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| On the way home from Chuy's still munching on a tortilla this was Day 6 post surgery |
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| At Chuy's |
Here are some of the highlights of the last ten days. Charlotte slept in my bed for the first week. That meant Michael got her room. It also meant I got to watch marathons of America's Funniest Home Videos. Oh man. I despised that show when it first came out when I was a kid but I really, really, really despise it as a sleep deprived adult at 11:00 pm at night by the third episode. I thought I was going to go insane. That show is 1000 times worse than anything on the Disney channel.
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| Watching TV - Day 2 |
During the night when Charlotte would wake up and need medicine, she would growl, "medicine!" at me. I would jump out of bed grab her medicine and bring it to her. When I would try to hand it to her the first couple of times she knocked it out of my hand, all over me and her. Then I learned to not get quite so close and tell her I had her medicine. At that point, she would "tell me to talk to the hand" as we would have said in the 90s and a mean look. She would hold that hand up for several minutes while she worked up the nerve to be able to swallow. That left me standing there, holding her medicine, sleep deprived, waiting. Luckily, I found this scenario funny and didn't get too impatient with her. Most of the times when the hand and look would happen it would start laughing and then she would at least smile. I'm glad she didn't get mad at me for laughing, because that could have easily been the outcome.
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| One of our boredom busters - dyeing hair. You can also see her cute gown I made her. I picked the fabric because it has bunnies on it and Charlotte has always loved bunnies |
Once she was back in her room, she came in to ask for medicine. I walked with her in my bathroom to get it. When I reached out to hand it to her, she took it immediately. I was shocked. Then, I "told her to talk to the hand" and gave her a mean look. We both burst out laughing. Again, I'm glad she found my antics funny and did not get offended.
She and I were both worried about her getting bored and grumpy during the recovery process. She is not one to like to stay home and needs to be entertained. I was very surprised by how well she did entertaining herself and that she never got frustrated with feeling bad, not being able to talk or able to eat.
The other really funny part of the experience was her trying to communicate with me. Often, she would write notes in a cute little note pad she carried with her everywhere. She had no clue where her phone was for over a week but she was glued to the note pad. Sometimes though, she would decide to use sign language. Mostly she would use the ASL alphabet. I know the sign language alphabet but do not use it often and Charlotte and I are both dyslexic. Many, many times I would have no clue what she was signing. I would get letters wrong, or not be able to figure out what word those letters were supposed to be making. She would get so frustrated with me. I finally told her that she needed to significantly lower her expectations. That I could not decode as fast as she could sign and then I had to process with my dyslexic brain. That was not a fast or easy process and she needed to be more patient with me.
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| Writing me a note at lunch at PDQ |
About a week after surgery she was still communicating by sign. I told her at some point she was going to have to talk. That she could not sign forever. I told her to imagine a couple of years from now that she was signing to someone and them asking about her hearing loss, only to have her tell them she wasn't deaf but had had her tonsils removed when she was 12 and never started talking again afterward. She laughed and actually said, "that would be really silly!"
I really enjoyed spending so much time with her. She was a great patient and was very appreciative of my efforts to take care of her. At one point she told me "I've enjoyed spending time with you," and at another "thank you for taking care of me, I love you so much!" It made it all worth every minute of it.
I am so glad she is feeling and acting much more like Charlotte now.
Jenn
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