Friday March 5

Friday finally came and yes, I was ready!! My bag was packed and my errands were done and I was on the road by 11:00. I thought I was going to run into some snow because the skies were cloudy and drops were starting to fall. But, by the time I got to Pocatello the rain was stopping and the skies were clearing. It wasn't what I'd call "sunny" but I sure felt warm inside just knowing that in a few short hours I would get to see Dan.

I checked into the room and the desk clerk recognized me, told me it was good to have me back and gave me an upgraded room (just to be kind). He even asked how Dan was doing. I really like this place because of things just like that.

As soon as I could I left for the Nursing Home. When I got there Dan was just chilling out on his bed. He said he'd had PT that morning and was pretty tired so I just sat with him and we talked about how things were going. He asked me how he got from the East coast to the West coast. He said he'd gone from one to the other but he didn't know how. I honestly didn't know he'd even done that. I think it might have been a thought he had while he was unconscious. He also said he made the choice to come back. He said he looked for me for a long time but couldn't find me so he fought real hard to come back.

He thought he'd done a lot of traveling and kept asking me if I remember when......

I told him that we'd gone to Baltimore in Oct and he remembered that. I told him we went to St. George after Christmas and he said that was the last thing he remembered. It was soon after we got home from St. George that he became so ill. I tried to tell him that he began not eating, drinking, walking or talking and that one morning I found him on the floor by his bed. He said today that he remembered Dean Cowley being at the house but he didn't know why he was there. He didn't remember the trip to SL, listening to his sisters on the phone or the ER room. Needless to say, he didn't remember the ICU, either. He did remember me telling him to relax and if he needed to go, it would be ok. I think he's remembering little bits of things at a time.

I taped up a bunch of pictures of the family on his wall for him. We talked about each one for a few minutes and he remembered all of them, where we were and what we were doing. He could even name the kids.
After that he tried to sign some papers. He had to use his left hand and it was very difficult for him but he really tired hard. His right hand doesn't work very good and he says he doesn't have any feeling in his right baby finger or ring finger. His hand and arm aren't as sore as they were but they still hurt. He said the PT said it was "waking up slowly".

Beth came in and we talked about filling out the application for assistance. She said to just leave it with her and she would fax it off next week. She's been so helpful and kind. I hope I've done it correctly. Kristi and Haini had come up by then so they signed as witnesses of Dan's signature. They even brought Dan up some yummy treats; apple juice, cheese and crackers and (eat your heart out Alisha-) colored Gold Fish.

We visited a few minutes with Dan's roommate and then turned off Dan's light and covered him up for bed.

The Sugies and I went for a hamburger at Artic Circle. Elijah just couldn't get enough of Kristi's cone. He hung on for quite a while. Look how red his face is. Sitani had his bag packed to stay the night with me and even as I write this, he is jumping on the bed and eating popcorn. While I was adding pictures to the blog, he was taking pictures of our room. He's pretty good with the camera (just like his mom). Here are a few of his shots.


I need to finish this off for the night so that I can play with him. Haini and Kristi are bringing Marley and Elijah back tomorrow and the kids will stay with me while they go to the Temple with some friends. We're going to go swimming and sit in the hot tub while they're here. After that I'll get to go back over to see Dan again.

Sounds like a great weekend for me, uh!!!