But systems just don't work; requests need to be made over and over, and not just by me but by the staff.  Please make sure you have an advocate, preferably someone who can be there a good bit of the time and who is not afraid to speak up--should you or someone you know go into a hospital or nursing home.  There is a lot of slippage.

But to go to nicer things.  They have parties frequently for various units and this evening was for our floor/unit.  Redjeb was too tired to go, so Maia (Nicole's mother-in-law) and myself went down to the garden to partake.  Wow!  They had an absolutely beautiful buffet that included delicious spanakopita, little hot dogs in dough (I forget what people call them), lovely cheeses including brie, melons, berries, and a variety of petit fours.  Free wine.  White linen table clothes. And live music in the background.  Maia and I enjoyed ourselves but felt bad that Redjeb was not up to being there and partaking.

Despite the fact that he was exhausted today, I noticed that for getting around his room (on the rare occasions that he does) that he walks rather than taking the chair.  When we arrived last week, he could barely walk the couple steps from bed to chair.  Now when he goes to the bathroom he walks by holding onto chairs, etc.  Not very safe, but you know Redjeb, he just does it.  But it does mean that he is a little stronger.  Unfortunately he is still very weak, gets very tired and sleeps a lot.