[nagdu] Listening in the Wings

[Sharonda Greenlaw]

toni, my heart goes out to you and I will be praying for you as well
as your husband's progress.
Sharonda

On 1/30/10, Toni Whaley <blind_treasurer at verizon.net> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Although I've been reading all the messages and have found many of the
> threads very interesting, I haven't had the time or energy to respond. Two
> months ago my husband had 12 hours of heart surgery to repair a whole
> between the ventricles in his heart. Fortunately, the surgery was
> successful. Unfortunately, many complications have slowed down his progress.
> These include: fluid on the lungs, extreme physical weakness, inability to
> swallow food. He is unable to speak above a whisper, an this speech is for
> the most part unintelligible.Sometimes he's able to communicate through
> child-like writing which doesn't helpp me unless someone is there to read
> it. Until last week he was still in the cardiac-pulminary ICU. He was, and
> still is, too weak to participate in strenuous physical therapy of the type
> given in most nursing facilities. Yet he had made enough progress so that
> the insurance companies wouldn't pay for him to remain in the ICU. So he was
> transferred from a hospital about a mile from my home accessible by taking
> one bus to a rehab hospital 21 miles from my home accessible by taking three
> buses. Fortunately, I can get to this hospital by using paratransit.
>
> At this writing my husband's condition has changed very little. His
> inability to do much for himself makes him extremely anxious. This causes
> his speech to be fast and choppy, increasing its intelligibility. The speech
> therapist and I have created a speech board in braille and print which
> contains his most frequently requests. This is helping some.
>
> Hazel has done well spending long days in the hospital, and we're educating
> a lot of people at both hospitals. She has also provided several occasions
> of amusement to me. One day I was walking with one of the surgeons back to a
> conference room. As we passed a man walking in the opposite direction, Hazel
> quicklly took a sniff of his crotch. Of course, I corrected her for this.
> But the surgeon showed some understanding of dogs by saying, "I guess you
> can't take the dog out of the guide dog." All of the nurses in the ICU
> enjoyed Hazel. Indeed, they were extremely disappointed on those few days I
> didn't bring her to the hospital. The staff at the new facility are now
> getting to know us as well.
>
> Toni
>
>
>
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-- 
Sharonda Greenlaw
President (Phoenix Chapter)
National Federation of the Blind
-------------
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