Sunday, December 16, 2012 - Confusion

I walked into the unit this morning expecting to see the same Marc from yesterday.  Instead I was greeted with by very worried Marc. 

“Where the hell have you been,” he demanded.  That was definitely not like Marc.  He would never say something like that to me.  He also wanted to know if I’d received the email he’d sent me.  I hoped this was still considered normal.

When I asked if he had slept all right, he said that he was having trouble sleeping because there were people with lights coming out of their heads and there were statues behind them that came to life.   They kept him up all night. 

I found him to be very tired today.  I think we wore him out with so much activity yesterday.  It was clearly too soon for him to try and be the life of the party.  I was happy to read while he slept most of the time. 

When Marc is awake, he has one thing on his mind.  He is adamant that he is going home and if we could just get to the elevator, we could leave.  At one point he yelled out toward the nurse’s desk, “Excuse me?  Can we borrow your elevator?”

He told me that they wanted me to take him back to the hospital tonight.  When I told him he was already at the hospital, he said, “I am?”   

He later asked if there were two Sunnybrook Hospitals.  He apparently thought he was in the Sunnybrook in Barrie.  I had to explain that the hospital in Barrie was called Royal Victoria Hospital and that he was in Sunnybrook in Toronto. 

Later still he told me that he’d been watching the guys do construction.  “What guys?” I asked.  “What are they building?”    

“They were putting in a new counter but they did it wrong and had to take it all out again,” he said.  He was looking toward the nurse’s counter with great interest, as if remembering the whole thing. 

I let him sleep while I went for lunch.  When I returned he was awake and happy to see me. 

“I’m glad you’re here!  They said they want me to go home with you tonight.  They are short of beds and they need mine.” 

The highlight of the day was when his left leg moved ever so slightly when I asked him to move it.  His hand seemed to be moving more as well and he was able to manage a weak squeeze. 

We take the small victories when we can and hope that this confusion is temporary.