Now, She's Really Back

Image by lorenzo cuppini [...still busy...] via FlickrThe unexpected: This morning when I arrived in her room, my mother asked for a newspaper. And I went and got one, and read some articles out loud to her. We discussed world affairs. She expressed amazement that Barack Obama's grandmother really loved him, even though he is biracial ("biracial" is not the term she used). When I asked why that would amaze her, she said "Well, her daughter was white, and had a baby by a black man. In the South, we don't approve of that." I suggested that perhaps a lot of people in the South no longer have such rigid views about such matters; she replied: "I don't think so... not unless they have changed in the last 30 minutes."

In other words: She's back. She's back to the same cognitive functioning (and certainly the same personality) that she had just before I hospitalized her. And this caused me to pretty much lose my composure for much of the day, because it means that she might now be considered technically competent to be making decisions for herself about her health care. Which would mean that she will refuse to go to a nursing home, and she will cause endless amounts of havoc during the rest of this hospitalization, and after.

Later this afternoon she had to get some suctioning done of the fluid that stays around her throat, causing the gurgling cough that she is still doing; she has fought that treatment before, but today she called the respiratory therapist a f***ing bitch, and threatened to kill the nurse...

She still isn't really eating. She can sit up by herself, but has to be helped to stand up.

Tomorrow I will see if the people from psychiatry will come back in and see what they think about her current competence, and I will ask the social workers to keep trying to find a good nursing home for her, and try to find out how we can get ahold of some funds to pay for this, if it's going to happen. The one thing I can say with certainty, but great sadness, is that she cannot come stay with me.