She's My Girlfriend

It has been close to two weeks now that Sam has been in the new facility and there have been a lot of ups and downs. It has been hard for me to be away from Sam during the week and so I can't imagine how difficult it has been for her. We miss each other terribly, but for Sam it seems to be manifesting itself in her refusing to eat and crying a bit on/off. The staff did a full swallowing evaluation, and Sam does not have any issues with swallowing...which means the refusal to eat, is a more psychological problem. They are following up with her doctors and are already supplementing her food during the day . They had also asked me to give them a list of her favorite foods, etc. With this said however, Sam looks great and is eating a bit. Yesterday, for Thanksgiving day, I arrived with fresh cut strawberries, mozzarella sticks and pumpkin pie (a special treat from our friend Sian). Sam ate everything that morning and then proceeded to eat the entire Thanksgiving day meal...which even I thought was a lot. The CNA's were shocked...I told them just to continue to give Sam a Thanksgiving day meal every day and she will be just fine. The good thing is that the people at NE Center are terrific and they approached me with this problem moments before I approached them. They are really on top of things and are proactive which is a very different scenario from where she was before. The other problem at NECenter is that Sam has already fallen twice...once out of bed (she said she was just trying to shift her position to get more comfortable), and once in the dining hall, when she undid her seat belt...yes Sam is still alarmed, but they are much less restrictive here which means more possibilities for falls. Again, they are watching Sam, but that is actually my biggest worry for her at the moment. Fortunately she was not injured in the past two falls.

The good news is that the therapists and nurses and doctors are excellent and Sam is very happy overall with her classes. They know she is a photographer and have already incorporated that into her "homework " assignments.....Sam is to list camera parts and equipment. Yesterday she asked me to bring in some art books for her, which is the first time ever she has made such a request. That is a good sign. She also was so very happy to see me on Thursday morning...she couldn't stop kissing me at first and then just had a beaming smile all day long. She went around telling all the nurses and the CNA's that I was her girlfriend. She was very proud and we had a great day together.