First Visits

On Monday October 2nd Gabriel will have completed one month in the nursing home, and he has adapted exceptionally well. I was permitted to begin to visit him last week. The first two visits we spent in the patio. Gabriel played guitar for over an hour (watch short video clip), and we did wordfinder puzzles together.  

He looks good! On every visit he has told me he loves his room. He has wanted to show it to me, but of course, visitors are not allowed to enter the house so that the residents have their privacy. And yet there are a few rooms that border the patio where we sit, and I can see visiting those residents, pulling up one who is immobile after having slid down in his hospital beds, arranging his pillow and changing his positions. A doctor was visiting yesterday, writing extensively in the chart of another resident and responding every time she spoke a few words. Meanwhile, another nurse was helping a resident into the living room as she maneuvered with her walker. Some of the residents are awake at night and sleep during the day. That’s common for dementia patients. Their biological clocks stop functioning correctly. It turns out, unbeknownst to me previously, that Gabriel gets up every night and goes into the kitchen. That explains why I used to find plates in his room with the remains of ice cream on them.  Fortunately the nurses keep him company. First they offer him a glass of water, and then an apple or a banana. Satisfied, he then returns to bed. Yesterday I was permitted to take him out to the coffee shop a block away. He was really excited, looking all around, reading all the signs, marveling at the parakeets, and enjoying a piece of zucchini cake and hot chocolate.     I am so grateful that he is getting good care, enjoying his private room, continuing to play the guitar and do word finding puzzles, as well as participating in the daily routines and therapy sessions at the nursing home. Thank you all for making this possible.  We are very close to meeting our goal of $14,400, which will cover what we are lacking to pay for the first two years at the Vivalma Nursing Home. Thank you for your help! And if you have not yet shared this webpage with others, please do! With just a bit more we can make it.