Suddenly I was having to yell to get Howard to hear me. What had happened? He said he had felt his ear pop at one point. After a couple of days of this, we checked in at the doctor's office. It was a wax build-up! Now his hearing is back to "normal." Good news!
But that's not all! My husband had lost more than thirty pounds after his surgery. Despite his efforts to eat more, the scales had been stuck for months at that low level, only creeping tantalizingly up a pound or two, then to recede below the scale marker at the next weigh in. A little discouraged, I hadn't weighed him in several days.
Then today when the nurse weighed him on the way to the exam room, she quoted a number that was 10 pounds above what he weighed at home! I laughed, because how could there have been such a discrepancy between our bathroom scale's reading and this one? After the ear check-up, I mentioned that that was quite a difference. The nurse agreed and said she would check it again. She was right! Howard has gained 10 pounds! Praise God!
We feel he has turned the corner in his recovery! He sleeps well at night, has a good appetite, is not tortured by a bad taste, and is doing more on his own. The other day he went into a UPS store while I sat in the car! He has started pumping our gas (Yay)! Sunday at church he even participated in greeting time by going around shaking hands, albeit with his walker.
We had planned to go to the Farmer's Market today, which would start at 4:00 p.m. At 3:40 I remembered, and knowing that the best stuff goes quickly, I woke my husband from a nap. He was tired from an earlier outing at a Seniors' Breakfast. "Where is your walker?" I asked as we hurried to get to the market. He didn't know, and I couldn't find it. Then an unwelcome thought surfaced. Maybe we left it at the restaurant where we had breakfast! Neither of us could remember his using it to get back in the car, what with his newfound independence!
"Let's go to the Farmer's Market first," we agreed, "then go to the restaurant to see if we left the walker there." Pickings were slim where the farmers were selling their produce, but we managed at least to get some okra and tomatoes, our favorites. Howard waited in the car while I went to check on the walker. No one had seen it! Maybe I had overlooked it at home, I thought, then Howard said he remembered having it in our dining room! (Getting old is not for sissies!)
"Pull in to McDonald's," I was instructed, "I want a Dr. Pepper!" As I received it at the window, I glanced in the back seat for my purse. It was nowhere to be seen! I checked the floor in the front and back, and started to panic! My purse! It had everything important in it! My heart sank with a despair akin to that of leaving your child somewhere!
Howard said he would find it, and started to get up from his seat while I prayed! Then what materialized before my eyes but my purse! "You were sitting on it!" I shrieked in relief! Thank you, God! And his walker was safe and sound at home. A very good day!
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