kingrat

Yesterday I left work early and went to see Gramps at Swedish. He was alert and lucid but very weak. He couldn't feed himself. He held a cup of coffee but kept losing his grip. I left around 5:30 and went to a Community for Youth event. That started off badly because everyone asked me how I was. I am piss-poor at that sort of thing, so I kept on having to explain one after the other to people that I was upset because my grandfather was in the hospital. But after the event started it was really good because it got my mind off things.

Today I took the day off work and drove Gram to the hospital. I spent from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. there, keeping them company. He's looking and sounding a lot better. He's able to feed himself, though without a lot of coordination. And I didn't have to put my ear near his face to hear him talk. He had a breathing tube at first, explaining the lack of voice yesterday.

He's not out of the woods yet. He'll be getting a new pacemaker on Tuesday with a built in defibrilattor. I don't know if he'll be in the hospital all the way through, but I hope so. He could use the care there.

Unless he takes a real turn for the worse, I will be out Saturday night. I found after Matt died that I need to get out and be social otherwise I sit at home in grief or worry. However, I do ask that people don't make my grandfather the subject of convetrsations with me. I don't want to go through the story over and over. I'll be at the Noc Noc and perhaps the Merc afterward, depending on if I feel up to the smoke.