Home Again

James was discharged from Mt. Sinai this afternoon.  He received a definite diagnosis of aspiration pneumonia that is being treated with antibiotics.  He is feeling fine.

We are back home. He had lunch, a cup of tea, and is taking a snooze on the couch.

I sat him at the table and watched him eat his lunch which I chopped into tiny bits using a pastry cutter. I will be vigilant.

I told James that I have plans to be stricter now that we have had this scare with regard to his daily therapeutic regimen and eating.  He did the equivalent of an eye roll and thought that the entire trip the ER was probably unnecessary.

I stopped him right there. I told him that if we did not take him to the ER, his pneumonia would not have been diagnosed, he would not have been treated with antibiotics, the infection would rage inside his lungs and kill him.  In addition, he required the CT scan and MRI to rule out that the source of his fever was not a reinfection of his brain. He nodded and said, "ok."

James's perception of himself is that he is fine. He is aware that there is a cloud or cloak around him that makes him feel not quite himself but overall, he often feels that the precautions that his doctors and I are taking are somewhat extreme.  I do not want to scare him but the reality is that a small thing may quickly escalate into a problem.  Swallowing food incorrectly will land us in the ER again.

I am feeling slightly daunted by the future days.  We have lost four days of home therapy now--two physical therapy sessions cancelled.  It is a bummer. My Paid Family Leave clock is ticking down and a four day loss is significant, when seen through that lens. I am worried that James will not progress enough by the end of July for me to leave him on his own.  We may need to hire a caregiver as we move into the fall.

I have to reinvigorate myself somehow. The cabdriver on the way home said I looked tired.  I find it funny that in our culture, it is fine to tell someone, basically, that they look like hell.  I gave him a big tip anyway because it is Eid Al Fitr and he has to work.  He drove us all the way to Greenpoint and was trying to make it as comfortable for James as possible. He was sweet.  Two sweet cabdrivers in a row.

I must give James a shower. He refused to take a shower at the hospital for whatever reason. I think he did not want to ask a nurse to help him--he was embarrassed.  After a nice shower, we will have an outing to the drug store to buy him a new electric razor and scale to weigh him.  I need to keep track of his weight as we move forward.  Nurse Jen.

Imogen and I had a girl's night out last night since James was staying over at Mt. Sinai.  A new Japanese restaurant opened in Greenpoint so we tried it out. It was pretty authentic Japanese food despite the fact that the cooks in the kitchen appeared to be hispanic.  The interior was very precious--shared wood tables with cactuses growing out of the light fixtures but we liked it.  Both Imogen and I agreed that it might fail as a restaurant because it is too Japanese.  The menu is small--no teriyaki chicken or sushi.  We saw a couple come in, take a look at the menu, and walk out.  It is exactly the restaurant that I wanted--whenever I bitched about the horrible Japanese food in our hood--I dreamed up a menu that is pretty close to the new spot. It is as if someone heard me and made the place. The staff shout out "irasshaimase." It is doomed to fail.

We told James about it over lunch. We hope it lasts long enough so James can eat there--they have a tonkatsu curry that he will really enjoy eating with an IPA.